Nicholson, William

The Volta pile was of extraordinary significance for developments both in the sciences of electricity and electrochemistry, since a new phenomenon, a continuous electric current, hitherto not known, could now be realized. Soon various properties and effects of the electric current were discovered, including many electrochemical processes. In May of 1800, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle electrolyzed... 

In 1800 William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle discovered electrolysis and initiated the science of electrochemistry. In their experiments they employed a voltaic pile to liberate oxygen and hydrogen from water. They discovered that the amount of oxygen and hydrogen liberated by the current was proportional to the amount of current used. 

British chemists William Nicholson (1753-1815) and Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1842) discover electrolysis of water. 

Even after this proof, some chemists were very conservative about accepting the new element. William Nicholson, in his "First Principles of Chemistry published in 1796, gave the following account of it ... 

In 1804 William Nicholson, the editor, chose Mr, Hatchett and Edward Howard to serve with him on a committee to judge Richard Chenevix s alloy of platinum and mercury which Chenevix believed identi-... 

A.-F. de Fourcroy, Systeme des Connaissances Chimiques, 15 vols. (Paris, 1800-1801) from the English translation by William Nicholson, A General System of Chemical Knowledge, II vols (London, 1804), vol. i, 49. 

In 1800. William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle decomposed water into hydrogen and oxygen by an electric current supplied by a voltaic pile. Whereas Volta had pruduced electricity from chemical action these experimenters reversed the process and utilized electricity to produce chemical changes. In 1807. Sir Humphry Davy discovered two new elements, potassium and sodium, by the electrolysis of ihe respective solid hydroxides, utilizing a voltaic pile as the source of electric power. These electrolytic processes were the forerunners of the many industrial electrolytic processes used today to obtain aluminum, chlorine, hydrogen, or oxygen, for example, or in die electroplating of metals such as silver or chromium. 

British scientists William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle learn that applying an electric current to water produces oxygen and hydrogen gases. 

Hydrogen as an energy carrier and potentially widely used fuel is attractive because it can be produced easily without emissions by splitting water. In addition, the readily available electrolyzer can be used in a home or business where off peak or surplus electricity could be used to make the environmentally preferred gas. Electrolysis was first demonstrated in 1800 by William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle and has found a variety of niche markets ever since. Two electrolyzer technologies, alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM), exist at the commercial level with solid oxide electrolysis in the research phase. 

In 1922, Wrinch married John William Nicholson, Director of Studies in Physics and Mathematics at Balliol College, Oxford and she moved to Oxford in 1923, becoming tutor in mathematics to the five women s colleges of the university. The position was annually renewed until 1927, when it finally became a long-term appointment. 

Quoted in Jankovic, Reading the Skies, p. 154. Jankovic points to a range of other authors who likened the atmosphere to a chemical laboratory at this time, including Le Roy, George Adams, Antoine Francois Fourcroy, Richard Kirwan, George Shaw, William Nicholson and Thomas Thomson. 

William Nicholson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Fair Lawn, NJ. 

In 1786 William Nicholson wrote A Dictionary of Practical and Theoretical Chemistry. In this work Nicholson mentions that a chemist named Neuman, on distillation of storax (a balsam derived from the tree Liquambar orientalis), had produced a fragrant empyreumatic oil . In 1839 E. Simon carried out some similar experiments, apparently quite independently, and again obtained this essential oil which he called styrol. In 1845 M. Glenard and R. Boudault reported on the production of styrol (now known as styrene) by dry distillation of dragons blood, a resin obtained from the fruit of the Malayan rattan palm. 

The nineteenth century was an exciting time for electrical experimentation and discovery. Shortly after Alessandro Volta demonstrated the voltaic pile to the Royal Society of London in 1800, two experimenters, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle, discovered that hydrogen and oxygen could be produced by passing an electric current through water. This was the first demonstration of the principle of electrolysis. 

Cecil s suggestion came only 20 years after another fundamental discovery electrolysis (breaking water down into hydrogen and oxygen by passing an electrical current through it). That discovery had been made by two English scientists, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle, 6 years after Lavoisier s execution and just a few weeks after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta built his first electric cell. 

There were from the late eighteenth century informal scientific journals, in Britain published by Alexander Tilloch (Philosophical Magazine), William Nicholson (Journal of Natural Philosophy), and Thomas Thomson (Annals of Philosophy) Nicholson and Thomson were both chemists with substantial publications in the science. Taxes on knowledge , which inhibited periodicals, were not lifted until the mid century, and postage was expensive until then also. But nevertheless in their heyday these journals, offering speedy publication, had published some original papers, reprinted papers from elsewhere, reviewed books and... 

In that same year William Nicholson noticed the products of electrolysis of river water appearing at the free ends of wires connected to a voltaic pile. Hence one of the first acts of Sir Humphry Davy, on becoming director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution in London the following year, was to construct a large battery of the sort Volta had described. With it he followed up Nicholson s observation vigorously over the next five years, with results that he symmarized in the following words. 

William Nicholson, First Principles of Chemistry, London, 1790. 

William Nicholson (London 1753-21 May 1815), official of the East India Company, traveller for Wedgwood, schoolmaster in Soho Square, civil engineer, and author, used the antiphlogistic theory in his books ... 

Berthollet, Guyton de Morveau, Fourcroy, and Monge added copious refutations. Kirwan reissued his book as II, the French additions in III being translated by William Nicholson and added, together with short Remarks upon the Annotations , by Kirwan. 

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