John Hadley (chemist)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

John Hadley (1731 – 5 November 1764) was an English chemist and physician. Born in London to Henry Hadley, he was educated at
Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...
, graduating B.A. in 1753. In 1756 he was appointed the fourth Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University, the oldest continuously occupied chair of Chemistry in the UK. During his time there he co-operated in 1758 with
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...
on a series of experiments to investigate latent heat. They found that a mercury thermometer sprayed with ether which was then evaporated by blowing could fall to −7 degrees Celsius in a warm room. The Professorship was unpaid so Hadley studied medicine and obtained in 1758 a Physick Fellowship. He then moved to London in 1760 and got a post as Assistant Physician at
St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospita ...
. In 1763 he became full Physician to
Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...
and became a Fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...
. In 1758 he was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
. On 16 December 1763 he carried out the first recorded dissection of a mummy in British history. He died in 1764 of a fever at the age of 33.


References

* L.J.M.Coleby ''Annals of Science'', Vol VIII, pp 165–174 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hadley, John 1731 births 1764 deaths Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal Society Professors of chemistry (Cambridge, 1702) British chemists 18th-century English medical doctors