Percy Carlyle Gilchrist FRS (27 December 1851 – 16 December 1935) was a British chemist and metallurgist.

Life

Gilchrist was born in

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Heri ...

, Dorset, the son of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

and Anne Gilchrist and studied at Felsted and the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

. He caught scarlet fever from his sister and was very ill. His father then caught the disease and died in November 1861. He is best known for his collaboration with his cousin, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, on the

Gilchrist–Thomas process The Gilchrist–Thomas process or Thomas process is a historical process for refining pig iron, derived from the Bessemer converter. It is named after its inventors who patented it in 1877: Percy Carlyle Gilchrist and his cousin Sidney Gilchr ...

, which became the standard "basic process" for making steel. This enabled the production of low-phosphorus steel from local high-phosphorus ores by changing the standard acidic process to a basic process which meant that steel became cheaply available to British industry – low phosphorus ores requiring dearer importation. He developed the process, 1875–77, together with his cousin. It involved melting pig iron in a converter similar to that used in the

Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation ...

and subjecting it to prolonged blowing. The oxygen in the blast of air oxidized carbon and other impurities, and the addition of lime at this stage caused the oxides to separate out as a slag (dross) on the surface of the molten metal. A side benefit was that the phosphorus-rich slag was an agricultural fertilizer. He or his family had him admitted to well-appointed private asylum, Holloway Sanatorium from 5 March 1899 for just under one year, then discharged into single care.https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/187186/Holloway-Sanatorium-Male-case-books-1885-1900-surname-order.pdf Noted are "eccentricities" and his role as an inventor. He was elected vice-president of the

Iron and Steel Institute The Iron and Steel Institute was an English association organized by the iron trade of the north of England. Its object was the discussion of practical and scientific questions connected with the manufacture of iron and steel. History The first mee ...

and in 1891 a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

. He died in 1935. He had married Nora, the daughter of L N Fitzmaurice of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilchrist, Percy 1851 births 1935 deaths People from Lyme Regis British chemists Fellows of the Royal Society