This Month in Chemical History

Harold  Goldwhite

California State University,   Los Angeles

In my last column I described the beginning of the career of the chemist – and chemical historian – Edward Thorpe. In 1885 he was picked to succeed Sir Edward Frankland as Professor of Chemistry at what was then the Normal School of Science and Royal School of Mines in South Kensington, London – later known as Imperial College of Science and Technology of the University of London. He resumed work on inorganic chemistry discovering diphosphorus tetroxide in 1886; and later phosphorus (III) oxide, a volatile low-melting reactive crystalline solid. It was this oxide which was responsible for the horrible necrosis of the jaw observed among female workers in the early years of the match industry. His continuing interest in photochemical determinations of light intensity led to expeditions to solar eclipses in the West Indies in August 1886 and in French Senegal in Africa in April 1893. Meanwhile inorganic chemistry prospered with investigations on atomic weights of titanium and gold; the composition of the spa waters of Cheltenham; manganese trioxide; phosphoryl trifluoride; thiophosphoryl trifluoride; fluosulphonic acid; vapor density of HF at different temperatures; and the decomposition of carbon disulfide by shock. Thorpe also worked both at Leeds and in London on the causes of coal-dust explosions in mines.

Thorpe’s penultimate position, which he held from 1894 to 1909, was as Director of the Government Laboratory. He helped design the laboratory’s new buildings in central London. This laboratory was heavily involved in analytical chemistry related to industry and Thorpe published papers on the determination of ethanol content of medicinals; on lead content of ceramics; on the occurrence of paraffin hydrocarbons in plants; and on a more precise determination of the atomic weight of radium. He returned to Imperial College from 1909 to 1912 where he helped develop plans for its new buildings which were completed under his successor, William Tilden.

Edward Thorpe’s great accomplishments led to many honors. After he retired from the Government Laboratory he received a knighthood and was an advisor to the Government during the first World War. He was Vice President of the Royal Society in 1894-95; President of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1895; President of the Chemical Society from 1899-1901; and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1921. His honorary degrees included doctorates from Dublin University, and ther Universities of Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. He had many European friends including Victor Meyer and Mendeleef who stayed with him when they came to England.

Thorpe was a prolific author of textbooks and reference works. His multi-volume “Dictionary of Applied Chemistry” was first published in 1890 and went through several subsequent editions. His texts on inorganic chemistry, quantitative analysis, and qualitative analysis were standard works in their time. (I have a number of Thorpe’s works in my personal library). And in the area of history of chemistry, in addition to the “Essays” referred to in my first column on Thorpe he published a history of chemistry (1909) and biographies of Humphry Davy, Priestley, and Roscoe. Thorpe was also a keen yatchsman; he maintained yachts at Salcombe estuary and wrote two guides for sailors – to the Dutch waterways and to the River Seine. Sir  Edward Thorpe died at Salcombe in Devon, England, in February 1925.