William Ramsay 48187 224984612 2008-07-11T09:06:40Z Zorrobot 7218328 robot Adding: [[da:William Ramsay]] Modifying: [[ar:وليام رامزي]] {{otheruses}} {{Infobox_Scientist |name = William Ramsay |image = William_Ramsay_working.jpg|300px |caption = William Ramsay |birth_date = {{birth date|1852|10|2|mf=y}} |birth_place = [[Glasgow]], [[Scotland]] |residence = [[United Kingdom]] |nationality = [[Scotland|Scottish]] |death_date = {{death date and age|1916|7|23|1852|10|2}} |death_place = [[High Wycombe]], [[Buckinghamshire|Bucks.]], [[England]] |field = [[Chemist]] |work_institution = [[University of Bristol]] (1880–87)</br>[[University College London]] (1887–1913) |alma_mater = [[University of Glasgow]]</br>[[University of Tübingen]] |doctoral_advisor = [[Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig]] |doctoral_students = [[Edward Charles Cyril Baly]]<br />[[James Johnston Dobbie]]<br />[[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] [[Jaroslav Heyrovský]] |known_for = [[Noble gases]] |prizes = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] [[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] (1904) |religion = |footnotes = }} [[Image:Ramsay william h1.jpg|thumb|[[Vanity Fair]] caricature of '''William Ramsay''']] '''Sir William Ramsay''' ([[October 2]], [[1852]] &ndash; [[July 23]], [[1916]]) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[chemistry|chemist]] who discovered the [[noble gases]] and received the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" (along with [[Lord Rayleigh]] who received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] that same year for the discovery of [[argon]]). Ramsay was born in [[Glasgow]], the son of William Ramsay, C.E. and Catherine, née Robertson. He was a nephew of the [[geologist]] [[Andrew Ramsay|Sir Andrew Ramsay]]. He attended the [[Glasgow Academy]] and then continued his education at the [[University of Glasgow]] under [[Thomas Anderson (chemist)|Thomas Anderson]] and then went to study in [[Germany]] at the [[University of Tübingen]] with [[Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig]] where his doctoral thesis was entitled "Investigations in the Toluic and Nitrotoluic Acids". He returned to Glasgow as Anderson's assistant at the [[University of Strathclyde|Anderson College]]. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the [[University of Bristol|University College of Bristol]] in 1879 and married Margaret Buchanan in 1881. In the same year he became the Principal of the Bristol and somehow managed to combine that with active research both in organic chemistry and on gases. In 1887 he succeeded [[Alexander Williamson]] to the prestigious chair of Chemistry at [[University College London]] (UCL). It was here at UCL that his most celebrated discoveries were made. As early as 1885&ndash;1890 he published several notable papers on the oxides of [[nitrogen]] developing the skills that he would need for his subsequent work. On the evening of April 19th, 1894 Ramsay attended a lecture given by [[Lord Rayleigh]]. Rayleigh had noticed a discrepancy between the density of nitrogen made by chemical synthesis and nitrogen isolated from the air by removal of the other known components. After a short discussion he and Ramsay decided to follow this up. By August Ramsay could write to Rayleigh to announce that he had isolated a heavy component of air previously unknown which did not appear to have any obvious chemical reactivity. He named the gas "[[argon]]". In the years that followed he discovered [[neon]], [[krypton]], and [[xenon]]. He also isolated [[helium]] which had been observed in the spectrum of the sun but had not been found on earth. In 1910 he also isolated and characterized [[radon]].<ref>{{cite journal | title = La densité de l’emanation du radium | author = W. Ramsay and R. W. Gray | journal = C.R. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci. | volume = 151 | issue = | pages = 126–128 | year = 1910 | url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k31042/f126.table }}</ref> In 1904 Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Ramsay’s high standing in scientific circles led to his unfortunate endorsement in 1905 of the Industrial and Engineering Trust Ltd., a corporation with a supposed secret process to extract gold from sea water. The corporation bought property along the English coast to implement the gold-from-seawater process, but the company quickly faded from public view, and never produced any gold. He lived at Hazelmere, Buckinghamshire until his death. He died at [[High Wycombe]], [[Buckinghamshire]], on