England studies

Perkin, W. H. J. Chem. Soc. 1868, 21, 53. William Henry Perkin (1838—1907), bom in London, England, studied under Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry. In an attempt to synthesize quinine in his home laboratory in 1856, Perkin synthesized mauve, the purple dye. He then started a factory to manufacture mauve and later other dyes including alizarin. Perkin was the first person to show that organic chemistry was not just mere intellectual curiosity but could be profitable, which catapulted the discipline into a higher level. In addition, Perkin was also an exceptionally talented pianist. 

If smart fibers began to be widely used, perhaps clothes and other fabrics would become more adaptable. Nature is one place to look for inspiration. Olivier Emile and Albert Le Floch of the Universite de Rennes in France and Fritz Vollrath at Oxford University in England studied why spiders rarely spin around when hanging from their silk threads. Most fibers turn and twist, as a climber dangling from a rope knows all too well, yet a suspended spider is stable. The researchers discovered that spider silk has a kind of shape memory in which it rapidly recovers its shape, resisting any twisting motion. This research, Shape Memory in Spider Draglines, was published in Nature in 2006. 

The discovery of gun-cotton is generally attributed to Schonbein (1846), but Braconnot (in 1832) had previously nitrated starch, and six years later Pelouse prepared nitro-cotton and various other nitro bodies, and Dumas nitrated paper, but Schonbein was apparently the first chemist to use a mixture of strong nitric and sulphuric acids. Many chemists, such as Piobert in France, Morin in Russia, and Abel in England, studied the subject but it was in Austria, under the auspices of Baron Von Lenk, that the greatest progress was made. Lenk used cotton in the form of yam, made up into hanks, which he first washed in a solution of potash, and then with water, and after drying dipped them in the acids. The acid mixture used consisted of 3 parts by weight of sulphuric to 1 part of nitric acid, and were prepared some time before use. The cotton was dipped... 

In the 1960s, in a search for even more effective and less irritating analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs, the Boots Pure Drug Company in England studied compounds related in structure to salicylic acid. They discovered an even more potent compound, which they named ibuprofen, and soon thereafter, Syntex Corporation in the United States developed... 

Developments Outside Germany. In the late 1930s experimental work in England (29—31) led to the erection of large pilot faciHties for Fischer-Tropsch studies (32). In France, a commercial faciHty near Calais produced ca 150 m (940 bbl) of Hquid hydrocarbons per day. In Japan, two fijH-scale plants were also operated under Ruhrchemie Hcense. Combined capacity was ca 400 m (2500 bbl) of Hquids pet day. 

A 1995 report by LandeU Mills Commodities Studies (Oxford, England) (7), pointed out that the United States sweetener industry (cane, beet, HFCS) provides 420,000 jobs a year and has a positive economic impact of 26.2 biUion. By interpolating these data, it is likely that the world sweetener industry provides jobs to more than 15 million persons and affects the world economy by more than 100 biUion (see Sweeteners). 

A variety of models have been developed to study acid deposition. Sulfuric acid is formed relatively slowly in the atmosphere, so its concentrations are beUeved to be more uniform than o2one, especially in and around cities. Also, the impacts are viewed as more regional in nature. This allows an even coarser hori2ontal resolution, on the order of 80 to 100 km, to be used in acid deposition models. Atmospheric models of acid deposition have been used to determine where reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions would be most effective. Many of the ecosystems that are most sensitive to damage from acid deposition are located in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Early acid deposition models helped to estabUsh that sulfuric acid and its precursors are transported over long distances, eg, from the Ohio River Valley to New England (86—88). Models have also been used to show that sulfuric acid deposition is nearly linear in response to changing levels of emissions of sulfur dioxide (89). 

GM Crippen, TF Havel. Distance Geometry and Molecular Conformation. Taunton, England Research Studies Press, 1988. 

M Randic. On characterization of molecular branching. J Am Chem Soc 97 6609-6615, 1975. LB Kier, LH Hall. Molecular Connectivity in Structure-Activity Analysis. Chichester, England Research Studies Press, 1986. 

Three factors influence the rate of corrosion of metals—moisture, type of pollutant, and temperature. A study by Hudson (1) confirms these three factors. Steel samples were exposed for 1 year at 20 locations throughout the world. Samples at dry or cold locations had the lowest rate of corrosion, samples in the tropics and marine environments were intermediate, and samples in polluted industrial locations had the highest rate of corrosion. Corrosion values at an industrial site in England were 100 times higher than those found in an arid African location. 

The publication of this paper led to a stampede of research, both experimental and theoretical, and an examination of earlier studies by eminent people like Roger Penrose and Alan Mackay in England about the possibilities of filling space by tiling with two distinct populations of tiles, as illustrated in Figure 10.8. This is the basis of quasicrystalline structure. 

Davenport, J. A. 1983. A Study of Vapor Cloud Incidents—An Update. Fourth Interna-tional Symposium on Loss Prevention and Safety in the Process Industries. European Federation of Chemical Engineering, Sept. 1983, Harrogate, England. 

Englander, S. W., and Mayne, L., 1992. Protein folding studied using hydrogen exchange labeling and two-dimensional NMR. Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure 21 243—265. 

In the same year that del Rio found his erythronium, C. Hatchett examined a mineral which had been sent to England from Massachusetts and had lain in the British Museum since 1753. From it he isolated the oxide of a new element which he named columbium, and the mineral columbite, in honour of its country of origin. Meanwhile in Sweden A. G. Ekeberg was studying some Finnish minerals and in 1802 claimed to have identified a new element which he named tantalum because of the difficulty he had had in dissolving the mineral in acids. It was subsequently thought that the two elements were one and the same, and this view persisted until at least 1844 when H. Rose examined a columbite sample and showed that two distinct elements were involved. 

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