Thomas Graham
Thomas Graham- A Famous Scottish Chemist
Thomas Graham (1805 - 1869) He studied under William Thomson (Kelvin) at Glasgow, and from 1837 until 1855 was professor of chemistry at University College London. In 1836 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was one of the founders and subsequently the first president if the Chemical Society of London. In 1855 he resigned his university post to become Master of the Mint.
Graham studied the diffussion of gases and demonstrated that the lighter the gas, the more rapidly it becomes diffused. He enunciated the law which bears his name, that 'the velocity of diffusion of gases is inversely proportional to the square root of their densities'. he then exteneded his studies to the diffusion of liquids and established the difference between crystalloids and colloids by their ability to diffuse through a parchment membrane, and showed how they can be separated by dialysis. He also studied osmosis; and was the first to distinguish clearly between the three forms of phosphoric acid.
In 1833 Graham published his best-known work, The Elements of Chemistry.
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