Sir Walliam Ramsay - Essay Example

Till 1870, he imparted his early education in his native place. He spent his time at Fitting’s laboratory located at Tubingen at the time of preparing thesis on orthotoluic acid and its derivatives succeed him in having the doctorate degree (Tilden & Ramsay 2010, p. 28). Thereafter, Ramsay became the Anderson associate at the Anderson College. In the year 1879, he got inducted as Professor of Chemistry at the University College of Bristol (Tilden & Ramsay 2010, p. 30). Merry moments came in the life of Ramsay when he got married to Margaret, the daughter of George Stevenson Buchanan.

They left behind them one son and a daughter. His passion was traveling and learning of different languages (Kauffman 2004, p. 378). When he came to Scotland in the year 1872, he joined as assistant in the chemistry department at Anderson College in Glasgow. Two years after, he acquired similar status at the University. In the year 1880, he assumed the office of Principal and Professor of Chemistry at University College, Bristol. In the year 1887, he joined the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University College, London, a coveted position where he took his retirement in 1913 (Tilden & Ramsay 2010, p. 32). The initial work of Ramsay was in the field of organic chemistry.

During the period of his doctoral assignments, he published his work on picoline with the connivance of Dobbie with regard to the product of the quinine alkaloids during the tenure of 1878 to 1879 (Thomas 2004, p. 6419). He had written number of articles on picoline and on the decomposed products of the quinine alkaloids. From the inception of eighties, he was actively involved in physical chemistry. His contributions towards chemistry, being the most rewarding contribution in terms of stoichiometry and thermodynamics are considered marvellous.

It has helped him a lot for the investigations carried out with Sidney Young on the subject of evaporation and dissociation