The Chemist as Expert: The Consulting Career of Sir William Ramsay

Notes and References

• M. W. Travers, “Introduction,” University College London Library, Ramsay Papers (Correspondence and papers of Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916), and of his biographer, Morris W. Travers (1872–1961)), volume 12, p. 11. Hereinafter referred to as RP 12, etc.
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• On the subject of chemists as consultants on water purity, see C. Hamlin, A Science of Impurity: Water Analysis in Nineteenth Century Britain (Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1990), and B. Luckin, Pollution and Control: A Social History of the Thames in the Nineteenth Century (Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1986). On chemists as court witnesses, see J. Z. Fullmer, “Technology, Chemistry, and the Law in Early 19th-Century England,” Technology and Culture, 21 (1980), 1–28, and J. Ward, “Origins and Development of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Science in England 1823-1946” (Ph.D. thesis, Open University, 1993). On chemists and patent trials, see H. van den Belt, “Action at a Distance: A. W. Hofmann and the French Patent Disputes about Aniline Red (1860–1863), or how a Scientist may Influence Legal Decisions without Appearing in Court,” in R. Smith and B. Wynne, eds., Expert Evidence: Interpreting Science in the Law (London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 184–209.
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• For example, M. A. Crowther and B. M. White, “Medicine, Property and the Law in Britain 1800–1914,” The Historical Journal, 31 (1988), 853–70, and R. Smith, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
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• For example, I. Davidson, “George Deacon (1843–1909) and the Vyrnwy Works,” Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 59 (1987–88), 81–95.
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• On engineering geology see G. Tweedale, “Geology and Industrial Consultancy: Sir William Boyd Dawkins (1837–1929) and the Kent Coalfield,” Brit. J. Hist. Sei., 24 (1991), 435–51. Regarding geology in the United States, see P. Lucier, “Scientists and Swindlers: Coal, Oil, and Scientific Consulting in the Amercian Industrial Revolution, 1830–1870,” (Ph.D. thesis, Princeton, 1994).
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• W. H. Brock, “The Spectrum of Science Patronage” in G. L’E. Turner, ed., The Patronage of Science in the Nineteenth Century (Leyden: Noordhoff International Publishing, 1976), pp. 173–206, on p. 176.
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• Good overviews of this phenomenon are to be found in the following sources: R. H. Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977); C. A. Russell, N. G. Coley and G. K. Roberts, Chemists by Profession: the Origins and Rise of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (Milton Keynes: The Open University Press, 1977); M. Berman, Social Change and Scientific Organization: the Royal Institution, 1799–1844 (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1978); R. F. Bud and G. K. Roberts, Science Versus Practice: Chemistry in Victorian Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984).
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• Hamilin, op. cit. (2), p. 50.
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• Subsidiary, for the most part, to his career as Professor of General Chemistry at University College London, 1887-1913.
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• K. D. Watson, “Aspects of a Career in Science: Sir William Ramsay and the Chemical Community, 1880-1915” ( D.Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1994), pp. 167–81.
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• C. Hamlin, “Scientific Method and Expert Witnessing: Victorian Perspectives on a Modern Problem.” Soc. Stud. Sei., 16 (1986), 485–513, on pp. 488–9.
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• Brock, op. cit. (6), p. 186.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 20 March 1913, RP 15/2, p. 231. In this instance he was paid to write a report on the state of wells near the River Tame in Birmingham, for a case that came before the House of Lords. In the same letter Ramsay referred to a patent dispute over a nickel process: “I see that the nickel patents of Crossfield have not been upheld; so I fancy they will not attack Bedford, and that will be the end of it. Anyhow, I have had a 100 guinea fee out of them.”
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• J. H. Balfour Browne, Forty Years at the Bar (London: H. Jenkins, 1916), and Viscount Alverstone, Recollections of Bar and Bench (London: Edward Arnold, 1914).
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• Alverstone, p. 186.
