Edith Humphrey

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Edith Ellen Humphrey (born September 11, 1875 - † February 25, 1978 ) was a British inorganic chemist who did pioneering work in coordination chemistry under Alfred Werner at the University of Zurich . She is considered to be the first British woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry.

A selection of crystals that Edith Humprey made around 1900

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on April 8, 1991, the Swiss Committee of Chemistry sent her a sample of the original crystals that Humphrey had synthesized for her doctoral thesis , along with a modern CD spectrum of a solution of a crystal. This box of crystals is permanently on display in the showroom of the RSC.

biography

Family, childhood and youth

Edith Humphrey was the youngest of the seven surviving children of John Charles Humphrey (1833-1903), an official on the London Metropolitan Board of Works, and his wife Louisa (née Frost, 1831-1910), a teacher. John Humphrey had started poor living, his father was a shoemaker, and he was a great supporter of education for his daughters as well as his sons. Edith grew up in a middle class household in Kentish Town , London. Her two older sisters became teachers, and her brothers, including Herbert Alfred Humphrey (1868-1951), inventor of the Humphrey pump , and William Humphrey (1863-1898), director of Fourah Bay College in Freetown , Sierra Leone , were educated with master's degree.

Humphrey attended the Camden School for Girls and then, from 1891, the North London Collegiate School, one of the first schools for girls in Britain to include science in the curriculum. From 1893 to 1897, Humphrey studied chemistry (and physics) at Bedford College , London on a grant of £ 60 a year. After completing her studies, she applied to the University of Zurich to do her doctorate.

Research after graduation

On October 17, 1898, Humphrey enrolled in chemistry at the University of Zurich. She joined a growing crowd of Alfred Werner's students and worked in the inadequate cellars known as the "catacombs". Humphrey was awarded a grant of £ 60 a year for three years by the London County Council's Technical Education Board , but studying in Switzerland was expensive and Humphrey was “short of money”. Werner recognized Humphrey's ability and hired her as his assistant, with a salary. Humphrey worked hard and her portrayal of time suggests that she found social life disappointing.

Humphrey was "the first of his students who succeeded in preparing Werner's first new series of cis-trans isomeric cobalt complexes, a class of substances that was crucial in the development and demonstration of his coordination theory". “What bad luck for Miss Humphrey that this was not recognized at the time; for it would have been responsible for unequivocally proving the validity of Werner's coordination theory and the subsequent awarding of the Nobel Prize. ”While a later study cast doubt on the quality of the sample, Humphrey's status as a pioneer in science remains important.

Her doctoral thesis on the binding site of metals in their compounds and on dinitroethylene diamine cobalt salts was accepted by the University of Zurich in 1901. Humphrey was the first British woman to obtain a doctorate in chemistry, although not the first in Zurich. An American scientist, Rachel Holloway Lloyd , had already done this in 1887, and it became a "haven for female students from all over Europe".

Upon completion of her doctoral thesis, Humphrey was recommended to move to Leipzig University to continue research under Wilhelm Ostwald . The attitude towards women was very different from Zurich, however, and she would not tolerate a system in which she would not be allowed to work in the laboratories in case her presence distracted the men from their work.

Next life

Upon her return to England, Humphrey joined the staff of Arthur Sanderson & Sons, a British manufacturer of fabrics and wallpapers, for whom she worked as a development chemist in their factory in Chiswick until retirement. At the time of the 1911 census, she was living in Hampstead with her two older sisters and her job was simply “chemist”.

In 1904, Humphrey was one of nineteen (female) chemists the Chemical Society required women to join. This was finally granted in 1919, and Humphrey was then elected a member.

An interview with Humphrey about her experiences in Zurich was published in the New Scientist on September 11, 1975, her 100th birthday.

literature

  • Humphrey, Edith Ellen. In: Catharine MC Haines: International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Calif. [u. a.] 2001, ISBN 1-57607-090-5 , p. 141 (digitized version)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham: Fight for Rights . In: Chemistry World . 6, No. 3, February 23, 2009, pp. 56-59.
  2. ↑ a b Congratulatory address and book of isolation of coordination compound by Edith Humphrey from the Swiss Committee of Chemistry to the Royal Society of Chemistry on its sesquicentenary . AR0497 / AR0497a. 
  3. ↑ a b c d Ruth Brandon: Going to Meet Mendeleev . In: New Scientist . 67, No. 966, September 11, 1975.
  4. ↑ a b Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham: Pounding on the Doors: The Fight for Acceptance of British Women Chemists . In: Bulletin for the History of Chemistry . 28, No. 2, 2003.
  5. ^ Edith Humphrey: The University of Zurich . In: Archives, Royal Holloway, University of London (Ed.): Bedford College Magazine . June 1900, pp. 25-28. BC AS200 / 3/42.
  6. Jump up ↑ Ivan Bernal, George B. Kaufmann: The spontaneous resolution of cis-bis (ethylenediamine) dinitrocobalt (III) salts: Alfred Werner's overlooked opportunity . In: Journal of Chemical Education . 64, No. 7, July 1987, pp. 604-610, especially p. 604. doi : 10.1021 / ed064p604 .
  7. ↑ Ivan Bernal: A Sketch of the Life of Edith Humphrey: A pioneer inorganic chemist who barely missed proving Werner's theory of coordination chemistry a decade before it was demonstrated correct. . In: Chemical Intelligencer . 5, No. 1, July 1999, pp. 28-31.
  8. ^ Karl-Heinz Ernst, Ferdinand RWP Wild, Olivier Blacque, Heinz Berke: Alfred Werner's Coordination Chemistry: New Insights from Old Samples . In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition . 50, No. 46, November 2011, pp. 10780-10787. doi : 10.1002 / anie.201104477 .
  9. ↑ Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham: Pioneering Women Chemists of Bedford College . In: Education in Chemistry . May 2006.
personal data
SURNAME Humphrey, Edith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Humphrey, Edith Ellen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British inorganic chemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1875
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1978