Augustus George Vernon Harcourt FRS (24 December 1834 – 23 August 1919) was an English chemist who spent his career at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He was one of the first scientists to do quantitative work in the field of

chemical kinetics Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the branch of physical chemistry that is concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is different from chemical thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in which a ...

. His uncle, William Vernon Harcourt (1789–1871), founded the

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Biography

Harcourt was born in London in 1834 to Admiral Frederick Edward Vernon Harcourt and his wife, Marcia. Harcourt's mother was a sister of the first Lord Tollemache. Augustus Harcourt was educated at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

before enrolling at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

, where he took a degree in Natural Science in 1858, working with Henry Smith and Benjamin Brodie. A year later Harcourt became Lee's Reader in chemistry and took a position as a senior student at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Charles Dodgson, better known as

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

, and is mentioned in Carroll's diaries. Working with the mathematician William Esson (1838–1916), Harcourt began a series of chemical investigations which lasted for over 40 years. In 1872, Harcourt married Rachel Mary Bruce, daughter of the Home Secretary, Henry Bruce. The couple had two sons and eight daughters. In 1879, Harcourt sat on the committee which was formed to create an Oxford

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"in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations." This resulted in the founding of Somerville Hall (later Somerville College). His wife became the inaugural joint secretary of the Somerville Council together with the novelist

Mary Augusta Ward Mary Augusta Ward (''née'' Arnold; 11 June 1851 – 24 March 1920) was a British literature, British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward. She worked to improve education for the poor, setting up a Mary Ward Centre, ...

, both of whom are remembered by name each year in the college's Commemoration Service. Harcourt remained at Oxford until he retired in 1902, whereupon he moved to St Clare, near

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on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. He died there in 1919, and his wife followed in 1927.

Chemical kinetics

In a long partnership, Harcourt and William Esson studied the rates of chemical reactions. Among the processes they investigated was the acid-catalyzed iodine clock reaction (iodide and hydrogen peroxide). Their work showed that the reaction's changing rate was proportional to the concentration of reactants present. This result was later formalised by Guldberg and Waage as the

law of mass action In chemistry, the law of mass action is the proposition that the rate of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the product of the activities or concentrations of the reactants. It explains and predicts behaviors of solutions in dy ...

. Harcourt and Esson also studied the reaction between oxalic acid and potassium permanganate.

Other scientific work

Harcourt's other activities included inventing a device to safely administer

chloroform Chloroform, or trichloromethane (often abbreviated as TCM), is an organochloride with the formula and a common solvent. It is a volatile, colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to refrigerants and po ...

as an anesthetic, and the analysis and purification of

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

, used for illumination. Harcourt also invented pentane-burning lamps that served as photometric standards. File:Harcourt chloroform regulator.jpg, Harcourt chloroform regulator File:Harcourt pentane air-lamp.jpg, Harcourt pentane-air lamp

Honours and activities

* 1863:

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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 ...

* 1865–1873: Secretary of the

Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...

* 1895: President of the Chemical Society

References

External links

Biographical material from Christ Church (Oxford)

Obituary
from ''Journal of the Chemical Society'', (1920), volume 117, 1626–1648 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harcourt, Augustus George Vernon 1834 births 1919 deaths Scientists from London People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford English physical chemists Fellows of the Royal Society Founders of colleges of the University of Oxford People associated with Somerville College, Oxford