Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Ramsay, William
RAMSAY, Sir WILLIAM (1852–1916), chemical discoverer, was born 2 October 1852 at Queen's Crescent, Glasgow, the only child of William Ramsay, by his wife, Catharine Robertson. He inherited scientific ability from both parents; for, whilst his father was a civil engineer of considerable scientific attainments and his paternal grandfather a well-known manufacturer of chemicals used by dyers (and probably the discoverer of potassium bichromate and Turnbull's blue), his mother was descended from an Edinburgh family which for several generations had produced medical men of note.
From 1866 to 1869 William Ramsay studied classics, general literature, logic, and mathematics at the university of Glasgow. In 1869 he went to the chemical laboratory of Robert Tatlock, attending at the same time lectures at the university on physics, chemistry, anatomy, and geology. At the close of the Franco-Prussian War he went to Heidelberg with the intention of studying under R. W. von Bunsen, but early in 1871 he changed to Rudolf Fittig's laboratory at Tübingen, where he obtained the degree of Ph.D. for a research on toluic and nitro-toluic acids. Returning to Glasgow in 1872, he was appointed assistant in the Young laboratory of technical chemistry. In 1874 he became the assistant of Professor John Ferguson in the chemical department of the university of Glasgow. In 1880 he was appointed professor of chemistry at University College, Bristol, of which in the following year he also became principal. In 1887 he was chosen to succeed Alexander William Williamson in the chair of general chemistry at University College, London. Here he worked until his retirement in 1913. His few remaining years were spent near Hazelmere, in Buckinghamshire, where he had bought a house and built a small chemical laboratory. He was actively engaged on chemical work in connexion with the European War when death overtook him 23 July 1916 at the age of sixty-three. He had married, in 1881, Margaret, daughter of George Stevenson Buchanan, by whom he had one son and one daughter.
Ramsay's scientific work may be divided broadly into five periods, of which the first, 1874–1880, was spent in Glasgow. During this time he devoted himself chiefly to investigations in the field of organic chemistry, obtaining various pyridinic acids from a complex mixture of pyridine bases, and establishing a close relationship between the alkaloids, quinine and cinchonine, and pyridine. In the second period (Bristol, 1880–1887) he turned to the field of physical chemistry, and, in collaboration with his assistant, Dr. Sydney Young, published an important series of papers dealing with vapour-densities, critical constants, evaporation, and dissociation. His work in London (1887–1913) may be divided roughly into three periods. At first he continued the physico-chemical work which had occupied his attention at Bristol. The most remarkable research of this period was his determination (in collaboration with his pupil Dr. John Shields) of the molecular complexity of pure liquids, as deducible from the variation with temperature of their ‘molecular surface-energies’.
Although Ramsay had now established his reputation as one of the most eminent physical chemists in Europe, the great work of his life was still to come—the discovery of the chemically inert elementary gases, argon, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon. Lord Rayleigh [q.v.], in the course of very accurate investigations into the densities of gases, had found a small difference between the densities of ‘atmospheric’ and chemically pure nitrogen. He sought the help of Ramsay, and after a few months of their joint work came the startling announcement at the British Association meeting in 1894 that there was present in the atmosphere an elementary gas new to science. Owing to its complete chemical inertness it was named argon. This discovery was soon followed by another of equal importance; for Ramsay, having had his attention directed by (Sir) Henry A. Miers to a statement by W. F. Hillebrand that the rare mineral, cleveite, gave off a considerable amount of gas on heating, repeated the experiment and found in the gas from cleveite another new inert elementary gas, identical in its spectrum with the element helium whose presence in the sun had been spectroscopically detected by Dr. P. J. C. Janssen, (Sir) E. Frankland, and (Sir) Norman Lockyer. The most remarkable thing about these new elements was their total lack of any capacity for entering into chemical combination. Ramsay divined that there must exist a whole related family of such inert elements; he at once began to search for the others, and after many months of hard work in collaboration with his pupil, Dr. M. W. Travers, three new inert elementary gases, named neon, krypton, and xenon, were isolated from the atmosphere by means of the fractional distillation of liquefied air.
