James Keir

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Portrait of Longastre, around 1820

James Keir (born  September 29, 1735 in Edinburgh / Scotland , †  October 11, 1820 in West Bromwich ) was a doctor of medicine and chemist in the early phase of the industrial revolution. He became known through studies of the chemical structure of glass, an improved production process for glass and as the first industrial soap manufacturer whose products were affordable for everyone. As a result, Keir had a major impact on the development of general hygiene in Great Britain.

After studying medicine in Edinburgh, during which he became close friends with his fellow student Erasmus Darwin , Keir joined the army in 1757 and was stationed in the West Indies . In 1768 he quit his service with the rank of captain and settled near Birmingham in the neighborhood of his old friend Darwin, who introduced him to the Lunar Society , which had been founded a few years earlier, and Keir was soon considered to be one of its most important members. Keir gave up his medical work and worked with the chemist Joseph Priestley on the analysis of various substances. Around 1770, he worked especially on the glass enhancing properties of alkali salts, leased (along with James Taylor and Samuel Skey ) from 1772 to 1778 a glass melt in Amblecoate and then took a leading position in Matthew Boulton's factory Soho Manufactory one. The experience he gained in this work was very helpful to him when he founded a factory in Tipton in 1780 for the production of alkali salts, which he later converted into a soap factory (the alkali salts were an integral part of the soap). Keir's process made it possible to produce soap at such low sales prices that for the first time a nationwide supply of soap was also possible for the poor population. This not only ensured the company's economic success, but Keir also became a forerunner in the emerging hygiene movement in England.

Keir's main scientific work is On the crystalization observed in glass , a work on the crystallization behavior of glass that appeared in the Philosophical Transactions in 1776 .

Keir was elected a member of the Royal Society on December 8, 1785, with special mention of this writing. Signatory supporters of its inclusion include Joseph Priestley , Josiah Wedgwood and John Whitehurst .

James Keir died on his West Bromwich estate in 1820. His grave is in Charlesmont in the graveyard of All Saints Church . In Birmingham, “moonstones” remind of him, like his colleagues at the Lunar Society. Since his manuscripts were destroyed in a house fire in 1845, he and his work have survived almost exclusively through the testimony of his contemporaries. He took his formula for alkali glass, the industrial production of which had made him rich, with him to the grave.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Illustration of the ballot paper in the archives of the Royal Society , London
  2. ↑ Jenny Uglow: The Lunar Men . 2nd Edition. Faber And Faber, London 2003, ISBN 0-571-21610-2 , pp. 496 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Keir, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish chemist and industrialist industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1820
Place of death West Bromwich