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| Research in Physics, Chemistry and Physiology |
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The immense versatility of William Hyde Wollaston was evident not only in the field of optics, but also in physics and chemistry. Initially – from 1792 onwards – he practiced as a doctor. In the period from 1797–1800, he worked as a physician in St. George’s Hospital in London. As a scholar working on his own account, he devoted his attention to research in the natural sciences and was appointed Secretary of the Royal Society in 1804. He remained in this post until 1816.
In 1801, with his studies on voltaic elements, he proved that frictional electricity and flowing electrical current are very similar. In his work with the powder-metallurgic processing of platinum, he discovered the chemical elements palladium and rhodium in 1803. He invented a technique for hammering platinum (Wollaston wire), in which silver-embedded wire is drawn-out. After the removal of tensile stress by the application of heat, the silver jacket is removed using nitric acid. Wollaston was also active in the fields of mineralogy and crystallography: using the reflection goniometer he developed in 1809 to measure the angles between the crystal surfaces.
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Crystal goniometers from Carl Zeiss,
with one and two graduated circles, 1919. | The hydrocarbon methane (natural gas) as example of the tetrahedron model. |
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In 1808 he highlighted the importance of the tetrahedron model in the spatial arrangement of atoms. Six years later, he introduced the term ”equivalent weight” to the field of chemistry. With his discovery of the amino-acid cysteine in 1810, he succeeded in proving the existence of an amino-acid in the human organism for the very first time. His physiological studies were also focused on the frequency sensitivity of the ear, the limits of which he established in 1820, and the process of vision.
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