Brownrigg, William

Brownrigg, William, On the uses of a knowledge of mineral exhalations... 

William Brownrigg (1711-1800) gave the first scientific description, which was revealed in 1750. 

Platinum - the atomic number is 78 and the chemical symbol is Pt. The name derives from the Spanish platina for silver . In 1735, the Spanish mathematician Don Antonio de Ulloa found platinum in Peru, South America. In 1741, the English metallurgist Charles Wood foimd platinum from Columbia, South America. In 1750, the English physician William Brownrigg prepared purified platinum metal. 

Although fire damp/ which is mainly methane, and choke damp (carbon dioxide) are frequent causes of mine accidents, Dr. William Brownrigg learned how to make good use of them. In 1741 he communicated to the Royal Society several papers on the gases of coal mines, but preferred to withhold them from publication until he could prepare a comprehensive treatise on the subject. His laboratory at Whitehaven was provided with several gas furnaces of his own design and a constant supply of fire damp from the nearby mines. Because of his skill in foretelling explosions by the rapid fall of the barometer, mine operators often consulted him. 

About two years after the log of de Ulloa s voyage had been published, Sir William Watson and Dr. William Brownrigg contributed to the Philosophical Transactions a more detailed description of platinum. William Brownrigg was bom at High Close Hall, Cumberland, on March 24, 1711. He studied medicine in London and later in Leyden under H. Boerhaave, B. S. Albums, and W. J. s Gravesande, and began to practise in Whitehaven (2,63,64). 

Dixon, Joshua, Biographical account of William Brownrigg, MD, Annals... 

When the British fisheries lacked an adequate supply of pure salt, Dr. William Brownrigg published an important book On the Art of Making Common Salt, which was condensed by Sir William Watson and published in 1848 in the Philosophical Transactions (36). 

Dr. William Brownrigg describes platinum. Cronstedt isolates nickel. H. T. Scheffer fuses platinum with the aid of arsenic. Claude-Frangois Geoffrey s research on The Chemical Analysis of Bismuth is published. 

Mayow did not have the means to capture, manipulate, and study gases. These techniques awaited development hy Stephen Hales in 1727 and subsequent improvements by William Brownrigg, Joseph Black, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestley. 

Until 1756, the only known gas or air was indeed common air. In that year. Dr. Joseph Black published his paper on the isolation and properties of fixed air (carbon dioxide or C02). He had used the pneumatic techniques of Stephen Hales and William Brownrigg to capture the air that was fixed in chalk (CaC03). Although Van Helmont had worked with this air over 100 years earlier, neither he nor other contemporaries truly characterized it. 

William Brownrigg (High Close Hall, Cumberland, 24 March 1711-Orman-thwaite, nr. Keswick, Cumberland, 6 January 1800), M.D. Leyden 1737, F.R.S. 1742, and a physician in Whitehaven, published a book on salt manufacture, and some remarks on Hales s method of purifying sea water in which he describes superheating steam for use in engines, and a safety-valve. His papers on platinum are interesting, but his most valuable publications are two papers on mineral waters in which he describes a mineral elastic spirit or (1774) mephitic air , i.e. carbon dioxide. ... 

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