in this way. All these attempts were on the one hand unknown to Young; on the other he was the first who, by heating gradually suitable coals to a low red heat, and purifying the products suitably afterwards, made the process a commercial success, and there can be no doubt as to the validity of his patent.
In February 1865 Young took over the whole business from his partners. He built second and larger works at Addiewell, near West Calder, and in January 1866 he sold the concern to ‘Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company’ for 400,000l. Other companies worked under license from Young's firm, and the paraffin manufacture spread over the south of Scotland. The fame of Young's paraffin soon led to the exploitation of petroleum springs all over the world, and so has given rise to an immense industry.
In 1872 Young took his friend, Robert Angus Smith [q. v.], who printed accounts of the voyages, to St. Kilda and to Iceland on his yacht the Nyanza. He noticed that the bilge-water in his yacht was acid, and suggested the addition of caustic lime to the bilge-water to prevent the rusting of iron ships, a suggestion afterwards adopted in the navy (Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, 1872, vii. 702). He is further said to have been the first to find that iron vessels could be used instead of silver for boiling down caustic soda solutions—a discovery which, though simple, was of considerable practical importance. In 1873 he was elected F.R.S. Young bought estates at Durris on the Dee in 1871 (Scotland) and at Kelly (he was known as ‘James Young of Kelly’) on the Clyde in 1873, near Wemyss Bay. He spent the greater part of his later years at Kelly. In 1878 he began at Pitlochry a series of experiments with Professor George Forbes on the velocity of light. The final observations, made by a modification of the method of Fizeau, were carried out in 1880–1 between Kelly House and a hill called the Tom, behind Innellan. Young and Forbes found the velocity of white light to be 301,382 kilometres per second (Phil. Trans. 1882, p. 231), a value slightly higher than those previously obtained by Albert A. Michelson and by Cornu. They also found that blue light travelled at a rate 1.8 per cent. faster than red, a result not yet fully explained. During his later years Young also worked at the practical applications of the electric light, but published nothing on this subject.
Young was a member of the Chemical Society, of which he was vice-president from 1879 to 1881. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by St. Andrews University in April 1879. He died at Kelly on 13 May 1883. He married, on 21 Aug. 1838, Miss Mary Young, and was survived by three sons and four daughters.
Young, although outwardly somewhat ‘cool’ in temperament, was a man of enthusiastic and generous nature. While Livingstone was in Africa he allowed him to draw on him as he pleased; ‘any monetary promise of his given to a Portuguese trader or Arab slave-dealer, written upon an old bit of leather or piece of bark, was duly honoured by Young.’ He gave generously towards the general expenses of Livingstone's second and third expeditions, and contributed 1,000l. towards the last or Zambesi expedition, and 2,000l. towards a search expedition under Lieutenant Grandy, which proved too late to find Livingstone alive. He had Livingstone's body-servants brought to England, and presented to Glasgow a statue to his memory, erected in George Square, Glasgow. He had previously presented a bronze statue to the city, also erected in George Square, of his former master, Graham, and he had Graham's ‘Researches’ printed for private distribution at his expense in 1876. The volume was edited by R. Angus Smith. In 1870 he endowed with a sum of 10,500l. the ‘Young’ chair of technical chemistry at Anderson's College, of which he was president from 1868 to 1877. On 11 April 1878 he gave 1,000l. to the Royal Society, eventually appropriated to the ‘Fue reduction fund.’
The best portrait of Young was painted by Sir John Watson Gordon [q. v.], and passed into the possession of John Young, esq.
