Herbert Brereton Baker

Herbert Brereton Baker FRS CBE
Born (1862-06-25)25 June 1862
Blackburn, England
Died 27 April 1935(1935-04-27) (aged 72)
Nationality English
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford
Awards Davy Medal (1923)
Scientific career
Fields Inorganic chemistry
Institutions Oxford University
Imperial College London
Doctoral advisor Harold Baily Dixon
Notable students Harry Julius Emeléus
John Stuart Anderson

Herbert Brereton Baker FRS CBE (1862–1935) was a British inorganic chemist.[1]

He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the second son of the Reverend John Baker, vicar of St Johns, Livesey, and Caroline Baker. He was educated locally and at Manchester Grammar School. He secured a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he was awarded an MA.

He started his career as a schoolmaster at Dulwich College then moved back to Oxford as a Reader in chemistry and was later appointed Professor at Imperial College, London.[2]

He conducted pioneering studies on the effects of drying on chemicals and the catalytic effect of moisture in chemical reactions. According to his 1902 FRS application citation he proved that "dry carbon and phosphorus will not inflame when heated in dry oxygen; that dry ammonia and hydrogen chloride when mixed do not unite, and that dry ammonium chloride and calomel respectively vaporise without dissociation... [and that] dry hydrogen and oxygen mixed together are not ignited by exposure to the temperature of melting silver".[3]

In June, 1902, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[4][1] and in 1923 was awarded their Davy Medal for "his researches on the complete drying of gases and liquids".[5]

He was made Commander of the British Empire in 1917.

References

  1. 1 2 Thorpe, J. F. (1935). "Herbert Brereton Baker. 1862-1935". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1 (4): 522. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1935.0015. JSTOR 768982.
  2. ↑ "Chemist's Biographies". Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  3. ↑ Who's Who Volume 55 (1903), p.61.
  4. ↑ "Court Circular". The Times (36787). London. 6 June 1902. p. 10.
  5. ↑ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 7 December 2010.


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