| RefNo | EC/1912/09 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XIII, 34; A04866 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Messel, Rudolf: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Citation | President of the Society of Chemical Industry. Chemical manufacturer. Author in conjunction with the late Dr Squire of a paper on the 'Manufacture of Sulphuric Anhydride,' presented to the Chemical Society on April 20 1876 (Chem News, vol xxxiii); the process having been patented in the previous September. Eminent as a practical chemist, on account of his originality and as having been the founder of a most important chemical industry by his discovery of a process of manufacturing sulphuric anhydride from atmospheric oxygen and sulphur dioxide with the aid of finely divided metallic platinum; he has rendered signal service to science by showing that such a catalytic agent can be used on an industrial scale. From 1876 onwards, during a good many years his firm were the sole manufactures of sulphuric anhydride - a substance indispensable to the economic manufacture of alizarin and other natural dyes. In later years, Dr Messel has extended the platinum contact process to the manufacture of ordinary sulphuric acid, thus making it possible to dispense with the unwieldy and costly lead-chamber plant in use since the alkali industry was initiated by Le Blanc. |
| Proposers | James Dewar; H Muller; Henry E Roscoe; H E Armstrong; W J Pope; H T Brown; William A Tilden; P F Frankland; A W Crossley; C E Grooves; A Scott; S Pickering; G D Liveing |
| AccessStatus | Open |
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Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA1562 | Messel; Rudolf (1848 - 1920) | 1848 - 1920 |