Henry Edward Armstrong
{{Short description|British chemist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Henry Edward Armstrong
|image = Henry Edward Armstrong.jpg
|image_size = 150px
|caption = Henry Edward Armstrong as a young man
|birth_date = 6 May 1848
|birth_place = Lewisham, Kent, England
|death_date = 13 July 1937 (aged 89)
|death_place = Lewisham, London, England
|residence =
|citizenship =
|nationality = British
|ethnicity =
|field = Chemistry
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|doctoral_advisor = Hermann Kolbe
|doctoral_students = Martin Lowry
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|prizes = Davy Medal (1911)
Fellow of the Royal Society{{Cite journal | last1 = Keeble | first1 = F. W. | title = Henry Edward Armstrong. 1848–1937 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1941.0001 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 3 | issue = 9 | pages = 229–245| year = 1941 | s2cid = 162018573 }}
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Henry Edward Armstrong FRS FRSE (Hon) (6 May 1848 – 13 July 1937) was a British chemist. Although Armstrong was active in many areas of scientific research, such as the chemistry of naphthalene derivatives, he is remembered today largely for his ideas and work on the teaching of science. Armstrong's acid is named for him.{{cite book | last = Senning|first = Alexander|title = Elsevier's dictionary of chemoetymology|year = 2007|pages = 30|publisher = Elsevier|isbn = 978-0-444-52239-9|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Fl4sdCYrq3cC}}
Life and work
Armstrong was born the son of Richard Armstrong, a commission agent and importer, and Mary Ann Biddle.{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) |author=C D Waterston |author2=A Macmillan Shearer |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=090219884X |date=July 2006 |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead}} He lived most of his life in Lewisham, a suburb of London.
After finishing school in 1864 at age 16, he spent a winter in Gibraltar, with a relative, for health reasons. In the spring of 1865, Armstrong returned to England and entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London, now the department of chemistry at Imperial College. Chemical training in those days was not lengthy, and at the age of 18 he was selected by Edward Frankland to assist in devising methods of determining organic impurities in sewage.{{cite journal | author = Rodd, E. H. | title = Henry Edward Armstrong | journal = Journal of the Chemical Society | year = 1940 | pages = 1418–1439 | doi=10.1039/JR9400001418 }}
Armstrong pursued further studies under Hermann Kolbe at Leipzig, earning a PhD in 1869 for work on "acids of sulfur." He returned to London and worked under Augustus Matthiessen in the medical school of St Bartholomew's Hospital, in charge of chemistry classes for students taking the London degree. A permanent appointment in 1879 at City and Guilds of London Institute, now also a part of Imperial College, followed. At age 36, Armstrong became Professor of Chemistry at yet another Imperial College precursor, the Central Institution in 1884. It was here that he established a three-year diploma course in chemical engineering, "seeing the need for a more scientific attitude of mind among British industrialists"{{cite journal | author = Underwood, A. J. V. | title = Chemical Engineering – Reflections and Recollections | journal = Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers | volume = 43 | year = 1965 | pages = 302–316 }}
File:Historic Benzene Formulae Armstrong (original).png
He had already started on the systematic synthesis, degradation, and structural constitution of many naphthalene derivatives in 1881, building on earlier work on benzene derivatives and Erlenmeyer's proposal for the structure of naphthalene. W. P. Wynne was his most important collaborator; their 263 naphthalene samples, accrued over several decades, are now preserved at Imperial College as the Armstrong-Wynne Collection. This research on naphthalene gave much impetus to the synthetic dye industry.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
Armstrong's later researches dealt with terpenes, particularly camphor, with water purification, helping to eradicate typhoid fever, and with crystallography.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
In 1887, Armstrong became interested in classifying substituents of benzene in terms of their meta- and ortho-para directing influences. It was in a footnote to an article on that theme in 1890 that his centric formula for benzene first appeared.Armstrong, Henry E. (1887) "[https://books.google.com/books?id=4QbzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA258 An explanation of the laws which govern substitution in the case of benzenoid compounds,"] Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. 51, pages 258–268. Armstrong's "centric" model of benzene appears on [https://books.google.com/books?id=4QbzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA264 page 264]. His six affinities acting within a cycle predated both the discovery of the electron and modern theories of aromaticity. Armstrong recognised that affinities have direction and are not merely point particles, and so he might be said to have anticipated parts of the wave mechanical theories of the 1920s.