The last great period of Ramsay's work in London was characterized by another discovery of a different nature, but of equally fundamental importance, namely the proof that the emanation of radium produces helium during its atomic disintegration. In this work, in which he was assisted by Dr. F. Soddy, the first definitely recognizable transmutation of one chemical element into another was placed on a firm experimental basis. This was a fact of tremendous importance for chemical science. With the insight of genius, Ramsay now perceived that it might be possible to utilize the torrent of energy, carried by the particles shot out with enormous velocities during the atomic disintegration of radio-active substances, for the purpose of breaking down the atoms of the ordinary stable elements. Working with the emanation from radium, and as the result of a long series of experiments, he considered that he had in this way been able to obtain traces of lithium from copper and of carbon from thorium. Some of these experiments were afterwards repeated by Madame Curie, but with negative results. The final decision on this problem must be left to the future. The really important point was that just as a century earlier Sir Humphry Davy had seized on the newly discovered electric ‘pile’ of Volts as a new weapon for the decomposition of substances, so Ramsay had grasped the immense possibilities of the atomic projectiles hurled forth by exploding atoms as a new and powerful weapon for attempting the decomposition of the ordinary stable atoms of matter. The later investigations of Sir Ernest Rutherford have amply demonstrated that Ramsay was on the right track.
The last great research carried out by Ramsay (in conjunction with his pupil, Dr. Whytlaw Gray) was a marvellous example of his skill as an experimenter. This was the determination of the density, and therefore the atomic weight, of the radium emanation, the volume of this unstable gas available for an experiment being less than one-millionth of a cubic inch. This investigation, in conjunction with others, rendered it highly probable, if not certain, that the gaseous emanation given off by radium was one of the inert elements of the argon family.
Ramsay's investigations have been of cardinal importance for the advance of chemical and physical science. The mysterious α-particles so often ejected by atoms undergoing spontaneous disintegration have turned out to be positively charged helium atoms (or helium nuclei), and the helium atom or nucleus has been shown to be one of the most important constituents of the atoms of matter. The family of inert elements occupies a fundamentally important position in the modern theory of atomic structure.
Ramsay was the greatest chemical discoverer of his time, and it is safe to predict that posterity will rank him with the greatest scientific discoverers of any age. He was gifted with rare scientific insight and imagination, and was the possessor of a most wonderful skill and dexterity in the devising, constructing, and use of apparatus for the delicate and exact investigation of gases. A man of sanguine and courageous temperament, of tireless energy, and power of instant action, he fearlessly attacked problems the experimental difficulties of which would have dismayed and deterred most men. His great example of a life devoted to research, and his cheerful optimism and encouragement spurred his students to try to follow in his footsteps, and enabled him to build up a great school of chemical research at University College.
Ramsay was endowed with extraordinary personal charm, and a most kindly, generous, and gentle disposition. No man was ever more beloved by his students, who found in him not only a great and inspiring teacher and investigator but also a true and generous friend. An excellent linguist and musician, a witty and humorous speaker both in public and in private, Ramsay's personality endeared him to an immense circle of friends and acquaintances in many countries. The quickness and receptivity of his mind were very remarkable, so that he was ever the enthusiastic friend and exponent of new advances in science. Thus he was one of the first chemists in England to teach and expound the work of W. Ostwald, J. H. van't Hoff, and S. A. Arrhenius, as in later life he was one of the first to take up work in the new field of radioactive change. His activities extended in many directions. He found time to write a number of excellent books on chemistry, was an ardent apostle of reform in converting the university of London into a great teaching university, and served as a member of the royal commission on sewage disposal, and other public bodies. A collection of his numerous public lectures given at home and abroad was published in a volume entitled Essays and Addresses.
Honours were showered on him from every country in the world. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1888 and created K.C.B. in 1902, he received the Nobel prize in 1904. Honorary degrees were conferred on him by numerous universities both at home and abroad, and he was made a foreign member of scientific societies in practically every civilized country, and received the Prussian order ‘Pour le Mérite’.
A portrait of Ramsay, painted by Mark Milbanke in 1913, hangs in the council room at University College.
[Obituary notice in Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xciii, A, 1916–1917; Sir W. A. Tilden, Sir William Ramsay, 1918; Introductory Memoir in Sir W. Ramsay's Life and Letters of Joseph Black, M.D., 1918.]