Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/586

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162

OBITUAEY.

[An*.

lessor Playfair and with Kolbe under Bunsen. He then turned his attention to organic compounds, and in 1860 announced the results of various in- teresting experiments upon metals with methyl and ethyl. On these were subsequently based the theory of atomicity, which was taken up and more fully worked out by others.

In 1851 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Owens College, Man- chester, and at once turned his attention to the chemical composition of coal gas and its analogues, making various experiments in water gas, and in the improvement of gas-burners. During his stay at Manchester, his work had generally, if not always, been directed to the application of science to the solution of the two difficult problems of local government, the supply of water and the treatment of sewage. On leaving Manchester he came to London as Professor of Chemistry at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and on Faraday's death was appointed his successor at the Royal Institution. In 1865 he succeeded to the Professorship of Chemistry at the Royal School of Mines, and perfected the process of water analysis inaugurated by his predecessor and used in his monthly returns of the analysis of the water of the London companies, by means of which its pollution by sewage could be detected. From 1868 to 1874, as a member of the Royal Commission on the Pollution of Rivers, he carried on careful researches, with the chemical qualities of water from different sources, the propagation of disease by water supply. At first he was opposed to the use of Thames water for drink- ing purposes, but ultimately he de- clared his belief that the system of filtration pursued by the London companies rendered it most whole- some. The Royal College of Science, South Kensington, in which the School of Mines was merged, retained Frank- land's services until 1885, when he finally retired from public work and devoted himself to private experiments, and his favourite pursuit of salmon fishing in the intervals. He was elected F.R.S. in 1858, received its Royal Medal 1857, the degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford 1878, and that of LL.D. from Edinburgh in 1884. He married, first, 1849, Sophie,

On the 1st, at Ballyhorgan, Co. Kerry, aged 68, Colonel Harrison Walk* John Trent-8toughton, son of F. Onslow Trent. Entered the Army and served with 63th Regiment in the New Zealand War, 1864-6, and was severely wounded; Inspector-General of Musketry, 1880-5. Married, 1889, Rose, daughter of William Plunkett and widow of T. A. 8 tough ton, of Owlpen, Gloucestershire, whose name he assumed. On the 1st, at Gdttingen, aged 51, Captain Jons Rutherford Lumley,

daughter of Herr F. W. Fick, of Hesse Cassel, and second, 1875, Ellen Frances, daughter of C. K. Grenside, of Wimble- don, and he died on August 9 at Golaa, Gulbrandsdal, Norway, where he had

gone to fish, and was subsequently uried at Reigate, where he had spent the latter years of his life.

Professor Bunsen. — Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, F.R.S., the son of Dr. Bunsen, an eminent theologian, was born at G5ttingen in 1811, was educated at that university, and graduated as Ph.D. in 1881. He continued his studies in Paris, Berlin and Vienna, and in 1886 was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Polytechnic School of Cassel, when he made several im- portant discoveries in the explosive compounds of arsenic. In 1838 he removed to Marburg, and afterwards to Breslau, and in 1852 was made Professor of Experimental Chemistry in the University of Heidelberg. His inventions and discoveries soon at- tracted public notice, many of which, such as his cheap voltaic-battery and the gas-burner which bore his name, were of practical utility in daily life. His chief claim to scientific reputation, however, rests upon the discovery of the spectrum analysis, made in colla- boration with his colleague, Professor Kirohhoff, probably the most important scientific result obtained in the latter half of the nineteenth century. By its means the chemical elements of rays of light, proceeding from the sun or planets, were determined, the measurement and analysis of gases arrived at, and the chemical action of light accurately measured. He in- vented also a new method of deter- mining specific heat, made a number of interesting experiments on the composition of the earth's volcanic rocks, and probably did more than any other worker in the same field as a teacher and helper of his pupils. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society, 1858, and received the Copley medal in 1860, and was the first recipient of the Davy medal in 1877. He retained all his faculties, even his eye-sight, until his death, which happened on August 16, at Heidelberg, where for some years he had lived in retirement.