William Irvine (chemist)

William Irvine (* 1743 in Glasgow ; † July 9, 1787 ) was a Scottish chemist.

Irvine was the son of a businessman and studied medicine and chemistry in Glasgow from 1756 under Joseph Black , whom he assisted in his first experiments on latent heat from steam. After completing his studies (doctorate in medicine MD) he went on a study trip to London and Paris and on his return in 1766 he was lecturer for materia medica in Glasgow. When Black John Robison's successor left the university in 1770 and went to Russia, Irvine became Professor of Chemistry in Glasgow. In 1783 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

He expanded the experiments on thermodynamics and the heat theory of Black and was considered a good teacher. In his experiments he was mainly interested in applications (industrial improvements). When he died of a fever, he was working on improving glass production in a factory.

From him comes a theory of the specific heat , according to which this through

${\ displaystyle C = {\ frac {Q} {T}}}$

is given, with the heat content and the temperature on a scale at which is. According to this, the ratio of the heat quantities of two bodies at the same temperature is equal to that of their heat capacities. ${\ displaystyle Q}$ ${\ displaystyle T}$ ${\ displaystyle T = 0}$ ${\ displaystyle Q = 0}$

He attributed temperature changes in chemical processes such as the dissolution of sulfuric acid in water or heat transfers with latent heat (phase changes) to differences in the specific heat capacity of the individual phases. He himself checked this on solutions of sulfuric acid and found himself confirmed by measurements made by other physicists and chemists. He did not publish his theories about heat any more than Black did (this was only done after his death through his son), but they became known through his students like Adair Crawford (who developed a theory of animal heat and used the theory of Irvine for his measurements), through whom they also became known to Antoine de Lavoisier .

Fonts

Essays, chiefly on chemical subjects, London 1805 (edited by his son William (1776-1811) with contributions from him).

Web links

AMC, William Irvine, Dictionary of National Biography , Wikisource

Individual evidence

^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 23, 2019 .
↑ David Fenby, Heat: Its measurement from Galileo to Lavosiere, Pure & Appl. Chemistry, Vol. 59, 1987, p. 96

personal data
SURNAME	Irvine, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	1743
PLACE OF BIRTH	Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH	July 9, 1787

[1] Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 23, 2019 .

[2] David Fenby, Heat: Its measurement from Galileo to Lavosiere, Pure & Appl. Chemistry, Vol. 59, 1987, p. 96