John Frederic Daniell FRS (12 March 1790 – 13 March 1845) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Biography

Daniell was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1831 he became the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

; and in 1835 he was appointed to the equivalent post at the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

's Military Seminary at Addiscombe, Surrey. His name is best known for his invention of the Daniell cell, an element of an

electric battery An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its neg ...

much better than voltaic cells. He also invented the dew-point

hygrometer A hair tension dial hygrometer with a nonlinear scale. A hygrometer is an instrument used to measure the amount of water vapor in air, in soil, or in confined spaces. Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other q ...

known by his name, and a register

pyrometer A pyrometer is a type of remote-sensing thermometer used to measure the temperature of distant objects. Various forms of pyrometers have historically existed. In the modern usage, it is a device that from a distance determines the temperature o ...

; and in 1830 he erected in the hall of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

a water-

barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...

, with which he carried out a large number of observations.''Philosophical Transactions'', 1832. A process devised by him for the manufacture of illuminating gas from turpentine and resin was in use in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for a time. In 1842 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law by the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Publications

Daniell's publications included ''Meteorological Essays'' (1823), an ''Essay on Artificial Climate considered in its Applications to Horticulture'' (1824), which showed the necessity of a humid atmosphere in hothouses devoted to tropical plants, and an ''Introduction to the Study of Chemical Philosophy'' (1839).

Lectures

In 1840 he was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on ''The First Principles of Franklinic Electricity''.

Death and commemoration

Daniell died suddenly of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

in London in March 1845, while attending a meeting of the council of the Royal Society, of which he had become a fellow in 1813 and Foreign Secretary in 1839. The

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The w ...

Daniell Daniell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander Daniell (1599–1668), Cornish landowner * Alfred Daniell (1853–1937) * Ave Daniell (1914–1999), American (gridiron) footballer * Charles Daniell (1827–1889), Major ...

is named after him.

References

Bibliography