George Samuel Newth

George Samuel Newth (1851–1936) was an English chemist, best known for a series of popular chemistry books.

Biography

Born in Plymouth, England, Newth was the son of Dr. the Rev Samuel Newth (1821–1898), principal of New College London, a noted Biblical scholar, non-conformist and mathematician.[1][2][3] Newth's address in 1871 was 25 Clifton Road, Marylebone when he lived with his parents. He lived with his wife Margaret in Ealing in 1891 and in 1901 they were living at Lyndhunt (or Lyndhurst) House, 222 Maldon Road, Croydon, Surrey.[4] Newth was also resident in either Godstone or Wallington [at 'The Sheilings'] in Surrey between 1901-1910.

Newth was a student (1869–1871) and demonstrator/lecturer and later examiner in Chemistry at the Royal College of Science in London (now Imperial College) from 1871 to 1909. He worked with other noted chemists including Edward Frankland and William A. Tilden. He was also, in his youth, a keen cyclist and his name and details of a race (in London) from Finchley to Welwyn and back appear in a copy of a US cycle magazine.[5]

A full and interesting account of this race is recorded in a New Zealand paper :[6]

Newth was also an amateur keeper of honey bees after 1898 and letters from him and a photograph of his bee hives at his home(s) in Wallington and Godstone in Surrey appear in the British Bee Keepers Journal [7] between 1901-1910. Other letters and replies to his communications can be accessed by searching on line .pdf copies of this journal with the term 'newth'.

George Samuel Newth died in Hythe, Kent, England in 1936. No photographs have yet surfaced of him, although photographs of his father Samuel Newth are known [8]

Family

In 1888 he married Margaret Spinks Roberts (1860–1949) daughter of Rev Prof Alexander Roberts of St Andrews.[9]

Scientific work

G. S. Newth was the author of a number of popular books in chemistry, most notably Chemical Lecture Experiments [Reviewed in Nature 47, 97-98 (1 December 1892)]and Inorganic Chemistry. He was elected a fellow of the Chemical Society in 1894.[10]

Chemical Lecture Experiments (one of 5 books by Newth published by Longman, Green & Company of London, England) first appeared in 1892 and is a collection of chemistry lecture experiments all of which the author had tried for himself. This book is hard to find now outside of libraries. Several books of chemical lecture experiments were subsequently published by other authors. An identically titled work by American chemist Francis Gano Benedict (1870–1957), was first published in 1901 and acknowledges Newth's book.[11] The final reprint of Newth's Chemical Lecture Experiments appeared in the late 1920s.

Newth's Inorganic Chemistry (the most popular and remembered of his 5 books) was first published in 1894 although the earliest copy in the British Library is 1896. It was revised and reprinted many times (with author updates to 1923 when Newth was 72), the final version appearing in 1940 four years after Newth had died and 46 years after its first publication in 1894. Old copies can be found for sale quite reasonably priced from internet book suppliers.

Newth also wrote A Manual of Chemical Analysis - Qualitative and Quantitative published in 1898 and Elementary Practical Chemistry first published about 1896 (earliest UK copy seen is 1904) which was for school chemistry classes. This book was titled Elementary Inorganic Chemistry when sold in the US. Smaller Chemical Analysis published in 1906 was his final book.

Newth's books were reviewed in a number of journals, including Science[12][13] and The Lancet.[14][15] The latter journal in February 1899 mentions that Newth was appointed an examiner in chemistry at the Royal College of Science.[16]

Newth also had a number of scientific papers published (see Bibliography section).

An American chemist, George D. Timmons, had a book called Questions on Newth's Inorganic Chemistry published in 1912.[17]

It has been reported of John D. R. Thomas, past president (1990) of the Royal Society of Chemistry that his interest in chemistry derived from his father’s 1913 edition of G. S. Newth’s Elementary Practical Chemistry - A Laboratory Manual for Use in Organized Science Schools.[18]

A memoir of Herbert Marcus Powell (1906–1991) mentions a poem he wrote about chemicals ('The Chemists Dream') which included a reference to G S Newth.[19]

Newth's books offer insight into late Victorian chemistry for schools and colleges; he was in many ways ahead of his time.

Bibliography
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References
  1. Dr the Rev Samuel Newth mentioned in "Broseley Local History Society - Congregationalists"
  2. Registration details of G S Newth birth: Sup. Registrars District = Plymouth. Vol IX, page 370.
  3. Children of Samuel Newth including G S Newth: Anglican Clergy Directory (NZ) Archived 2007-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. George Samuel Newth: UK Census records 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901; Margaret Newth: UK Census records 1881, 1891, 1901
  5. Wheel News The Wheelman, p.234, 1883. "Mr. G. S. Newth, of New College, Hampstead, has accepted Mr. Wilson’s (“Faed’s”) challenge to riders of the “Otto” for a road race, in order to test the comparative speed of the “Otto” and the tricycle". The 'Otto' was a two wheeled machine known as a 'dicycle'.
  6. 'LAND & WATER. Otago Witness, Issue 1653, 28 July 1883, Page 20'
  7. "British Bee Keepers Journal 1901 page 65"
  8. 'Samuel Newth'
  9. Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church
  10. Biographical Database of the British Chemical Community, 1880-1970
  11. G. S. Newth's Chemical Lecture Experiments (2nd edition, printed in 1900) acknowledged in the preface and bibliography of F. G. Benedict's Chemical Lecture Experiments
  12. A review of "Chemical Lecture Experiments": Science, Volume 21, Issue 529, pp. 166-167 (March 1893)
  13. A review of "A Manual of Chemical Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative", Science, Volume 9, Issue 214, pp. 176-177(February 1899)
  14. A review of ‘Inorganic Chemistry’:'The Lancet', Volume 144, Issue 3721, 22 December 1894, Page 1491
  15. A review of A Manual of Chemical Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative - by G. S. Newth, F.I.C., F.C.S., 'The Lancet' August 1898.
  16. 'The Lancet', Feb 1899: Mr. G. S. Newth, F.C.S., F.I.C., Royal College of Science, South Kensington, appointed an examiner in chemistry.
  17. G. D. Timmons: Questions on Newth's Inorganic Chemistry, Longman, Green & Co, 1912 (British Library system number 003640330).
  18. Analytical Proceedings, July 1990, Vol 27, p.161
  19. G. S. Newth mentioned in "Herbert Marcus Powell: 7 August 1906-10 March 1991", Biog.Mems. Fell. R. Soc. Lond. 46, 425-442 (2000)
  • G S Newth: Communication to (London) Nature mentioned in US journal: The Manufacturer and Builder, Vol XXVI No. 1, January 1894
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