James Young
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{{Infobox Scientist
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|name = James Young
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|birth_date = [[July 13]] [[1811]]
|birth_place = [[Glasgow, Scotland]]
|death_date = [[May 13]] [[1883]]
|death_place = [[Wemyss Bay]]
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|nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
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'''James Young''' ([[13 July]], [[1811]]–[[May 13]], [[1883]]) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[chemistry|chemist]] best known for his method of distilling [[paraffin]] from [[coal]].
==Early life==
James Young was born in the Drygate area of [[Glasgow]], the son of John Young, a [[cabinetmaker]] and [[joiner]]. He became his father's [[apprentice]] at an early age, and educated himself at [[night school]], attending evening classes at the nearby Anderson's College (now [[Strathclyde University]]) from the age of 19. He met [[Thomas Graham (chemist)|Thomas Graham]] at Anderson's College, who had just been appointed as a lecturer on chemistry and in 1831 was appointed as his assistant and occasionally took some of his lectures. While at Anderson's College he also met and befriended the famous explorer [[David Livingstone]]; this relationship was to continue until Livingstone’s death in [[Africa]] many years later.
In Young's first scientific paper, dated 4 January 1837, he described a modification of a [[voltaic battery]] invented by [[Michael Faraday]]. Later that same year he moved with Graham to [[University College London|University College, London]] where he helped him with experimental work.
[[Image:GravestoneOfJamesParaffinYoung(ThomasNugent)Apr2006.jpg|right|thumb|234px|James Young's gravestone in [[Inverkip]]]]
==Career==
In 1839 Young was appointed manager at [[James Muspratt]]'s chemical workst [[Newton-le-Willows]], near [[St Helens, Merseyside]], and in [[1844]] to Tennants, Clow & Co. at [[Manchester]], for whom he devised a method of making [[Stannate|sodium stannate]] direct from [[cassiterite]].
In 1845 he served on a committee of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] for the investigation of [[Phytophthora infestans|potato blight]], and suggested immersing the potatos in dilute [[sulphuric acid]] as a means of combatting the disease; he was not elected a member of the Society until [[October 19]] [[1847]]. Finding the ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'' newspaper insufficiently liberal, he also began a movement for the establishment of the ''[[Manchester Examiner]]'' newspaper which was first published in 1846.
In 1847 Young had his attention called to a natural [[petroleum]] seepage in the [[Riddings]] [[colliery]] at [[Alfreton]], [[Derbyshire]] from which he distilled a light thin oil suitable for use as lamp oil, at the same time obtaining a thicker oil suitable for lubricating machinery.
In 1848 Young left Tennants', and in partnership with his friend and assistant Edward Meldrum, set up a small business refining the crude oil. The new oils were successful, but the supply of oil from the coal mine soon began to fail (eventually being exhausted in 1851). Young, noticing that the oil was dripping from the [[sandstone]] roof of the coal mine, theorized that it somehow originated from the action of heat on the coal seam and from this thought that it might be produced artificially.
Following up this idea, he tried many experiments and eventually succeeded, by distilling [[cannel coal]] at a low heat, a fluid resembling [[petroleum]], which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. Young found that by slow distillation he could obtain a number of useful liquids from it, one of which he named "paraffine oil" because at low temperatures it congealed into a substance resembling paraffin wax.<ref name=russell>{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Loris S. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = A Heritage of Light: Lamps and Lighting in the Early Canadian Home | publisher = University of Toronto Press | date = 2003 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0802037658}}</ref>
The production of these oils and solid [[paraffin wax]] from coal formed the subject of his patent dated [[October 17]] 1850. In the summer of 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E.W. Binney & Co. at [[Bathgate]] in [[West Lothian]] and E. Meldrum & Co. at Glasgow; their works at Bathgate were completed in 1851 and became the first truly commercial oil-works in the world, using oil extracted from locally-mined [[Torbanite]], shale, and bituminous coal to manufacture [[naphtha]] and lubricating oils; paraffin for fuel use and solid paraffin were not sold till 1856.
