Atkinson, Robert William

In the first stage of the institutionalization of chemistry in Japan, foreign teachers of chemistry like Robert William Atkinson and Edward Divers taught in Japanese higher educational institutions, educated the first generation of Japanese chemists, and showed the possible direction of Japanese chemistry studies by their own studies in Japan. Their students were then sent to Europe or the United States to study further. The institutionalization was completed with the establishment of the Tokyo Chemical Society in 1878 and the foundation of Imperial University in Tokyo in 1886. The discovery of the periodic law between 1869 and 1871 and its dissemination in the 1880s coincided with the institutionalization of chemistry in Japan. This factor helped make the appreciation of the periodic system as a basis for chemistry in Japan easier. Most of the first generation of Japanese chemistry professors accepted the periodic law as one of the recent developments in chemistry in Europe without much doubt. 

Robert William Atkinson was bom in Newcastle in England. After studies at the University College, London, under Alexander Williamson and the Royal School of Mines under Edward Frankland between 1867 and 1872, he became an assistant of Alexander Williamson, professor of chemistry at University College, London. Atkinson came to Japan on September 9th, 1874, and stayed until 1881. After his return, he lived in Cardiff, Wales. See Kikuchi s PhD thesis (note 18), The English Model of Chemical Education in Meiji Japan. ... 

Robert A. Boyer, Joseph Crupi, and William T. Atkinson, assignors to Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Michigan... 

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