Smith, Robert Angus

Smith, Robert Angus. (1852). On the air and rain of Manchester. In Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Second Series, Volume Ten, London, pp. 207-217. 

Smith, Robert Angus. (1872). Air and Rain The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology, Longmans, Green London. 

Smith, Robert Angus (1817-1884) Scottish chemist, who investigated numerous environmental issues he became in 1863 Queen Victoria s first alkali inspector Alkali Acts Administration, setting limits for HCl emission by alkali plants). 

The term acid rain was hrst coined in 1872 by the English chemist Robert Angus Smith (1817-84). Smith studied the composition of rain in the region around Manchester, England, and observed... 

Remarkably, in 1872, a century before it became an international issue, a treatise on acid rain was published in England by Robert Angus Smith. Twenty years earlier, he had analyzed rain near Manchester and noted three types of areas as one moved from the city to the surrounding countryside ... 

The term acid rain was first used in 1872 by Robert Angus Smith, an English chemist and climatologist. He used the term to describe the acidic precipitation that fell on Manchester, England, at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Although neutral water has a pH of 7, rainwater becomes naturally acidified from dissolved carbon dioxide, a normal component of the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide, whose solubihty in water at room temperature is 3.4 g/L reacts reversibly with water to form a solution of the weak acid carbonic acid. 

The poor environmental conditions found in Manchester at this time prompted a call for sanitary reform which was taken up by the strong scientific community. This community was centred on the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and included Lyon Playfair, Frederick Crace-Calvert, Edward Frankland, and Edward Schunck, as well as Robert Angus Smith. A letter written by Smith to the Manchester Guardian in November 1844 shows a deep concern for the environment... 

Apart from circumstantial evidence, no one really knows precisely the chemical and physiological pathways involved. However, much more is known about the acidification of lakes from acid deposition than is known about forest damage from air pollution. Meanwhile, the issue has been pushed into the forefront of the international political arena, spurred by economic, health and aesthetic considerations, and to some extent by emotive Journalism. The term acid rain itself is something of a misnomer. It was coined more than a century ago by Robert Angus Smith when making a detailed study of the atmospheric conditions in the industrialized area of Manchester, England, and the term has since taken hold. 

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