In 1852 Young left Manchester to live in Scotland and that same year took out a US patent for the production of paraffin oil by distillation of coal. Both the US and UK patents were subsequently upheld in both countries in a series of lawsuits and other producers were obliged to pay him royalties.<ref name=russell/>.
In 1865 Young bought out his business partners and built second and larger works at [[Addiewell]], near [[West Calder]], and in 1866 sold the concern to Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company. Although Young remained in the company, he took no active part in it, instead withdrawing from business to occupy himself with looking after the estates which he had purchased, yachting, travelling, and scientific pursuits. The company continued to grow and expanded its operations, selling paraffin oil and [[paraffin lamp]]s all over the world and earning for its founder the affectionate nickname ‘[[Paraffin]]’ Young. Other companies worked under license from Young's firm, and paraffin manufacture spread over the south of Scotland.
When the reserves of Torbanite eventually gave out the company moved on to pioneer the exploitation of [[West Lothian]]'s [[oil shale]] deposits, the only workable deposits in Europe outside Russia, if not so rich in oil as Torbanite. In [[1862]] the distillation plants began production and by the 1900s nearly 2 million tons of shale were being extracted annually, employing 4,000 men.
==Other work==
*Young made significant discoveries in [[rustproofing]] ships in 1872, which were later adopted by the [[Royal Navy]]. Noticing that [[bilge]] water was acidic, he suggested that [[Calcium oxide|quicklime]] be used to prevent it corroding iron ships.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Young | first = James | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = On the Preservation of Iron Ships | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh | volume = 7 | issue = | pages = p. 702 | publisher = [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] | location = | date = Nov-Jan 1869-1872 | url = | doi = | id = | accessdate = }}</ref>
* Young worked with [[George Forbes (scientist)|Professor George Forbes]] on the [[speed of light]] around 1880, using an improved version of [[Hippolyte Fizeau]]'s method.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Pippard | first = Sir Brian | authorlink = Brian Pippard | coauthors = | title = Dispersion in the Ether: Light over the Water | journal = Physics in Perspective | volume = 3 | issue = 3 | pages = pp. 258–270 | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] | location = [[Basel]] | date = 2001 | url = | doi = | id = | accessdate = }}</ref>
==Honours==
* In [[1847]] Young was elected to the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]].
* In [[1861]] he was elected [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]].
* From 1868-1877 he was President of Anderson's College and founded the Young Chair of Technical Chemistry at the College.
* In [[1873]] Young was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]]
* In [[1879]] he was awarded an Honorary LI.D of [[St. Andrews University]].
* From 1879-1881 he was Vice-President of the [[Chemical Society]].
==Retirement and death==
Young retired from the operation of the company in 1870, and died at age 71 in his home Kelly, near [[Wemyss Bay]], on May 13 1883, being survived by his wife, Mary Young, and his three sons and four daughters. He was buried at [[Inverkip]].
==Legacy==
*Statues of his old professor, [[Thomas Graham]], and of his fellow student and lifelong friend, [[David Livingstone]], which stand respectively in George Square, [[Glasgow]], and at [[Glasgow Cathedral]], were erected by him.
*From 1855 James 'Paraffin' Young lived at Limefield House, [[Polbeth]]. A [[sycamore]] tree which Livingstone planted in 1864 is still flourishing in the grounds of Limefield House. There too one can see a miniature version of the "Victoria Falls", which the missionary discovered in the mid-19th century. It was built, as a tribute to Livingstone, by Young on the little stream which runs through the estate.
* Young had a lifelong friendship with David Livingstone, whom he had met at Anderson's College. He gave generously towards the expenses of Livingstone's African expeditions, and contributed to a search expedition, which proved too late to find Livingstone alive. He also had Livingstone's servants brought to England, and presented to Glasgow a statue to his memory, which was erected in [[George Square]], Glasgow.
*The James Young High School in Livingston, the Bathgate branch of the pub chain [[Wetherspoons]] and the James Young Halls at the [[University of Strathclyde]] are all named after him.
==See also==
* [[Pumpherston]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:1811 births]]
[[Category:1883 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Glasgow]]
[[Category:People associated with Inverclyde]]
[[Category:Scottish chemists]]
[[Category:Scottish inventors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Strathclyde]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]