| Authorised form of name | Desch; Cecil Henry (1874 - 1958); metallurgist |
| Dates | 1874 - 1958 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | 99 Hemingford Road, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 07 September 1874 |
| Place of death | General Hospital, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 19 June 1958 |
| Occupation | Metallurgist |
| Research field | Physical chemistry |
| Organic chemistry |
| Metallurgy |
| Activity | Education:
Birkbeck School, Kingsland, Middlesex; Finsbury Technical College, London; DSc (Lond); PhD (Wurz)
Career:
Assistant chemist at F. Kendall & Son, industrial chemists, Stratford upon Avon; worked at the metallurgy department of King's College, London (1902); lecturer in metallurgy, Glasgow University (1908-1918); professor of metallurgy, Royal Technical College, Glasgow (1918); Professor of Metallurgy, Sheffield (1920-1932); superintendent of the department of metallurgy at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, Middlesex (1932); retired (1939) but at the outbreak of WWII he became scientific adviser to the Iron and Steel Research Council and then entered the steel industry, becoming director of research of Richard Thomas & Co. Ltd and director of the Whitehead Iron and Steel Company (1943).
Memberships:
Faraday Society (President 926–8)
Institute of Metals (President 1938–40)
Iron and Steel Institute (President 1946–8)
Awards/Medals:
Bessemer gold medal 1938 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 03/05/1923 |
| Age at election | 49 |
| Proposer | Dugald Clerk |
| Henry Cort Harold Carpenter |
| Ernest George Coker |
| Walter Rosenhain |
| Frederick Gowland Hopkins |
| John Oliver Arnold |
| Robert Hadfield |
| Charles Thomas Heycock |
| Relationships | Parents: Henry Thomas Desch, surveyor, and Harriet Ingerson, of Pilton, Devon.
Spouse: Elison Ann, daughter of Professor Ivison Macadam, professor of chemistry at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh (1909).
Children: Two daughters. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R83968
RCN 36824
RCN 14447
RCN 36823
RCN 14079 |
| OtherInfo | Remembered as an excellent teacher and leadin metallurgist of his era.
Remembered for his work with chemicals during WWII. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB (MP)
AssocMaterial:
NCUACS 23/8/90. Papers deposited in Sheffield University Library
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1959 vol 5 pp 49-68, plate, by A McCance |
| Code | NA5984 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1923/04 | Desch, Cecil Henry: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/35/101 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Thermal changes in iron-manganese alloys, low in carbon' by Robert Abbott Hadfield | March 1927 |
| RR/33/57 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The low temperature oxidation of copper' by J S Dunn | February 1926 |
| RR/43/70 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The dehydration of copper sulphate pentahydrate' by John Hume and James Colvin | May 1931 |
| NLB/67/72 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Cecil Henry] Desch, FRS | 15 October 1924 |
| RR/33/56 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The high temperature oxidation of metals' by J S Dunn | February 1926 |
| RR/54/71 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'X-ray examination of certain copper-zinc alloys at elevated temperatures' by E A Owen and Llewelyn Pickup | January 1934 |
| RR/50/78 | Referee's report by Gilbert Thomas Morgan and Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'X-ray study of the inter-diffusion of copper and zinc' by E A Owen and Llewelyn Pickup | 31 July 1933 |
| RR/56/112 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The diffusion of gases through metals II- Diffusion of hydrogen through aluminium' by C J Smithells and C E Ransley | [July 1935] |
| NLB/62/49 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to [Charles Thomas] Heycock, Chairman of the Chemistry Committee and FRS | 23 November 1921 |
| RR/71/67 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Some crystal-boundary phenomena in metals' by B Chalmers | [1948] |
| RR/58/25 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The lattice spacings of certain primary solid solutions in silver and copper' by William Hume-Rothery, George Farley Lewin and Peter William Reynolds | June 1936 |
| RR/65/207 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Theory of the fatigue of metals' by Egon Orowan | February 1939 |
| RR/66/203 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'An investigation of cold-worked polycrystalline alpha-iron' by L Mullins and J W Rodgers | [1939] |
| RR/66/204 | Second referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'An investigation of cold-worked polycrystalline alpha-iron' by L Mullins and J W Rodgers | 1 May 1940 |
| RR/68/66 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The hardness of primary solid solutions with special reference to alloys of silver' by John H Frye and William Hume-Rothery | [1941] |
| RR/69/261 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The intermetallic compound phases of the system aluminium-manganese-zinc' by G V Raynor, D W Wakeman and Charles Sykes | 1946 |
| RR/70/15 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The lattice spacings of solid solutions of different elements in aluminium' by H J Axon and William Hume-Rothery | 1947 |
| RR/70/147 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on three papers 'Binary and ternary interstitial alloys. Parts I, II and III' by Kenneth Henderson Jack | 1947 |
| RR/72/89 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The effect of thermal cycles on the structure of alloys: diffusion effects in two phase alloys' by Roger John Davis and William Hume-Rothery | 1949 |
| RR/48/85 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The structure of magnesium, zinc and aluminium films' by George Ingle Finch and A G Quarrell | [March 1933] |
| RR/30/14 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Researches on the chemistry of coal.—Part III. The extraction of coals by benzene under pressure' by William Arthur Bone, A R Pearson and R Quarendon | [February 1924] |
| NLB/71/144 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Prof. [Cecil Henry] Desch, FRS | 20 January 1928 |
| RR/39/82 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'A robust microbalance of high sensitivity. Suitable for weighing sorbed films' by James William McBain and H G Tanner | [August 1929] |
| RR/35/44 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Spectrophotometric observations on the growth of oxide films on iron, nickel, and copper' by F Hurn Constable | October 1927 |
