Herbert Brereton Baker

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

Herbert Brereton Baker FRS CBE
Herbert Brereton Baker, by Walter Stoneman, 1917.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Born(1862-06-25)25 June 1862
Livesey
Died27 April 1935(1935-04-27) (aged 72)
NationalityEnglish
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
AwardsLongstaff Medal (1912)
Davy Medal (1923)
Scientific career
FieldsInorganic chemistry
InstitutionsOxford University
Imperial College London
Doctoral advisorHarold Baily Dixon
Notable studentsHarry Julius Emeléus
John Stuart Anderson

Early Life and Education

He was born in Livesey, 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 Brackenbury scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he was awarded a first-class degree and a Demonstratorship.

Career and Research

In 1894 he became a chemistry master at Dulwich College, spending some twenty years in teaching and research, and for a short time (1902-1904) was headmaster of Alleyn's School, Dulwich.[2] During this time he was elected to a Lee's Readership at Christ Church Oxford, becoming responsible for inorganic chemistry lectures at the University. In 1912 he was appointed Professor at Imperial College, replacing Sir T. E. Thorpe as Director of the Chemistry Department; here he remained until retiring in 1932.

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]

During WWI Baker was appointed scientific adviser to the War Office. He worked with his father-in-law in the development of specially resistant glass for the contact ‘horns’ of submarine mines. Whitefriars Glass produced 600,000 of these glass horns, individually testing them at extremes of temperature, before dropping them to test their strength.[4]

Muriel Baker in 1928
© National Portrait Gallery, London

Family

Baker married Muriel Powell, daughter of Harry James Powell, glassmaker, on 21 March 1905 at St Barnabas' Church, Dulwich. They had two children: Ronald Powell Brereton (abt. 1906) and Audrey Muriel (1908). Herbert died on 27 April 1935 at Gerrards Cross. Muriel died in the same town on 15 October 1944, leaving her estate to her unmarried daughter. Their son Ronald predeceased his father.[2]

Muriel Baker had also studied chemistry at Oxford.[4] There, husband and wife jointly studied the oxides of nitrogen, and published a paper together.[5] When Baker moved to Imperial College, they continued to work together in a laboratory at their home in Gerrards Cross.[6]

Honours and Awards

He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1917. In June, 1902, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[7][1] and in 1923 was awarded their Davy Medal for "his researches on the complete drying of gases and liquids".[8] Baker received the Chemical Society's Longstaff Medal in 1912[9] and was elected president of the society in 1926.[10]




References
  1. 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. "ODNB Baker, Herbert Brereton". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/ODNB30548. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Who's Who Volume 55 (1903), p.61.
  4. "Who Was Who in Dulwich - Harry Powell (1853-1922)". Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  5. Baker, Herbert Brereton; Baker, Muriel (1912). "CCXLVI.—The Change in the Boiling Points of the Trioxide and Tetroxide of Nitrogen on Drying". Journal of the Chemical Society, Tansactions. 101: 2339–2341.
  6. The Chemistry Department At Imperial College London: A History, 1845-2000. London: World Scientific Publishing Ltd. 2016. ISBN 9781783269730.
  7. "Court Circular". The Times (36787). London. 6 June 1902. p. 10.
  8. "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  9. "Proceedings of the Chemical Society, Vol. 28, No. 400". Proceedings of the Chemical Society (London). Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). 28 (400): 88. 1912. doi:10.1039/pl9122800075. ISSN 0369-8718.
  10. Philip, J C (1925). "Herbert Brereton Baker 1862–1935". Journal of the Chemical Society: 1893–96.
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