Pure Intelligence A series in the history of chemistry, broadly construed, edited by Angela N. H. Creager, Ann Johnson, John E. Lesch, Lawrence M. Principe, Alan Rocke, E. C. Spary, and Audra J. Wolfe, in partnership with the Chemical Heritage Foundation Pure Intelligence The Life of William Hyde Wollaston Melvyn C. Usselman The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London Melvyn C. Usselman is professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry at Western University in London, Ontario. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2015 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2015. Printed in the United States of America 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 24573- 7 (cloth) ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 24587- 4 (e- book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226245874.001.0001 Usselman, Melvyn C., author. Pure intelligence : the life of William Hyde Wollaston / Melvyn C. Usselman. pages cm — (Synthesis) ISBN 978- 0- 226- 24573- 7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 24587- 4 (e-book) 1. Wollaston, William Hyde, 1766–1828. 2. Scientists— England—Biography. I. Title. II. Series: Synthesis (University of Chicago Press) Q143.W795U87 2015 509.2—dc23 [B] 2014039432 This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper). Dedicated to My wife Trixie And our children Jasper, Charlotte, Richard, and David Contents Acknowledgments xi Note to Reader xiii List of Abbreviations xv Prologue 1 1. The Making of a Physician: 1766– 1795 8 Wollaston’s Early Years 9 The Wollaston Lineage 11 The Route to a Medical Degree 15 The Eccentric Smithson Tennant 21 Becoming a Doctor 24 Life as a Country Physician 27 2. Early Medical and Scientifi c Interests: 1792– 1800 30 Early Scientifi c Interests 31 Studies on Human Calculi 34 Activities with the Royal College of Physicians 39 Familial and Political Stresses 41 A Chemical Partnership 43 New Scientifi c Interests 44 Studies on the Refraction of Light 45 The End of Doctoring 49 3. Early Years as a Natural Philosopher: 1800– 1802 53 Research on Electricity 53 Move to Buckingham Street 59 vii viii Contents Royal Society Involvement 60 Lifelong Colleagues: Humphry Davy and Thomas Young 62 The Primacy of Observation 64 Pioneering Studies on the Refraction and Dispersion of Light 67 Double Refraction in Iceland Spar 76 Optical Instruments for Naval Use 80 4. Malleable Platinum: 1800–1801 83 Early Studies of Spanish Platina 83 Wollaston’s Platinum Purifi cation Process 88 The Need for Secrecy 95 The Production of Malleable Platinum 102 5. Palladium and Rhodium: 1801–1825 109 The Batch Process for Commercial Platinum 109 The Discovery of Palladium 113 The Palladium Controversy 117 The Discovery of Rhodium 122 Wollaston Reveals his Secret 125 Commercial Applications of Palladium and Rhodium 130 6. Optical Devices and Social Networks: 1804– 1809 135 Periscopic Spectacles 135 Periscopic Camera Obscura and Microscope 139 Opposition to Meniscus Lenses 143 The Camera Lucida: A New Drawing Instrument 144 Use of the Camera Lucida 149 Royal Society Activities 153 The Forces of Moving Bodies 155 The Lure of Cambridge 158 New Social and Scientifi c Networks 159 7. Commercial Platinum: 1805– 1820 163 The First Sales of Platinum 163 Firearm Touchholes 167 Sulfuric Acid Boilers 169 Total Platinum Purchases and Sales 177 Contents ix Improvements to Platinum Refi ning 182 Financial Security 188 8. Organic Chemicals and Multiple Combining Proportions: 1802– 1815 190 Chemicals from Wine Dregs 190 Production and Sale of Organic Chemicals 196 The Continuing Partnership with Smithson Tennant 200 Multiple Combining Proportions in the Salts of Organic Acids 203 Thomas Thomson, Dalton, and Atomic Theory 210 Wollaston’s Integral Combining Proportions 212 The Impact of Wollaston’s Paper on Multiple Proportions 218 9. Crystals and Atoms: 1803–1818 220 Yearly Excursions 220 The Contact Goniometer 223 The Refl ective Goniometer 226 Crystals and Elementary Particles 232 An Opportunity Missed 235 10. More Practical and Conceptual Innovation: 1809– 1822 240 The Sounds of Muscular Contraction 240 Microanalysis 242 The Cryophorus and Fine Platinum Wires 243 The Logarithmic Scale of Chemical Equivalents 247 Atoms or Equivalents 254 The Upper Limit of the Atmosphere 259 11. Changing Priorities: 1809–1815 262 Electrochemical Secretions and Blood Sugar 262 The Attractions of Gravity, France, and English Institutions 265 The Visit of Berzelius 268 A Man at the Peak of his Powers 270 The Resurrection of Europe 272 Deaths of a Business Partner and a Father 275 A More Relaxed Life 278 x Contents 12. Service to Government and the Royal Society: 1803– 1820 281 Excise Taxes and Sikes’s Hydrometer 281 Wollaston as Paid Consultant 286 Service on Government Committees 289 The Board of Longitude 292 The Presidency of the Royal Society 296 13. A Diversity of Interests: 1815– 1824 303 Friendship with Julia Hankey 304 More Leisure Time 308 Continuing Scientifi c Work and the End of the Platinum Business 311 Electromagnetic Rotation and the Faraday Incident 312 More Novel Observations 318 Pioneering Physiological Research 319 Three Remarkable Women 324 14. The Last Years: 1824– 1828 330 Family, Friends, and Fishing 330 The End of Scientifi c Work 334 The Onset of Illness 338 Another Chance at the Presidency of the Royal Society 341 The Last Year 342 Preparations for Death 345 15. Post Mortem and Legacy: 1828– Present 351 Post Mortem 351 The Legacy of William Hyde Wollaston 355 Notes 361 Bibliography 391 Index 407 Acknowledgments fi rst encountered William Hyde Wollaston while preparing a history I of chemistry course for chemistry majors at the University of Western Ontario in the mid 1970s. Following his trail through the science of the early nineteenth century has directed much of my historical research ever since. I owe much of my intellectual development to Paul de Mayo and F. Larry Holmes. Paul de Mayo demonstrated for me on a near- daily basis the power of critical thinking, and Larry Holmes helped me complete my transition from chemistry to historical research by proving to me many times over the intellectual rewards of seeking out the merits of divergent viewpoints. Discussions with both of them instilled in me the belief that modern science owes as much to the personalities and cultural context of the past as it does to the content base of its many disciplines. The life and science of Wollaston that I present in this book illustrates, I hope, how superfi cial (and historically impoverished) it would be to investigate scien- tifi c discovery without consideration of enabling societal factors. The richness of the Wollaston material— scientifi c, artifactual, social, familial, and anecdotal— and its distance from my university location in London, Canada, explains (in part) the long gestation of this biography and (in toto) my great debt to the many librarians, archivists, and curators who spent so many tedious hours carefully locating and copying the thousands of pages I have required to recover his life. I have also benefi ted enormously from the endless goodwill and encouragement of historical and scientifi c colleagues around the world, and I am pleased to acknowledge their specifi c contributions in relevant footnotes. Some people, many of whom are no longer around to read and critique this biography, merit special mention. Leslie Hunt of Johnson Matthey played a pivotal role in my early studies of Wollaston’s platinum researches, and Peta Buchanan hunted down for me xi xii Acknowledgments details of London life with the tenacity of a bulldog. Lionel Felix Gilbert collected all the Wollaston materials now in the D. M. S. Watson Library of University College London, and David Goodman wrote an excellent D. Phil. thesis on Wollaston, which I have mined for much secondary literature. Mrs. Vaire Solandt (née Wollaston), a fellow Ontarian, has been a most gracious and enthusiastic conduit to the several Wollaston descendants who have so willingly aided my study of their illustrious ancestor. I owe a great debt also to Geoffrey Cantor and Jed Buchwald and to my chemistry colleagues Dick Puddephatt, Peter Guthrie, and Edgar Warn- hoff, all of whom read one or more draft chapters and helped improve every one. Special thanks are due to Bill Brock, David Knight, Trevor Levere, Rob Lipson, Alan Rocke, and Willemina Sennema, each of whom read an early draft of the entire manuscript and gave many wise suggestions for its improvement. My study of Wollaston could not have occurred with- out funding support from the Canada Council (1976), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (1978 and 1982), the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine (1987), and the Department of Chemistry of the University of Western Ontario. I am also most grateful to all those at University of Chicago Press who have helped bring this biography to press. And fi nally, I thank my wife, Trixie, for her continuing cheerful support, editorial assistance, and, especially when needed, encouragement. Note to Reader o minimize anachronistic interpretation, I have used early nineteenth- Tcentury terminology in descriptions of Wollaston’s science and tech- nical innovations. I have, however, placed modern terms and formulations in brackets whenever I think such a clarifi cation will aid a reader who wishes to bridge the two centuries between his time and ours. Footnote citations give short form versions of the full references in the Bibliography. Footnotes to papers by William Hyde Wollaston include the dates of publication because some of his research results are grouped by theme instead of chronology. xiii Abbreviations Gilbert Collection L. F. Gilbert Collection, D. M. S. Watson Library, Univer- sity College London. Wollaston Mss. Wollaston Manuscripts, Cambridge University Library, Mss.