William Hyde Wollaston
AUG 06, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031023
Today is the birthday of chemist and physicist William Hyde Wollaston who was born in 1766 in East Dereham, Norfolk, England. Wollaston actually earned a degree in medicine and worked as a physician for several years before moving into chemistry and physics. One of his first achievements was developing a practical method for processing platinum ore and in doing so discovered both palladium and rhodium. He also did pioneering work that led to Faraday’s electric motor and detected Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum, which led to the discovery of elements in the Sun.
Date in History: 6 August 1766
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
