William Ramsay
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031064
It’s the birthday of William Ramsay, who was born in 1852 in Glasgow, Scotland. After undertaking studies at Glasgow University and elsewhere, Ramsay became a chemistry professor at University College London. A lecture given in London in 1894 by Lord Rayleigh about a previously unknown component of air led to Ramsay and Rayleigh to collaborate. Rayleigh discovered argon. Ramsay went on to discover neon, krypton and xenon. Later Ramsay isolated helium and characterized the chemical properties of radon, placing both elements in the same chemical group as the other noble gases. In 1904 both men received Nobel prizes: Rayleigh in physics for his “investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies"; Ramsay in chemistry for his “discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system.”
Date in History: 2 October 1852