July 23 1916 from nasal cancer and was buried at Hazelmere parish church. The current upper school [[Sir William Ramsay School]], based in Hazlemere in [[High Wycombe]], is named after him and was built in 1976. ==References== {{reflist}} *{{cite book | author= Morris Travers | title = The Life of Sir William Ramsay | publischer = Arnold | location = London | year = 1956 | id =ISBN 978-0713121643}} *{{cite journal | title = Une lettre inédite de sir William Ramsay sur la découverte de l’argon (An unedited letter of Sir William Ramsay on the discovery of argon) | author = Yves Jeannin | journal = Comptes Rendus Chimie | volume = 8 | issue = 1 | pages = 3–7 | year = 2005 | doi = 10.1016/j.crci.2004.11.018 }} *{{cite journal | title = Argon and the Non-Inert Pair: Rayleigh and Ramsay | author = John Meurig Thomas | journal = [[Angewandte Chemie International Edition]] | volume = 43 | issue = 47 | pages = 6418–6424 | year = 2004 | doi = 10.1002/anie.200461824 }} *{{cite journal | title = Argon, a New Constituent of the Atmosphere. | author = [[Lord Rayleigh]]; William Ramsay | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of London | volume = 57 | issue = 1 | pages = 265–287 | year = 1894 - 1895 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0370-1662%281894%2F1895%2957%3C265%3AAANCOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X | doi = 10.1098/rspl.1894.0149 }} *{{cite journal | title = Sir William Ramsay, K. C. B. | author = Theodore W. Richards | journal = Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society | volume = 56 | issue = 1 | pages = iii-viii3 | year = 1917 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-049X%281917%2956%3A1%3Ciii%3ASWRKCB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J }} ==External links== * [http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1904/ramsay-lecture.html Nobel Lecture] ''The Rare Gases of the Atmosphere'' from Nobelprize.org website * [http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1904/ramsay-bio.html Biography] Biography from Nobelprize.org website *[http://www.sirwilliamramsay.bucks.sch.uk/ Sir William Ramsay School] *[http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/493_80.html Ramsay biography] *[http://www.chemheritage.org/classroom/chemach/periodic/ramsay.html Chemical achievers] *[http://www.sirwilliamramsay.bucks.sch.uk/ Eponymous school] *[http://www.nndb.com/people/490/000099193/ NNDB Biography] *[http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/Web_Genealogy/Info/ramsayw.pdf Web genealogy article on Ramsay] *[http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/Web_Genealogy/r-list.htm Chemical genealogy] *[http://www.victorianweb.org/science/ramsay.html victorianweb biography ] *[http://chemeducator.org/sbibs/s0009006/spapers/960378gk.htm chemeducator biography] <br />{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1901-1925}} <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] --> {{Persondata |NAME= Ramsay, William |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[Chemist]] |DATE OF BIRTH= [[October 2]], [[1852]] |PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Glasgow]], [[Scotland]] |DATE OF DEATH= [[July 23]], [[1916]] |PLACE OF DEATH= [[High Wycombe]], [[Buckinghamshire|Bucks.]], [[England]] }} {{BD|1852|1916|Ramsay, William}} [[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]] [[Category:Discoverers of chemical elements]] [[Category:Scottish chemists]] [[Category:Scottish Nobel laureates]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Bristol]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Strathclyde]] [[Category:Academics of University College London]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]] [[Category:People from Glasgow]] [[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]] [[ar:وليام رامزي]] [[bn:উইলিয়াম রামজে]] [[bs:William Ramsay]] [[ca:William Ramsay]] [[cs:William Ramsay]] [[da:William Ramsay]] [[de:William Ramsay]] [[es:William Ramsay]] [[eo:William Ramsay]] [[fr:William Ramsay]] [[ga:William Ramsay]] [[gl:William Ramsay]] [[hr:William Ramsay]] [[io:William Ramsay]] [[id:Sir William Ramsay]] [[it:William Ramsay]] [[he:ויליאם רמזי]] [[sw:William Ramsay]] [[lb:William Ramsay]] [[nl:William Ramsay]] [[ja:ウィリアム・ラムゼー]] [[no:William Ramsay]] [[nov:William Ramsay]] [[oc:William Ramsay]] [[pl:William Ramsay]] [[pt:William Ramsay]] [[ro:William Ramsay]] [[ru:Рамзай, Уильям]] [[sk:William Ramsay]] [[sl:William Ramsay]] [[sr:Вилијам Ремзи]] [[fi:William Ramsay]] [[sv:William Ramsay]] [[tr:William Ramsay (kimyager)]] [[zh:威廉·拉姆齐]]