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William Hyde Wollaston

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William Hyde Wollaston

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English chemist and physicist (1766–1828)

OverviewAI-generated

William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828) was a British chemist, physicist, engineer, and metallurgist. Born in Dereham, he was educated at Charterhouse School and Gonville and Caius College. He worked for the University of Cambridge and his professional period spanned from 1793 to 1828. Wollaston died in London.

He was a member of the Royal Society, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. His awards included the Copley Medal, the Royal Medal, and the Croonian Medal and Lecture. He spoke English and German.

Wollaston’s notable works include *On fairy-rings*, *On the finite extent of the atmosphere*, *Prismatic and Diffraction Spectra*, *On Gouty and Urinary Concretions*, and *Foundations of the Atomic Theory*.

Synthesized by Vinony from 36 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1766
Died
1828
Works
15

Top works

  • On fairy-rings
  • On the finite extent of the atmosphere
  • Prismatic and Diffraction Spectra
  • On Gouty and Urinary Concretions. By William Hyde Wollaston, M.D. F.R.S. From the Philosophical Transactions
  • Foundations of the Atomic Theory

via Open Library + Wikidata

Key facts

Born
( 1766-08-06 ) 6 August 1766, East Dereham , Norfolk , England
Died
22 December 1828 (1828-12-22) (aged 62), Chislehurst , Kent , England
Alma mater
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Known for
Coining bicarbonate , Camera lucida , Conservation of energy , Cryophorus , Cystine , Discovery of Fraunhofer lines , Discovery of osmium , Discovery of palladium , Discovery of rhodium , Electrochemistry , Wollaston prism , Wollaston wire , Wollaston landscape lens
Awards
Copley Medal (1802) , Croonian Medal (1809) , Royal Medal (1828) , Bakerian Medal (1802, 1805, 1818, 1828) , Fellow of the Royal Society (1793)
Fields
Chemistry , Physics
Preceded by
Joseph Banks
Succeeded by
Humphry Davy

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Place of birth
Dereham
Place of death
London
Occupation
astronomer
Languages spoken
German
Field of work
chemistry
Image
Wollaston William Hyde Jackson color.jpg
Work location
London
Show 12 more facts
Commons category
William Hyde Wollaston
date of birth
1766-08-06
date of death
1828-12-22
described by source
Nature
Commons gallery
William Hyde Wollaston
writing language
English language
start of work period
1793-01-01
end of work period
1828-01-01
P8168
Montcuq
P12749
Montirone
name in native language
William Hyde Wollaston
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

William Hyde Wollaston (/ˈwʊləstən/; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingots, patented the camera lucida, and made contributions in electricity and spectroscopy.

Life

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Hyde Wollaston” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)