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• Ibid., Chapter 8, “Patent Cases and Scientific Work,” pp. 186–202. See also pp. 68, 111.
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• Hamlin, op. cit. (2), pp. 152–211.
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• Balfour Browne, op. cit. (14), pp. 99–100.
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• W. Ramsay, “Rivers Pollution,” Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute, 29 (1908), 133–8, on pp. 135–6.
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• Private communication, Assistant Clerk of the Records, Record Office of the House of Lords, to the author, 4 November 1993. The evidence given to committees appointed to consider local bills was not usually published.
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• O. Hehner, “Sir William Ramsay,” The Analyst, 41 (1916), 329–33, on p. 332.
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• Water, the Illustrated Journal of Water Supply, Irrigation, Filtration, and Hydraulic Engineering, 8 (1906), p. 294; 9 (1907), pp. 89, 277.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 27 April 1900, RP 10, p. 215.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 27 February 1896, RP 9, p. 61.
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• M. W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay, KCB, FRS (London: Edward Arnold, 1956), p. 157.
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• Hamlin, op. cit. (11), p. 504. Since witnesses usually found themselves addressing people who knew little about science, their personal authority was important.
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• W. Ramsay to A. Smithells, 2 February 1908, RP 14/1, p. 170.
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• Laboratory Notebook #VI Al. Miscellaneous Notes from 1907 to 1912, RP 28, p. 21.
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• Ibid., p. 19. This comment was written into the notebook on 4 February 1908.
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• J. N. C[ollie], “Sir William Ramsay, 1852–1916,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, 93 (1916–17), xlii-liv, on p. li, and Hehner, op. cit. (21), p. 332.
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• Laboratory Notebook #VI Al, op. cit. (28), p. 3.
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• Ibid., p. 8.
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• For information on Hehner’s career as an analytical and consulting chemist, see B. Dyer, “Otto Hehner, 1853—1924, ” Journal of the Chemical Society, 125 (1924), 2690–3, and C. A. Mitchell, “Otto Hehner,” The Analyst, 49 (1924), 501–5.
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• Laboratory Notebook #V, November 1899 to April 1908, RP 26, p. 481.
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• “Notes from Edinburgh,” The Scottish Law Review, 26 (1910), 99.
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• F. D. Miles, A History of Research in the Nobel Division of ICI (London: ICI, 1955), p. 40.
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• Laboratory Notebook #VI Al, op. cit. (28), p. 74.
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• Ibid., p. 80.
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• W. Ramsay to H. Fyfe, 20 March 1910, RP 15/1, p. 62.
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• Miles, op. cit. (36), p. 41.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 9 March 1913, RP 15/2, p. 231.
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• M. W. Tavers, “Introduction,” RP 12, p. 1.
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• “Estate of Sir William Ramsay,” The Times, 6 January 1917, p. 11.
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• The Times, 31 December 1907, p. 8.
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• The Times, 23 May 1923, p. 13.
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• The Times, 19 February 1916, p. 11.
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• The Times, 31 August 1927, p. 13.
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• W. Ramsay to W. Ramsay Sr. and C. R. Ramsay, (n.d.) December 1880, RP 3, p. 52.
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• E. M. Baxendine, “James Burgess Readman, Inventor of the Electric Phosphorus Furnace,” unpublished typescript, 3 December 1963, Royal Museum of Scotland; courtesy of Mr. C. Johnston, Registrar, National Register of Archives (Scotland).
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• W. Ramsay, untitled report, 25 January 1895, Scottish Record Office, ref. GD282/13/296.
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• W. Ramsay to Lord Rayleigh, 2 November 1894, RP 7/2, p. 177.
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• A. B. W. Kennedy, “Report on Experiments on the Manufacture of Cyanide of Potassium (Sodium)-Dr. Readman’s Process-at Glasgow, March 1896,” 28 March 1896, Scottish Record Office, ref. GD282/13/296.
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• W. Ramsay to J. B. Readman, 27 March 1896, Scottish Record Office, ref. GD282/13/296.
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• Baxendine, op. cit. (49), p. 2. There were several other British producers of cyanides at this time. As they did not go out of business because of the war, it may be that Readman had been unwise enough to invest too deeply in the South African market.
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• Travers, op. cit. (25),p. 170.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 30 January 1896, RP 9, p. 60.
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• E. Fischer to W. Ramsay, 14 March 1903, RP 13, p.34.
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• Travers, op. cit. (25), p. 185.
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• W. Ramsay to H. Fyfe, 2 April 1899, RP 10, p. 195.
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• W. A. Tilden, Sir William Ramsay, KCB, FRS: Memorials of his Life and Work (London: Macmillan, 1918).
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• M. W. Travers, �Introduction,� RP 1, p. 6.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 10 July 1904, RP 13, p. 101.
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• Travers, op. cit. (25), pp. 263, 284.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 21 February 1904, RP 13, p. 86.
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• Ibid.
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• W. Ramsay to M. Ramsay, 6 March 1904, RP 13, p. 90.
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• Laboratory Notebook #V, op. cit. (34), p. 376.
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• Information on the Coolgardie water scheme may be obtained from the following sources: The Times, 16 April 1895, p. 6; 6 January 1896, p. 14; 26 December 1902, p. 4; Coolgardie Gold Mining and Prospecting Company, Rise and Progress of the Coolgardie Gold Mining and Prospecting Company, Limited. Registered 2 August 1894 (The Company, 1899); B. P. Richardson, “A Short Description of the Coolgardie Water Scheme,” Water and Water Engineering, 12 (1910), 129–33.
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• Richardson, op cit. (68), p. 132.
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• Hehner, op. cit. (21), p. 332.
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• Patent application #21999. All patent applications made since the Patent Law Amendment Act was passed in 1852 are listed in the Alphabetical Index ofPatentees and Applicantsfor Patents of Invention for the Year . . . (London: Patent Office Sale Branch).
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• “Water Supply in Western Australia,” Water and Water Engineering, 14 (1912), 260.
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• Further information may be found in Watson, op. cit. (10), pp. 218–26. When these companies ceased trading their papers were, for the most part, destroyed. Only a few documents were saved for deposit in the Public Record Office at Kew, and these do not give details of the chemical processes used or of Ramsay’s scientific role. Future research might usefully approach the subject through patent applications and publications on topics related to the interests of each company.
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• The physician Thomas Lauder Brunton (1844—1916), a close friend of Ramsay’s, first suggested the use of radium emanation as a cure for cancer.
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• Travers, op. cit. (25), p. 227.
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• See the file on the British Radium Corporation at the Public Record Office: box 18664 in class BT31, company number 100888. Articles of Association. Also, The Stock Exchange Official Intelligence, 1911, p. 1323, and Tilden, op. cit. (60), p. 169.
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• “Sir William Ramsay on Radium,” The Times, 18 October 1909, p. 8.
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• The Stock Exchange Official Intelligence, 1917, p. 1460.
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• Public Record Office, Commonwealth Oil Corporation, box 17620 in class BT31, company number 86764. Form #45: Return of Allotments from 13 December 1905 to 9 January 1906, and Register of Directors for 8 June 1909 and 31 December 1910.
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• W. Ramsay to H. Fyfe, 23 July 1910, RP 15/1, p. 84.
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• Public Record Office, Commonwealth Oil Corporation, List of Shareholders, December 1919.
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• The Stock Exchange Official Intelligence, 1913, p. 866.
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• Public Record Office, Synthetic Products Company, box 32129 in class BT31, company number 122860.
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• Duke of Argyll to W. Ramsay, 16 December 1912, RP 15/2, p. 215.
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• W. Ramsay to W. Turnbull, 14 December 1913, RP 15/2, p. 272.
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• Tilden, op. cit. (60), p. 190.
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