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Authorised form of nameKeir; James (1735 - 1820); chemist
Dates1735 - 1820
NationalityBritish
Place of birthEdinburgh, Scotland
Date of birth29 September 1735
Place of deathWest Bromwich, Staffordshire
Date of death11 October 1820
DatesAndPlacesBurial:
West Bromwich churchyard, Staffordshire
Research fieldChemistry
ActivityEducation:
Edinburgh University (medicine)
Career:
Entered the Army (1757-1766); started a business as a glass manufacturer (1775); gave it up to take charge of Boulton's Soho factory in his absence; established alkali works,Tipton (1780); close friend of Erasmus Darwin (FRS 1761) and friend of Matthew Boulton (FRS 1785), James Watt (FRS 1785) and of Joseph Priestley (FRS 1766)
Memberships:
Lunar Society
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election08/12/1785
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
References:
Robert E Schofield, 'The Lunar Society of Birmingham; A Bicentenary Appraisal' in NR 1966 vol 21 pp 144-161
Barbara M D Smith and J L Moilliet, 'James Keir of the Lunar Society' in NR 1967 vol 22 pp 144-154, plate
Jennifer S Pugh and John Hudson, 'The Chemical Work of James Watt, FRS' in NR 1985-86 vol 40 pp 41-52
Desmond King-Hele, 'The 1997 Wilkins Lecture: Erasmus Darwin, the Lunaticks and Evolution' in NR 1998 vol 52 pp 153-180
N G Coley, 'George Pearson MD, FRS (1751-1828): 'The greatest chemist in England'? in NR 2003 vol 57 pp
161-175
D King-Hele, 'Makers of the future. The Lunar Men: the friends who made the future, by J Uglow' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 348 - 350
Notes:
At head of election certificate: Compounded
CodeNA8245
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
MM/6/2Letter from Joseph Banks, Soho Square, to James Keir14 February 1780
MM/6/3Letter from Joseph Banks, Soho Square, to James Keir17 February 1780
MM/6/1Letter from Joseph Banks, Soho Square, to James Keir12 February 1780
IM/002493Keir, Jamesnd
IM/002494Keir, James2001
NLB/66/331Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Richard Pilcher Esq., Registrar and Secretary, Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain, Russell Square, W.C 10 April 1924
L&P/6/182Paper, 'Of crystallizations in glass' by James Keir1776
L&P/9/44Paper, 'Experiments on the congelation of the vitriolic acid' by James Keir1787
EC/1785/14Keir, James: certificate of election to the Royal Society
L&P/9/171Paper, 'Experiments and observations on the dissolution of metals in acids, and the precipitations; with an account of a new compound acid menstrum' by James Keir1790
L&P/9/87Letter, 'Additional experiments and observations relating to the principle of acidity, the decomposition of water and phlogiston' from James Keir to Joseph Priestley 26 March 1788
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