Edith Humphrey

Among the Bedford College chemistry alumnae was the forgotten pioneer of co-ordination chemistry, Edith Ellen Humphrey.31 Born in 1875, she attended NLCS, and it was there that Humphrey first took chemistry At the North London we 

It was her thesis work with Alfred Werner34 that was to enter her in the annals of the history of chemistry. Among the compounds she made was cis-bis(ethylenediamine)dinitro-cobalt(III) bromide. This was the very first synthesis of a chiral octahedral cobalt complex, though at the time the significance of her synthesis was overlooked.31(a) Werner was so impressed with her work that, for her last year, he took her on as his personal assistant, the first women to be chosen for this prestigious post.35 More important for the impoverished Humphrey, she at last had some income in very expensive Switzerland. 

Her Ph.D. finished in 1901, it was recommended that Humphrey continue her studies with Wilhelm Ostwald30 in Germany. There was a problem, as Humphrey herself commented But they wouldn t have me in Germany. They said I could go to lectures but not practicals because the men wouldn t do any work. 31(a) 

Thwarted in her plans, Humphrey returned to England, spending the rest of her working life as a research chemist with the company Arthur Sanderson Sons, who specialised in such products as fabrics and wallpapers. It was during her time with 

Sanderson that she became a signatory of the 1904 petition for admission of women to the Chemical Society and of the 1909 letter to Chemical News (see Chap. 2). She died in 1977 at the age of 102. The chiral crystals, synthesised by Humphrey, are now in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, as they were donated in 1991 to the Royal Society of Chemistry on the occasion of its 150th anniversary by the Swiss Committee on Chemistry. 

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Edith Humphrey (P) [4] Zelda Kahan [2] Norah E. Laycock [4] Chemist to A. Sanderson Sons Demonstrator, Chemistry, London School of Medicine for Women... 

However, the history of this discovery is not so simple. It appears that Edith Humphrey, one of the very few women engaged in doctoral research 100 years ago, is likely to have actually made the original resolution 10 years before John Read, although it was not realized at the time. Dr. Humphrey died in 1977 at the age of 102. At her 100th birthday she is quoted as saying There were very few women students in Zurich, but fairly soon 1 was made assistant to the professor. 1 think being English helped—and also 1 knew more physical chemistry than most people there. ... 

Alfred Werner conjectured as early as 1899 that octahedrally coordinated metal complexes should occur in nonidentical minor image isomers. For such objects. Lord Kelvin, in 1893, had coined the adjective chiral , a term never used by Werner. It can be proved by examination of the original sample of [Co(NC)2)2(en) Br, prepared by Edith Humphrey, a Ph.D. student of Wemer s, that crystals of optically pure samples were obtained in Werner s laboratory as early as 1899 or 1900. However, Werner did not publish die first successful resolution of an octahedral metal complex until 1911. Presently, interest in chirality in coordination compounds is booming, mainly because of the importance of coordination compounds in enantioselective homogeneous catalysis. Other interesting sq )plications are enantioselective interactions of chiral coordination species with biomolecules, and the stereoselective synthesis of multicenter systems. 

Figure 1. Survey CD-Spectrum of a small crystal of the original sample of [Co(N02)2(en)2]Br prepared by Edith Humphrey in 1900...

B In 1901 Edith Humphrey, a doctoral student of Alfred Werner, synthesized two isomers of his(ethylenediamine)dimtrocohalt(III) mtrate. Draw diagrams showing the structures of all the stereoisomers possible for this compound. 

When Werner s student Edith Humphrey first synthesized the complex salts of formula [Co(en)2(N02)2]X, they were taken to he O-honded forms of nitrite. Only later were they identified as N-bonded. Write the formulas of and name both the hnkage isomers of this compound where X is [AuClJ . 

J A C Humphrey Bucknell University, USA M Y Hussaini Florida State University, USA W Hutchinson Edith Cowan University, Australia... 

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