William Hyde Wollaston | British Chemist & Physicist

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class="md-content"> <div class="md-article-container template-desktop"> <div class="infinite-scroll-container article last"> <article class="article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded" data-topic-id="646649"> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston">William Hyde Wollaston</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref260864"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston#ref260864">Early life and education</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref260865"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston#ref260865">Platinum and new metals</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref260866"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston#ref260866">Other scientific achievements</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref260867"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston#ref260867">Later years</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Hyde-Wollaston/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/William-Hyde-Wollaston">Quick Facts & Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a 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He also made fundamental discoveries in many areas of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/science" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">science</a> and discovered the elements <span id="ref264220"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/palladium-chemical-element" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">palladium</a> (1802) and <span id="ref264221"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/rhodium" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rhodium</a> (1804).</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref260864"><h2 class="h1">Early life and education</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Wollaston was the seventh of 17 children born to Althea Hyde and Francis Wollaston. Theirs was a financially comfortable family, which was well positioned in British scientific and religious circles. His great-grandfather <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Wollaston" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">William Wollaston</a> was a well-known theological author; his uncle Charlton Wollaston had been physician to the queen’s household; and his father was a vicar of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Church-of-England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Church of England</a>, a competent astronomer, and a fellow of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Royal-Society" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Royal Society</a> of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/London" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">London</a>. Wollaston was raised in an intellectually vibrant household, schooled at Charterhouse School in London, and studied <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/medicine" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">medicine</a> at Caius College, Cambridge. He obtained a medical degree from Cambridge in 1793 and practiced medicine in rural <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">England</a> until 1797, when he moved to London. He had been unhappy as a physician, because of both the constant demands on his time and the physician’s inability to do much to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="alleviate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alleviate" data-type="MW">alleviate</a> patients’ suffering. Thus, upon receiving a large sum of money from his older brother George in 1799, Wollaston abandoned medicine to pursue his much stronger interests in science, particularly <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/chemistry" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">chemistry</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref260865"><h2 class="h1"><span id="ref264222"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/platinum" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Platinum</a> and new metals</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In 1800 Wollaston formed a cost-sharing partnership with <span id="ref928914"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Smithson-Tennant" class="md-crosslink ">Smithson Tennant</a>, whom he had befriended at Cambridge, to produce and market chemical products. Although Tennant achieved only limited success in his independent endeavours, Wollaston was spectacularly successful. He set about trying to produce platinum in a pure malleable form, something that had been attempted unsuccessfully by others before him. After a few years of research, he was able to perfect a chemical process for <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="converting" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/converting" data-type="EB">converting</a> inexpensive granular platinum ore smuggled out of New Granada (now Colombia) into platinum powder of high purity and of consolidating the powder into malleable ingots, which he sold at substantial profit over the next 20 years. The pure metal, which had properties similar to gold but sold at one-quarter the price, found many scientific and technological uses. He kept the details of his process secret, and, by purchasing all of the available platinum ore, he became wealthy as a result of being the sole supplier of pure platinum in England. He published the details of his process only at the time of his death.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/faces-of-science" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/88/144788-131-ADACA20E/Michael-Faraday-John-Frederic-Daniell.jpg" alt="Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell." class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Faces of Science</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Careful <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/chemical-analysis" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">chemical analysis</a> of the metals that dissolved with platinum in the first step of his purification process led Wollaston to the discovery of two new metallic elements, palladium and rhodium. Tennant undertook the analysis of the less-soluble <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituents" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituents" data-type="MW">constituents</a> of the platinum ore and discovered two other new metals, <span id="ref928910"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/osmium" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">osmium</a> and <span id="ref928911"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/iridium" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">iridium</a>. The discovery of these rare elements established the reputations of both men as gifted experimental chemists. Wollaston, especially, became famous for his ability to analyze small quantities of substances, and he was continually called upon by mineralogists to determine the chemical components of new minerals. The mineral <span id="ref928912"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/wollastonite" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">wollastonite</a> was named in his honour for his many contributions to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/crystallography" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">crystallography</a> and mineral analysis.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h4"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref260866"><h2 class="h1">Other scientific achievements</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Wollaston never married. Although he had a wide circle of friends, he was most contented when pursuing his scientific interests in the quiet of his own home. He had a remarkably <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="acute" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acute" data-type="MW">acute</a> and imaginative mind and made, in addition to his chemical work, significant contributions to the fields of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/botany" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">botany</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/mechanics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">mechanics</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/electrochemistry" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">electrochemistry</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/astronomy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">astronomy</a>, crystallography, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/physiology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">physiology</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/optics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">optics</a>, and scientific instrumentation. He obtained a patent for a new form of spectacle lens (1804), and he patented the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/camera-lucida" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">camera lucida</a> (1806) and published a book on its design (1807). In 1809 he invented the reflective goniometer, an instrument that accurately gives the angles between the faces of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/crystal" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">crystals</a>. With his discovery of multiple combining proportions in acid salts in 1808, he also supplied crucial support for the English scientist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dalton" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Dalton</a>’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/atomic-theory" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">atomic theory</a>, and he invented a widely used <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/slide-rule" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">slide rule</a> of chemical equivalents in 1813. In 1820 he reported the inability of most humans to hear the high-pitched notes of bats and insects, and in 1824, while investigating the possible physiological basis for his own recurring visual problems (now known as hemianopia), he <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="deduced" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/deduced" data-type="EB">deduced</a> the correct anatomical arrangement of human <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/optic-nerve" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">optic nerves</a>. His breadth and depth of scientific knowledge led his close scientific friends to call him the “pope of science,” and the great English philosopher <span id="ref928924"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Whewell" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Whewell</a> claimed that a conversation with Wollaston was “like talking to pure intelligence.”</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Wollaston was an extremely influential member of the Royal Society from the time he was elected in 1793 until his death. He served for many years on the Council of the Society as secretary or vice president, and he even held the presidency in 1820 between the terms of naturalist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Banks" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Joseph Banks</a> and chemist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Humphry-Davy-Baronet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Humphry Davy</a>. In 1814 Wollaston recommended adoption of the British imperial gallon to the House of Commons Select Committee of Weights and Measures, and from 1818 to 1828 he served on the government’s Board of Longitude.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h5"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref260867"><h2 class="h1">Later years</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Wollaston closed down his platinum business in 1820 when supplies of crude platinum ore dried up. Although he continued to publish scientific papers, he spent more time traveling and visiting friends after closing his business. In 1828 Wollaston began to suffer <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="transient" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transient" data-type="MW">transient</a> periods of partial paralysis and reacted by methodically but quickly dictating the last of his scientific papers, selecting mementos for his closest friends, and distributing his wealth among his many brothers and sisters. An autopsy revealed that he died of a brain tumour, which he had earlier suspected as the cause of his declining health. Wollaston, physician and physicist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Young" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Thomas Young</a>, and Davy all died within six months of each other, and the loss of three of Britain’s leading scientists caused several contemporaries to claim that their passing signaled a perceptible decline in British science.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span><span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Melvyn-C-Usselman/3455">Melvyn C. 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William Hyde Wollaston | British Chemist & Physicist | Britannica