FRANKLAND, SIR EDWARD (1825-1899), English chemist, was born at
Churchtown, near Lancaster, on the 18th of January 1825. After attending
the grammar school at Lancaster he spent six years as an apprentice to a
druggist in that town. In 1845 he went to London and entered Lyon
Playfair's laboratory, subsequently working under R. W. Bunsen at
Marburg. In 1847 he was appointed science-master at Queenwood school,
Hampshire, where he first met J. Tyndall, and in 1851 first professor of
chemistry at Owens College, Manchester. Returning to London six years
later he became lecturer in chemistry at St Bartholomew's hospital, and
in 1863 professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. From an early
age he engaged in original research with great success.
Analytical problems, such as the isolation of certain organic radicals,
attracted his attention to begin with, but he soon turned to synthetical
studies, and he was only about twenty-five years of age when an
investigation, doubtless suggested by the work of his master, Bunsen, on
cacodyl, yielded the interesting discovery of the organo-metallic
compounds. The theoretical deductions which he drew from the
consideration of these bodies were even more interesting and important
than the bodies themselves. Perceiving a molecular isonomy between them
and the inorganic compounds of the metals from which they may be formed,
he saw their true molecular type in the oxygen, sulphur or chlorine
compounds of those metals, from which he held them to be derived by the
substitution of an organic group for the oxygen, sulphur, &c. In this
way they enabled him to overthrow the theory of conjugate compounds, and
they further led him in 1852 to publish the conception that the atoms of
each elementary substance have a definite saturation capacity, so that
they can only combine with a certain limited number of the atoms of
other elements. The theory of valency thus founded has dominated the
subsequent development of chemical doctrine, and forms the groundwork
upon which the fabric of modern structural chemistry reposes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account