- Thomas Thomson
Thomas Thomson FRS (
12 April ,1773 –2 July ,1852 ) was a Scottishchemist whose writings contributed to the early spread of Dalton's atomic theory.Life and work
Thomas Thomson was born in
Crieff ,Perthshire in 1773. He was educated at theUniversity of St. Andrews inclassics ,mathematics , andnatural philosophy , and went on to graduate inmedicine from theUniversity of Edinburgh in 1799. However, he was inspired byJoseph Black to take up the study ofchemistry .In 1796, Thomson succeeded his brother, James, as assistant editor of the "Supplement to the Third Edition of the
Encyclopædia Britannica ", contributing the articles "Chemistry", "Mineralogy ", and "Vegetable ,animal anddyeing substances". In 1802, Thomson used these articles as the basis of his book "System of Chemistry".Thomson dabbled in
publishing , acted as a consultant to theScottish excise board , invented the instrument known asAllan's saccharometer , and opposed the geological theories ofJames Hutton , founding theWernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh as a platform in 1808.In 1817, Thomson became Regius Professor of Chemistry at the
University of Glasgow , and in 1820 he identified a newzeolite mineral , namedthomsonite in his honour.Thomson died at
Kilmun in 1852 and was buried at theGlasgow Necropolis . [cite web | title = Thomas Thomson | url = http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst2573.html| accessdate = 2008-09-08 ]Honours
* Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh (1805)
* Fellow of theRoyal Society , (1811)Selected writings
* "Survey of Chemistry" (1802)
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=FZsIAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thomas+Thomson+element+of+chemistry#PPR4,M2 "The Elements of Chemistry"] (1810)
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=JukGAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thomas+Thomson+chemistry&as_brr=1#PPR2,M2 "An Attempt to Establish the First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment"] (1825)
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=xNnMY85KwHEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thomas+Thomson+history+chemistry&as_brr=1#PPA12,M2 "History of Chemistry"] (1830)
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=tfM0HWCAT3EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thomas+Thomson+chemistry&as_brr=1#PPP6,M2 "A System of Chemistry of Inorganic Bodies"] (1831)
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=uQI5AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thomas+Thomson+chemistry&as_brr=1#PPR1,M2 "Chemistry of Animal Bodies"] (1843)
References
Further reading
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