| RR/51/11 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Investigations on a portion of the quaternary system CaO—-A12O3-SiO2-Fe2-O3: The quaternary system CaO—2CaO . SiO2—' by F M Lea and T W Parker | [May 1934] |
| RR/50/82 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The behaviour of metals, particularly lead and bismuth, in atomic hydrogen, and attempts to prepare atomic hydrogen from hydrides' by Thomas Gibson Pearson, Percy Lucock Robinson and Eric M Stoddart | May 1933 |
| RR/53/30 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'A study of the vapour pressures of magnesium, thallium, and zinc, and the determination of their chemical constants' by F F Coleman and Alfred Charles Glyn Egerton | [July 1934] |
| RR/56/113 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The diffusion of gases through metals. III. The degassing of nickel and the diffusion of carbon monoxide through nickel' by C J Smithells and C E Ransley | [February 1936] |
| RR/71/234 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The constitution of the aluminium-rich aluminium-cobaltcopper alloys, with special reference to the role of transitional metals in alloy formation' by P C L Pfeil and Geoffrey Vincent Raynor | 1948 |
| RR/48/1 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'On the effect of the temperature of liquid hydrogen (-252.8° C.) On the tensile properties of forty-one specimens of metals comprising (a) pure iron 99.85%; (b) four carbon steels; (c) thirty alloy steels; (d) copper and nickel; (e) four non-ferrous alloy' by W J De Haas and Robert Abbott Hadfield | [June 1933] |
| RR/62/22 | Referee's report by Thomas Smith and Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The micrography of metals in ultra-violet light' by J Smiles and H Wrighton | [October 1936] |
| RR/66/126 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The equilibrium and lattice-spacing relations in the system magnesium-cadmium' by William Hume-Rothery and Geoffrey Vincent Raynor | [December 1939] |
| RR/67/3 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The equilibrium diagram of the system silver-zinc' by K W Andrews, H E Davies, William Hume-Rothery and C R Oswin | September 1940 |
| RR/55/94 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Studies on explosive antimony. II - Its structure, electrical conductivity, and rate of crystallization' by C C Coffin | February 1935 |
| RR/56/124 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Numerical relationships in binary metallic systems' by D Stockdale | [April 1935] |
| RR/48/88 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The catalytic properties and structure of metal films.—Part I. Sputtered platinum' by George Ingle Finch, C A Murison, N Stuart and George Paget Thomson | [March 1933] |
| RR/53/59 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The velocity of corrosion from the electrochemical standpoint—Part III' by Ulick Richardson Evans and R B Mears | [March 1934] |
| RR/68/404 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Internal stress created by plastic flow in mild steel, and stress-strain curves for the atomic lattice of higher carbon steels' by S L Smith and W A Wood | [1943] |
| RR/53/60 | Second referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The velocity of corrosion from the electrochemical standpoint—Part III' by Ulick Richardson Evans and R B Mears | [May 1934] |
| RR/56/125 | Second referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Numerical relationships in binary metallic systems' by D Stockdale | [June 1935] |
| RR/38/101 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The penetration of hydrogen into metal cathodes and its effect upon the tensile properties of metals and their resistance to repeated stresses; with a note on the effect of non electrolytic baths and nickel plating on these properties' by F C Lea | December 1928 |
| RR/43/47 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'A research on Faraday's "steel and alloys"' by Robert Abbott Hadfield | July 1931 |
| RR/46/82 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The energy absorbed in the cold working of metals' by Walter Rosenhain and V H Stott | [December 1932] |
| RR/48/38 | Second referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The freezing points, melting points, and solid solubility limits of the alloys of silver and copper with the elements of the b sub-groups' by William Hume-Rothery, Gilbert W Mabbott and K M Channel Evans | [1933] |
| RR/48/39 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The freezing points, melting points, and solid solubility limits of the alloys of silver and copper with the elements of the b sub-groups' by William Hume-Rothery, Gilbert W Mabbott and K M Channel Evans | [May 1933] |
| RR/54/132 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Methods for investigating thermal changes occuring during transformations in a solid solution' by Charles Sykes | September 1934 |
| RR/71/72 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The structure and properties of the alloy Cu2MnIn' by Bryan Randell Coles, William Hume-Rothery and H P Myers | [1948] |
| RR/71/248 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The constitution of the aluminium-rich aluminium-cobalt-iron alloys, with reference to the role of transitional elements in alloy formation' by Geoffrey Vincent Raynor and M B Waldron | 1948 |
| RR/73/87 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The system silver-magnesium-antimony, with reference to the theory of alloy formation' by B R T Frost and Geoffrey Vincent Raynor | 13 April 1950 |
| RR/73/55 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The quaternary system aluminium-iron-cobalt-nickel with reference to the role of transitional metals in alloys' by Geoffrey Vincent Raynor and M B Waldron | 1950 |
| RR/73/189 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'A theory of the transformation in pure cobalt' by John Wyrill Christian | 18 August 1950 |
| RR/75/172 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The mechanical behaviour of single crystals of certain face-centered cubic metals' by Edward Neville Da Costa Andrade and C Henderson | 16 July 1951 |
| RR/73/177 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Surface energy and structure of crystal boundaries in metals' by K T Aust & B Chalmers | 1950 |
| RR/73/191 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'Intermetallic compounds in ternary aluminium-rich alloy containing transitional metals' by J N Pratt and Geoffrey Vincent Raynor | 22 August 1950 |
| RR/62/39 | Referee's report by Cecil Henry Desch, on a paper 'The atomic rearrangement process in the copper-gold alloy Cu3Au' by Charles Sykes and Frederic Wood Jones | [June 1936] |
| ACS/1/2/4/39 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to Professor. [Cecil Henry] Desch, F. R. S. | 28 January 1929 |