He died at his home in Granville Park, Lewisham.{{cite newspaper The Times|title=Prof. H. E. Armstrong|date=14 July 1937|page=16|issue=47736|column=B|department=Obituaries|id={{Gale|CS269037806}}}}
Family
Honours and affiliations
- Fellow of the Royal Society (1876)
- Chemical Society of London, President (1893–1895){{cite web |url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Henry_Edward_Armstrong |title=Henry Edward Armstrong |author=Grace's Guide |work=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History |publisher=Grace's Guide |access-date=2017-08-14 |quote=1893 - 1895 President of the Chemical Society }}
- Davy Medal (1911){{cite web |url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dsunM9ukGLgaW3HdG9cvJ_QKd7pWjGI0qi_fCb1ROD4/pubhtml?gid=1021770356&single=true |title=Award winners : Davy Medal |author=Royal Society |publisher=Royal Society |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018065253/http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dsunM9ukGLgaW3HdG9cvJ_QKd7pWjGI0qi_fCb1ROD4/pubhtml?gid=1021770356&single=true |archive-date=18 October 2016 |access-date=2017-08-14 |quote=Henry Edward Armstrong on the ground of his researches in organic and general chemistry. 1911}}
- Messel medal of the Society of Chemical Industry (1922)
- Horace Brown Medal (1926){{cite journal |date=1986 |title=Horace Brown Medal |journal=Journal of the Institute of Brewing |issn=0046-9750 |volume=92 |issue=S1 |pages=58–68 |doi=10.1002/j.2050-0416.1986.tb00025.x }}
- Albert Medal (1930){{cite web | url=http://www.thersa.org/about-us/history-and-archive/medals/albert-medal | title=The Albert Medal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608193010/http://www.thersa.org/about-us/history-and-archive/medals/albert-medal |archive-date=8 June 2011 |access-date=2017-08-14 | publisher=Royal Society of Arts, London, UK}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
Further reading
- {{cite book | author = Eyre, J. Vargas | title = Henry Edward Armstrong. 1848–1937. The Doyen of British Chemists and Pioneer of Technical Education | year = 1959 | publisher = Butterworth and Company | location = Toronto }}
- {{Cite journal | last1 = Rodd | first1 = E. H. | last2 = Berger | first2 = W. E. | last3 = Jones | first3 = I. G. | last4 = Robinson | first4 = C. H. | title = Obituary notices: Henry Edward Armstrong, 1848?1937; Alfred Berthoud, 1874?1939; Oliver Gatty, 1907?1940; Percy George Mander, 1881?1940; Frank Thomas Shutt, 1859?1940 | doi = 10.1039/JR9400001418 | journal = Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed) | pages = 1418–1442 | year = 1940 }}
- Armstrong, Henry E. (1884). [https://books.google.com/books?id=9P0BAAAAYAAJ&dq=Henry+E+Armstrong&pg=PR3 "On the Teaching of Natural Science as a Part of the Ordinary School Course, and on the method of Teaching Chemistry in the Introductory Course in Science Classes, Schools, and Colleges"] – Address for the Proceedings of the International Conference on Education, London.
- {{cite book | last = Armstrong | first = Henry E. | title = Introduction to the Study of Organic Chemistry: The Chemistry of Carbon and its Compounds | year = 1884 | publisher = Longmans, Green, and Company | location = London | edition = 4 | url = https://archive.org/details/introductiontos00armsgoog | quote = Henry Edward Armstrong. }}
- {{cite book | last = Armstrong | first = Henry E. | title = The Teaching of Scientific Method and Other Papers on Education | publisher = Macmillan and Company, Ltd | year = 1903 | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/teachingscienti01armsgoog| quote = henry edward armstrong. }}
- {{Cite journal | last1 = Armstrong | first1 = H. E. | title = The First Epistle of Henry the Chemist to the Uesanians | doi = 10.1021/ed002p731 | journal = Journal of Chemical Education | volume = 2 | issue = 9 | pages = 731 | year = 1925 | bibcode = 1925JChEd...2..731A }}
- {{cite book | last = Armstrong | first = Henry E. | title = Art and Principles of Chemistry | year = 1927 | publisher = Ernest Benn Limited | place = London | url = http://www.openlibrary.org/details/artandpricipleso004212mbp | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130802040058/http://www.openlibrary.org/details/artandpricipleso004212mbp | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2 August 2013 }}
External links
{{commons category}}
- {{Wikisource author-inline}}
- [http://www.armstrongwynne.org Armstrong-Wynne Collection]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150924061440/http://www.open.ac.uk/ou5/Arts/chemists/person.cfm?SearchID=47 Henry Edward Armstrong] (Open University)
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Category:19th-century British chemists
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Category:Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)
Category:Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences