- Oscar Lisle Brady (1890–1968), Reader in Organic Chemistry at University College London. See Chemistry in Britain 1968 4 554 554
- Harris , J. 1926 . “ The Work of Williamson and its Relation to the Type Theory of Wurtz ” . In M.Sc. thesis London
- Rowe , J.S. 1955 . “ Research Work of University College Chemistry Department 1828–1935 ” . In Ph.D. thesis 127 – 179 . London J. S. Lungley, The Life and Chemical Investigations of A. W. Williamson (1824–1904), Part II Chemistry thesis, Oxford 1964; W. H. Brock, ed., The Atomic Debates, Leicester, 1967, passim; and C. A. Russell, A History of Valency Leicester, 1971. Rowe, Lungley and Brock had access to the original version of the present essay.
- Personal communication from Dr. O. K. Williamson, Johannesburg, 7 June 1928. On O. K. Williamson see Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians 4 506 506
- Foster , G.C. 1905 . J. Chem. Soc. , 87 : 605 – 618 . cited below as ‘Foster’; E. Divers, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1907, 78 A, xxiv–xliv, cited as ‘Divers’. See also W. Tilden, Famous Chemists, London 1921, pp. 228–240. In a letter of 29 January 1928, Mrs. Julia M. Tilden confirmed that her husband had been allowed to use Williamson's letters.
- Farewell address to the University College Chemical and Physical Society . 1887 . University College Gazette , 1 : 150 – 150 . Williamson senior held shares 219 and 220 in the deed of settlement of the University.
- Foster . 605 – 606 .
- Divers . xxv – xxv .
- April 1849 . Letter from Williamson to the Council of University College April , 26 destroyed, but quoted in full in Harris (note 2).
- 1874 . Brit. Ass. Reports , : 3 – 3 . quoted Divers, p. xxvi.
- Foster . 607 – 607 .
- Morrell , J.B. 1972 . The Chemist Breeders: The Research Schools of Liebig and Thomas Thomson . Ambix , 19 : 36 – 37 . For Marburg, see the Journals of T. A. Hirst and E. Frankland at the Royal Institution. Foster, p. 607, quoted one of Williamson's letters concerning the earnestness of fellow students: they were ‘a superior class from the generality of Heidelberg students, being come here from all quarters of the globe for scientific purposes, and devoting themselves to nothing else’.
- Rezneck , S. 1970 . The European Education of an American Chemist and its influence on Nineteenth-century America; Eben Norton Horsford . Technology and Culture , 11 : 366 – 388 .
- Partington , J.R. 1964 . A History of Chemistry Vol. iv , 140 – 140 . London 177
- Foster . 608 – 608 .
- Foster . 608 – 608 .
- Foster . 609 – 609 .
- Giessen diary 25 July 1845
- Foster . 609 – 609 . According to M. W. Travers, Life of Sir William Ramsay, London, 1956, p. 83, Williamson wrote a thesis on electrolysis; but this is not correct.
- 1843–45 . Mem. Chem. Soc. , 2 : 234 – 242 . (chlorine); ibid., 395–398 (ozone); ibid., 1845–8, 3, 125–140 (Prussian blue). For a full analysis of these papers see Divers, or Lungley (note 4). Mrs. Fison commented that ‘all his chemical papers at this time were written in German and then translated for him. I think he was more familiar with German than with his native tongue. He was known as der deutsche Engländer’. Wurtz remarked that ‘he knew no Englishman who spoke French as well as Alexander’ (Mrs. Williamson's journal, 1878).
- 1847 . Ueber die Constitution des Oenanthols . Annalen , 61 : 38 – 45 .
- Giessen diary, 18 May 1845 Liebig was pleased with the independence, ‘but would wish me first to finish my cyanides’, ibid., 24 May 1845.
- Bussy , A. 1845 . Mémoire sur l'aldehyde oenanthylique . Comptes rendus , 21 : 84 – 88 . 407–408
- Zamminer , F.G.K. 1817–58 . Extraordinary Professor of Physics at Giessen
- Williamson believed this a privilege ‘which no student in Giessen had yet been allowed …, being only intended for lecturers’. Foster p. 609. However, Horsford was also granted access in February 1846. See Rezneck The European Education of an American Chemist and its influence on Nineteenth-century America; Eben Norton Horsford Technology and Culture 1970 11 375 375
- Mill failed to get Williamson accepted en pension, but Comte agreed readily to provide ‘de haute leçons particulières, scientifiques ou philosophiques’. See Lettres d'Auguste Comte à John Stuart Mill Lerous E. Paris 1841–6 1877 1877 Comte to Mill 27 June 1845; in reply to Mill to Comte, 24 June 1845 published in Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Toronto, 1963, vol. 13, p. 668.
- Divers , xxviii – ix .
- Brock . 1967 . The Atomic Debates 145 – 152 . Leicester also considers the question of Comte's influence on Williamson.
- Recorded in [Millon and Reiset] Annuaire de chimie 1849 4 304 304
- Foster . 610 – 610 .
- Giessen diary 1 June 1845 ‘Received a letter from father dated 26 May telling me some queer unintelligible remarks of Prof. Graham on my ozone paper’.
- These testimonials were destroyed during World War II. Liebig wrote that Williamson ‘gained my especial esteem by his diligence, his pure and warm love of science, his remarkable talents, and his aimable and excellent qualities as a man … Dr. Williamson is distinguished above all others by his profound knowledge of Physics and Mathematics’ (quoted in full in Harris The Work of Williamson and its Relation to the Type Theory of Wurtz M.Sc. thesis London 1926 42 43 According to O. L. Brady, Williamson also applied to Gay-Lussac for a testimonial, but the latter ‘pooh-poohed him’ and claimed that his chlorine paper was all wrong. Gay-Lussac had considered the presence of excess chlorine necessary for the conversion of hypochlorites into chlorates (Ann. chim., 1842, 5, 302); but Williamson showed that potassium chlorate could be prepared from a solution of potassium chloride in hypochlorous acid (Williamson, (note 32). According to Foster, Williamson was very pleased with the attention paid to him by Gay-Lussac when he visited the Académie des Sciences. However, the story is confirmed by an undated reminiscence in Mrs. Williamson's journal: ‘A. replied that if G.L. would point out the mistakes he would show him the experiment’.
- 1843–53 . Council Minutes University College London , iv June 2 1849. College archives. The Minutes of 16 June 1849 show that one of the other candidates was A. W. Hofmann of the Royal College of Chemistry.
- 1849 . Development of Difference the Basis of Unity London an Introductory Lecture to courses of the Faculty of Arts and Laws, 16 October 1849 46 pp.
- More recently this view was accepted by the late Professor W. M. Simon. See his Comte's English disciples Victorian Studies 1965 8 162 162 Comte remarked; ‘J'avais jadis espéré que M. Williamson deviendrait le chêf du positivisme en Angleterre. Mais malgré nos relation speciales, il a bientôt cessé, surtout moralement, de mériter une telle mission’. Lettres à des positivistes anglais, London 1889, p. 8, letter to J. Fisher, 24 September 1855, our stress.
- ‘M. de Constant, a distinguished positivist from Holland visited’. 11 July 1855, ‘Letter from M. Lafitte on the subject of Comte's money matters’. One of Williamson's students, H. L. Sulman (later of Sulman & Picard, metallurgical chemists and assayers) belonged to Congreve's Positivist circle. In a letter, 17 September 1927, he commented that he had been disturbed as a student because Williamson was a lapsed Positivist, ‘as I felt myself a magnetic fragment between two poles’.
- Tilden . 1921 . Famous Chemists 236 – 236 . London
- Tilden . 1921 . Famous Chemists 231 – 231 . London Williamson offered an annual prize of £50 for the best student work in the laboratory. University College Calendar, 1853/4.
- Giessen diary: Mrs. W.'s entry, 30 January 1855: ‘A. Lectured for Mr. Graham and had a very cordial reception from the students’. Jevons Compare H.A. Letters and Journal of W. Stanley Jevons London 1884 26 26
- Russell , C.A. 1971 . A History of Valency 49 – 50 . Leicester
- Odling , W. 1855 . J. Chem. Soc. , 7 : 1 – 21 . Williamson told Roscoe that this paper ‘contains some excellent formulae and some new reactions confirming them … our younger chemists are taking to them very kindly, but I very much doubt the probability of the older chemists ever adopting a change so great’. (Letter from Williamson to H. E. Roscoe, 5 December 1853, in Chemical Society library).
- 1853 . Ann chim. , 28 : 285 – 334 . cf. Williamson, Proc. Roy Institution, 1851–4, 1, 239–242.
- Grimaux , E. and Gerhardt , C. 1900 . Charles Gerhardt, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondance, 1816–1856 412 – 413 . Paris (letter of 28 May 1852).
- Only one letter (Laurent to Williamson, December 1850) was published in Tiffeneau M. Correspondance de Charles Gerhardt Paris 1918 251 254 We hope to publish three more of Laurent's letters in a further article.
- Grimaux and Gerhardt . 1900 . Charles Gerhardt, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondance 1816–1856 412 – 413 . Paris which, however, presents the letters in truncated, dispersed and unindexed form. We hope to restore the full texts in a further paper.
- Williamson collaborated with Key on a political pamphlet Invasion invited by the Defenceless State of England London 1858 23 23 The ‘defenceless state’ referred to the deployment of British troops in the Indian Mutiny, leaving the French in potential charge of the English Channel.
- Giessen diary: Mrs. W.'s entry, I June 1855 ‘A. called on Faraday to talk with him about his candidateship; found Faraday remarkably friendly and encouraging … also on Dr. Miller and Mr. Graham.’ 8 June 1855: ‘Professor Bunsen wrote … the two chairs ought to be united’.
- Roscoe , H.E. 1906 . Life and Experiences of Sir Henry E. Roscoe 37 – 37 . London 8 July 1855; original in Chemical Society library.
- 1867 . Chem. News. , 15 : 77 – 77 .
- February 1927 . Interview with Dr. Foster Morley February , 2 Morley recalled that Williamson's lecturing style was well suited to big meetings, like those of the British Association. ‘His eye trouble was such that while being unable to see students immediately in front of him, he could quite clearly see those at the side of the lecture room’.
- 1865 . Chemistry for Students Oxford 2nd ed. 1869; 3rd ed. 1873; also Problems from Williamson's Chemistry with Solutions, 1866. Augustus Voelcker, who attended Williamson's classes in 1880, wrote that his lectures dealt with ‘points of importance rather than with details which one could gather from textbooks’ (personal communication, 22 September 1927). For a good example of his lecturing and demonstrating style see those on fermentation given to the Royal Society of Arts. Pharm. J., 1870–1, 1, 176–179 and passim.
- Moore , T.S. and Philip , J.C. 1947 . The Chemical Society 1841–1941 47 – 47 . London J. Chem. Soc., 1870, 290–291.
- Brock . 1967 . The Atomic Debates 15 – 30 . Leicester
- ‘Why slumbers Gifford?’ Byron ask' in vain. Why slumbers Williamson? I ask again. ‘Tis said that now his genius chiefly elings To Pistons, pipes, and other steamy things; Full of new schemes of locomotive power, He glibly talks ‘high pressure’ by the hour; Speed he must have, work high, and nought below A hundred thousand atmospheres or so. Yet still we trust, when he has done the trick (Though hope deferr'd oft makes the heart full sick), That he once more will do as he has done, And show us how fresh laurels may be won; With brain so ample and with learning fraught, Better to fight with Kolbe than do naught’. Field F. A Chemical Review London 1863 10 11 Stanza XV The reference to Kolbe concerns their controversy over etherification, a famous conflict between the new radical and new type theories, J. Chem. Soc., 1855, 7, 111–121 (Kolbe), 122–139 (Williamson).
- B.P. 1859, 988, 995 (liquorice); B.P. 1859, 2378 (poppies). It seems—what shall we say—extraordinary, to see an accomplished chemist taking out a patent for boiling liquorice root in a little alkaline water Chem. News 1860 1 70 70
- Pounds , C.C. 1966 . “ Marine Engineering ” . In Engineering, Heritage Edited by: Semler , E.G. Vol. 2 , 136 – 136 . London
- Loftus Perkins (1834–1891), whose yacht Anthracite crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1880. Obituary in Engineer, 1 May 1891. On his boilers see Smith E.C. A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering Cambridge 1937 200 200
- 1861 . Proc. Inst. Mech. Engineers , : 94 – 108 .
- 1877 . Proc. Inst. Mech. Engineers , : 117 – 117 .
- ‘Dr. Charles Graham told me that the Spanish Steamer Murillo [which ran down the emigrant ship Northfleet in January 1873] had been designed [sic] by Professor Williamson when on the Clyde and that some of Professor Williamson's friends used to chaff him about the beautiful fine bows of the steamer, so admirably adapted for running down purposes' (personal communication from F. G. Teed, 4 May 1927). The Spanish ship's failure to render assistance led to the loss of 320 lives. She was arrested and confiscated eight months after the accident. See Hocking C. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the Age of Steam London 1969 2 514 514 vol. ii
- He was assisted at Willesden from 1876–9 by a former pupil, Richard H. Wright, who from hindsight felt the whole episode a waste of time. ‘Much time was spent in putting up buildings and a certain amount of experimental work was done. For one reason or another the place altogether failed to develop and nothing on a large scale was achieved’ (personal communication, 13 February 1928). ‘Even the building bricks were made on the place [i.e. the site]’ Hocking C. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the Age of Steam London 1928 March 2 5
- Private communication from John M. Thomson (whose father Allen Thomson of Glasgow was Williamson's close friend), 16 September 1927. Williamson was introduced to Young by his former employer, Thomas Graham. For investments, see Williamson-Playfair letters Imperial College archives
- February 1927 . Interview with Morley February , 2
- Much of this section is based on information given by Sakurai in 1928. For the history of modern Japan, see Beckmann G.M. The Modernisation of China and Japan New York 1962 R. P. Porter, Japan, The Rise of a Modern Power, Oxford, 1918.
- Hamada , Kengi . 1936 . Prince Ito 33 – 38 . London J. Morriss, Makers of Modern Japan, London, 1906, chap. 6 (Ito), chap. 9 (Inouye).
- Foster . 617 – 617 .
- See Beckmann The Modernisation of China and Japan New York 1962 and Hamada (note 97) for portraits and further details.
- Foster . 617 – 617 .
- Edward Divers (1837–1912), a former assistant of Frankland, ‘Williamson's strong scientific opponent, and the fact that in picking up capable men Williamson's hand was laid upon the shoulder of a young chemist who was working under his opponent shows that he was a man of no narrow mind’ (personal communication from Sakurai, 26 February 1928). For Robert William Atkinson, (1850–1929), another of Frankland's assistants, see J. Chem. Soc. 1931 1024 1024 On the physicists John Ayrton, Sir James Alfred Ewing (1855–1935) and John Perry, and the geologist John Milne (1850–1913), see Jōji Sakurai, ‘Mathematico-Physical Sciences in Japan’ in Shigénobu Ōkumu, Fifty Years of New Japan, 2 vols. London, 1909, vol. 2, pp. 242–270.
- Mrs. Williamson's journal 20 February 1874 , ‘Mr. David Murray of the Education Department, Tokio, wrote asking A. to recommend and send to Japan a Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Technology (Engineering)’. Either Ito or Inouye were evidently behind this invitation.
- 1913 . Compare Sakurai's obituary of Divers . J. Chem. Soc. , 103 : 746 – 755 .
- 1880 . J. Chem. Soc. , 37 : 658 – 661 . 1881, 38, 485–489; 1882, 39, 360–363.
- See Williamson's evidence before the Devonshire Commission Parl. Papers 1872 xxv 1197 1198 [c. 536] 7176
- 1910 . Charles Graham, a former assistant . J. Chem. Soc. , 97 : 677 – 677 .
- Hirst , T.A. 1862 . Journal , December 21 (Royal Institution archives). More trivially, Williamson's assistant Graves frequently attended dances, only to be reprimanded that he was paid for his time and best energies and his morning tiredness was cheating his employer (interview with Morley, 2 February 1927).
- 1887 . Chem. News , 56 : 5 – 9 .
- Eve , A.S. and Creasey , C.H. 1945 . Life and Work of John Tyndall 254 – 254 . London ‘Liphook Village Hall, Public Meeting 21 May 1890. Political Address by Professor Tyndall, Professor Williamson and Sir Frederick Pollock. Chairman Professor Williamson. All Classes invited (especially the Working Class)’. Poster among Tyndall papers, Royal Institution.
- 1898 . Chem. News , 78 : 286 – 286 . 296
- February 1902 . “ Letter from H. Debus to Mrs. Tyndall ” . In Tyndall papers , February , Royal Institution . 10
Annals of Science
Volume 31, 1974 - Issue 2
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