- George E. Davis
Infobox Scientist
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name = George E. Davis
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birth_date = birth date|1850|7|27
birth_place =Eton, Berkshire ,England
death_date = death year and age|1907|1850
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citizenship = British
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fields =Chemistry
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alma_mater = Royal School of Mines
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known_for = Founding father ofchemical engineering
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footnotes =George E. Davis (1850-1907) is regarded as the founding father of the discipline of
Chemical Engineering .Davis was born at Eton on
27 July 1850 , the eldest son of George Davis, a bookseller. At the age of fourteen he wasapprentice d to a local bookbinder but he abandoned this trade after two years to pursue his interest in chemistry. Davis studied at the Slough Mechanics Institute while working at the localgas works , and then spend a year studying at the Royal School of Mines in London (now part ofImperial College, London ) before leaving to work in the chemical industry aroundManchester , which at the time was the main centre of the chemical industry in the UK.Davis worked as a chemist at Brearley and Sons for three years. He also worked as an inspector for the
Alkali Act of 1863 , a very early piece of environmental legislation that required soda manufacturers to reduce the amount of gaseoushydrochloric acid released to the atmosphere from their factories. In 1872 he was engaged as manager at the Lichfield Chemical Company inStaffordshire . In this job his capacity for innovation flourished. His works included what was at the time the tallestchimney in the UK, with a height of more than convert|200|ft|m.Davis identified broad features in common to all chemical factories and wrote the influential "A Handbook of Chemical Engineering". He also published a famous lecture series of 12 lectures, given in 1888 at Manchester Technical School (which became
UMIST ). These lectures defined Chemical Engineering as a discipline.His lectures were criticized for being common place "know-how" since it was designed around operating practices used by British chemical industries. At this time, however, in the United States, this information helped initiate new thinking in the Chemical Industry, as well as spark Chemical Engineering degree programmes at several universities in the US.
Davis was also instrumental in the formation of the
Society of Chemical Industry (1881), which he had wanted to name the Society of Chemical Engineering.In the entrance to Jackson's Mill, the building that houses the
School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences, University of Manchester , there is a display and memorial to Davis. The "George E. Davis Medal" of theInstitution of Chemical Engineers is named in his honour.References
*Don Freshwater, 'Davis, George Edward (1850-1907)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37345, accessed 30 April 2007] . doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/37345
*D. C. Freshwater, 'George E. Davis, Norman Swindin and the empirical tradition in chemical engineering', Advances in Chemistry, 190 (1980)
*N. Swindin, 'George E. Davis memorial lecture', Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, 31 (1953)External links
* [http://www.chemheritage.org/classroom/chemach/engineering/davis.html Biography at Chemical archives] chemheritage.org
* [http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/entries/2002/MartinPeck/history.html Chemsoc brief biographical details] chemsoc.org
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