|
See also: British inventor, was See also: born on the 16th of Apiil 185o at Canonbury, See also: London
.
His See also: father, a Welshman, was in the See also: civil service, and his See also: mother was the daughter of the Rev
.
See also: James Gilchrist
.
His father's
See also: death leaving his See also: family with a considerably reduced income, he gave up his See also: original idea of becoming a See also: doctor and obtained an See also: appointment as a police See also: court clerk, which he held till May 1879
.
During these twelve years, besides the See also: work of a busy police court, which brought him into intimate contact with social problems, he found See also: time to study chemistry, and attended lectures at the See also: Birkbeck Institute
.
He set himself to solve the problem of eliminating phosphorus from iron by means of the Bessemer converter, and by the end of 1875 was convinced that he had discovered a method
.
He communicated his theory to his See also: cousin, P
.
C
.
Gilchrist, who was chemist to iron See also: works in See also: Wales, and experiments were made, which proved satisfactory
.
See also: Edward See also: Martin, manager of the
See also: Blaenavon Works, gave facilities for conducting the experiments on a larger See also: scale and undertook to help in taking out a patent
.
In See also: March 1878, the first public announcement of the
See also: discovery was made at the meeting of the Iron and See also: Steel Institute, but without attracting much See also: attention; and in See also: September a paper was wiitten by See also: Thomas and Gilchrist on the "Elimination of Phosphorus in the Bessemer Converter " for the autumn meeting of this institute, but was not read till May 1879
.
Thomas, however, made the acquaintance of E
.
W . See also: Richards, the manager of Boickow See also: Vaughan & Co.'s works at See also: Cleveland, See also: Yorkshire, whom he interested in the See also: process, and from this time the success of the invention was assured and domestic and See also: foreign See also: patents were taken out
.
The " basic process " invented by Thomas was especially valuable on the continent of See also: Europe, where the proportion of phosphoric iron is much larger than in See also: England, and both in Belgium and in See also: Germany the name of the inventor became more widely known than in his own country
.
In See also: America, although non-phosphoric iron largely predominates, an immense See also: interest was taken in the invention
.
But Thomas had been overworking for years, and his lungs became affected
.
A long See also: sea voyage and a residence in See also: Egypt proved unavailing to restore his See also: health and he died in See also: Paris on the 1st of See also: February 1885
.
He had what W
.
E
.
Gladstone, in a review of the See also: Memoirs published in 1891, described as an " See also: enthusiasm of humanity," and he See also: left his See also: fortune to be used for the promotion of philanthropic work
.
A police court See also: mission was endowed in his memory
.
See Memoirs and Letters of See also: Sidney'Gilchrist Thomas (1891), ed. by R
.
W
.
Burnie . |
|
|
[back] PIERRE THOMAS (1634-1698) |
[next] ST THOMAS |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.