SCI/2/2 - Chemistry - 1896-1902; 1910-1936
Contains the following records:
- Departmental Records
- Photographs relating to the Chemistry Department
- Signatures of members of the Chemistry Department who served at Edge Hill Railway depot during the General Strike
- Letter Book of Professor J. Campbell Brow...
Archive level description: Sub-series Physical Description: 1 series Subjects:
| Summary: | Contains the following records:
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|---|---|
| Date: | 1896-1902; 1910-1936 |
| Reference Number: | SCI/2/2 |
| Related Material: | The papers of Professor J Campbell Brown in Staff papersPlans of the Donnan Laboratories for Inorganic and Physical Chemistry are included in the Papers of Duncan Norman at D155/3/1 |
| Biographical/Administrative Information: | The Grant Chair of Chemistry was one of those established in the University College and was first held by James Campbell Brown between 1881-1910. The Gossage Laboratory was secured in 1896, as were funds for a metallurgical laboratory. The new Brunner Chair of Physical Chemistry was established in 1904 and occupied by F.G. Donnan, one of the pioneers of Physical Chemistry. He was succeeded in 1913 by his brother-in-law, William Cudmore McCullagh Lewis. Campbell Brown’s successor, Edward Charles Cyril Baly, was appointed as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry to the Chair. The inclusion of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry honours schools meant that by 1915, all four strands of Chemistry were equally represented. The Department of Industrial Chemistry was added in 1926 as a result of a legacy of £30,000 left by Campbell Brown’s widow. T.P. Hilditch took up the Chair of Industrial Chemistry in 1926 for twenty-five years. The Department expanded rapidly and the Thornley Building, completed in 1923, helped alleviate some of the overcrowding. Funding from Lever Brothers, Imperial Chemical Industries and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research facilitated an impressive record of research in the Department between the wars. Organic Chemistry was rehoused on Dansie Street, off Brownlow Hill, in 1942. The Donnan Laboratories, between Grove Street and Vine Street, were completed in 1954 and 1958 and were joined in 1962 by the Robert Robinson Organic Chemistry Laboratory. In 1961, Industrial, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry merged, hence the two departments of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry. The 1960s saw developments in polymer research under Cyril Henry Edwin Bawn and Clement Henry Bamford. |