| Authorised form of name | Hewitt; John Theodore (1868 - 1954); chemist |
| Dates | 1868 - 1954 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Windsor, Berkshire, England |
| Date of birth | 12 October 1868 |
| Date of death | 09/07/1954 |
| Occupation | chemist |
| Research field | Analytical chemistry |
| Organic chemistry |
| Chemistry |
| Activity | Education: St John's College, Cambridge
Career:
Performed demonstrations in Cambridge in combination with his research on hydrazines (1891); went to Heidelberg (1892); worked at the Hartley Institute Laboratory at Southampton where he discovered the first of the arylazophenol hemihydrates (1893); Professor at the People’s Palace Technical Schools (1894); Professor at East London College (1915); began working with spirits in a distillery, gaining a reputation as an expert; worked out methods of making acetic anhydride, which was not manufactured in Great Britain (1914-1915); received a commission as ‘Major, General List, attached Royal Engineers’; carried out a large number of water analyses and advised on a cargo of chlorine cylinders; sent home and after short leave seconded to the Department of Explosives Supply (Ministry of Munitions), under Lord Moulton (1916); resigned his professorships (1919). |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 05/05/1910 |
| Age at election | 42 |
| Proposer | Henry John Horstman Fenton; William Palmer Wynne; Horace Tabberer Brown; Charles Herbert Lees; Thomas Henry Tizard |
| Henry Edward Armstrong; George Downing Liveing; William Augustus Tilden; William Henry Perkin; Raphael Meldola; William Ramsay; Martin Onslow Forster |
| Relationships | Parents: John Hewitt (1840-1874) and Alice Mary Hewitt (nee Pasmore). |
| General context | Contributed to analytical chemistry.
Studied nitration of hydroxyazo compounds.
Investigated bromination benzeneazophenol in acetic acid; bromination of an o-hydroxyazo compound; bromination of benzeneazo-a-naphthol in glacial acetic acid in presence of sodium acetate.
Theorised to account for the fluorescence of certain compounds.
Observed the interaction of dichlorophenylphenazonium nitrate and arylamines.
Took an interest in Nitrophenols. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1955 vol 1 pp 79-99, plate, by E E Turner |
| Royal Society code | NA1766 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1910/10 | Hewitt, John Theodore: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| MM/18/148 | Letter from JT Hewitt to 'Sir Lander' | 15 January 1901 |
| NLB/37/686 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie to Professor [Sydney John] Hickson | 1 May 1908 |
| NLB/42/781 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison [signed by Theodore E James] to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 6 October 1910 |
| NLB/45/321 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor J [John] T [Theodore] Hewitt FRS | 12 February 1912 |
| RR/21/133 | Referee's report by John Theodore Hewitt, on a paper 'Quantitative measurements of the absorption of light. I. The molecular extinctions of the saturated aliphatic ketones' by Francis Owen Rice | [October 1914] |
| RR/33/108 | Referee's report by John Theodore Hewitt, on a paper 'Stereoisomeric diaryl-ß-y-diamino-N-butanes' by Gilbert Thomas Morgan, Wilfred John Hickenbottom and Thomas Vipond Barker | 2 December 1925 |
| NLB/42/433 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to J [Joseph] Barcroft, FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 13 June 1910 |
| MC/27/168 | Letter from [John Theodore] Hewitt, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W, to The Assistant Secretary, Royal Society | 8 February 1912 |
| MC/27/169 | Letter from [John Theodore] Hewitt, Clifford House, Bedfont, Middlesex, to [Robert] Harrison, [Royal Society] | 21 February 1912 |