Thomas Slater Price (1875–1949) was a British chemist.

Biography

Price was born on 24 August 1875 in

Wednesbury Wednesbury ( ) is a market town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England; it was historically in Staffordshire. It is located near the source of the River Tame, West Midlands, River Tame and ...

, the second of nine children of Thomas Price, a teacher, and Mary Anne (née Slater). His early education was at the Wesleyan school at which his father was headmaster. From age 12 he attended King Edward's School in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, from where he gained a place at Mason College. He graduated as BSc from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1895, with first class honours in chemistry and physics. After graduation he undertook research at Mason College, supervised by P F Frankland. He then worked in Leipzig with Wilhelm Ostwald and was awarded his PhD

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

. In 1898 he continued his work in the laboratory of

Svante Arrhenius Svante August Arrhenius ( , ; 19 February 1859 – 2 October 1927) was a Swedish scientist. Originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, Arrhenius was one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. In 1903, he received ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. He returned to Mason College in 1898 and finished his Stockholm research, for which he was awarded a University of London DSc. After a year at Sheffield, Price moved to the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, as senior lecturer in chemistry. In 1903, aged 28, he was appointed head of the chemistry department at the Birmingham Central Technical College. In 1916 Price took up secret war work at the Royal Naval Experimental Station in Stratford, with the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Later the number and scope of the researches expanded and he was promoted Lieutenant-Commander, in charge of them all. One of the important projects was the design and filling of special apparatus for the formation of smoke screens at sea, used with great success in the raid on Zeebrugge. Price was awarded a military OBE in 1919. In September 1920 Price was appointed director of research at The British Photographic Association, which had been formed two years earlier. He held this position for ten years. Many important papers came from its laboratories during the ten years he was in charge; the Association closed in 1930. In 1931 Price was appointed chair of chemistry of Heriot-Watt College, a post he held until he retired in 1940. He suffered persistent ill-health for most of this time. Price published 36 papers in the period 1897 to 1923. 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 ...

elected him to its Fellowship in 1924, and the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1932.

Family

Thomas Slater Price married Florence Beardmore, also born in Wednesbury, in 1904. They had three children: Leslie, Eileen and Florence Mary. Price died on 29 October 1949 at

Ratho Ratho () is a village in the rural west part of the City of Edinburgh council area, Scotland. Its population at the 2011 census was 1,634 based on the 2010 definition of the locality. It was formerly in the old county of Midlothian (historic), ...

, near

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, a little over a year after his wife had died. He was cremated on 2 November. Florence was buried at Wood Green Cemetery, Wednesbury, with her parents and brother.

Other appointments

Books

*''Theories of Chemistry'' *''A Course of Practical Organic Chemistry'' (1907) *''

Peracid A peroxy acid (often spelled as one word, peroxyacid, and sometimes called peracid) is an acid which contains an acidic group. The two main classes are those derived from conventional mineral acids, especially sulfuric acid, and the peroxy deri ...

s and Their Salts'' (1912)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Thomas Slater 1875 births 1949 deaths People from Wednesbury People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham British chemists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Chemical Society