Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Reynolds, James Emerson
REYNOLDS, JAMES EMERSON (1844–1920), chemist, was born at Booterstown, co. Dublin, 8 January 1844, the only son of Dr. James Reynolds, who kept a medical hall at Booterstown. He was named after his great-uncle, Captain Emerson, R.N. On leaving school Emerson Reynolds, as he was usually called, became assistant to his father, and developed in early youth a strong bent for chemistry. Following his father's desire, he studied medicine, and in 1865 qualified as a licentiate of the Edinburgh College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the meantime he fitted up a small laboratory in his home at Booterstown, pursued his chemical studies unaided, and tried research work from the outset. His first paper, On the oleaginous matter formed on dissolving different kinds of iron in dilute acids, appeared in the Chemical News (1861), when he was only seventeen years of age. Several other papers of chemical interest were published by Reynolds while still in his 'teens. After practising for a short time in Dublin, he abandoned medicine on his father's death, and devoted himself solely to chemistry.
In March 1867 Reynolds was appointed keeper of minerals at the National Museum in Dublin, and in the following year analyst to the Royal Dublin Society. He now had access to a properly equipped laboratory, and here he made his first important contribution to chemistry. In 1868 he discovered thiocarbamide, or thiourea, the sulphur analogue of urea, which he obtained by the isomeric transformation of ammonium thiocyanate. His discovery was not due to chance. The existence of thiourea was indicated by theory, but its isolation had already baffled the skill of such distinguished chemists as Liebig and Hofmann in Germany. This discovery, described in the Journal of the Chemical Society of London for 1869, attracted much attention and was quickly republished in several continental scientific periodicals. It at once established Reynolds's position as one of the most promising of the younger British chemists. In 1871 he described the preparation of an interesting compound of acetone with mercuric oxide. This was the first colloidal derivative of mercury to be made known, and its formation is the basis of Reynolds's well-known test for acetone.
Reynolds was appointed professor of chemistry at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, in 1870, while he still retained his post at the Royal Dublin Society. He relinquished both positions in 1875, when he was elected to the chair of chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin, as successor to Dr. James Apjohn. He now wrote his Experimental Chemistry for Junior Students, published in 1882 in four small volumes, an original work in which the teaching of chemistry was developed on entirely new lines. By the aid of simple and carefully tested experiments, the student was taught to verify for himself the fundamental laws of chemistry by quantitative results—a method, now universally adopted, which Reynolds was the first to introduce. His book passed through several editions, and was translated into German.
Reynolds was an excellent teacher; the care which he bestowed upon his experimental illustrations, and his fine qualities as a lecturer, won the admiration and respect of his pupils. The duties of his chair left little time for uninterrupted research, yet he published more than a dozen scientific papers during the twenty-eight years that he remained at Trinity College. In 1903 he resigned his chair and went to live in London. At the Davy-Faraday laboratory he continued research, chiefly on silicon compounds, his last work (1913) being the synthesis of a felspar, anorthite, a calcium-aluminium silicate, which had the properties of the naturally occurring mineral.
Reynolds was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1880, and vice-president for 1901–1902. He was president of the Society of Chemical Industry (1891), president of the Chemical Society (1901–1903), and president of the chemical section of the British Association (1893). His mental power was active to the end, but his eyesight, never very good, gradually failed during his last years. He died suddenly 18 February 1920, at his house in Kensington.
Reynolds married in 1875 Janet Elizabeth, daughter of Prebendary John Finlayson, of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
[Private information; personal knowledge.]