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William Cruickshank (chemist)
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<h2 id="discoveries-and-inventions">Discoveries and inventions</h2> <p>In 1797 he discovered that concentrated urine treated with <a href="/facts/Nitric_acid/UDbwGp6s">nitric acid</a> gives crystals, which exhibit acidic properties in solution, and may detonate if set on fire. That was <a href="/facts/Urea_nitrate/S0KMGccl">urea nitrate</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p><p>He identified <a href="/facts/Carbon_monoxide/CKuLtEMJ">carbon monoxide</a> as a compound containing carbon and <a href="/facts/Oxygen/acyn6o8r">oxygen</a> in 1800.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> In 1800 he also used <a href="/facts/Chlorine/y27UwYBM">chlorine</a> to purify <a href="/facts/Water/0lkXnJPK">water</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> He also discovered the <a href="/facts/Chloralkali_process/5aAamEP9">chloralkali process</a>. </p> <h3>Strontium</h3> <p>Some authors credit Cruickshank with first suspecting an unknown substance in a Scottish mineral, <a href="/facts/Strontianite/wXCyHRNf">strontianite</a>, found near <a href="/facts/Strontian/nf9CIPp2">Strontian</a>, in <a href="/facts/Argyleshire/jIh6JfeA">Argyleshire</a>. Other authors name <a href="/facts/Adair_Crawford/2u8PTv7e">Adair Crawford</a> for the discovery of this new earth, due to the mineral's property of imparting a redding color to a flame.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> It was later isolated by <a href="/facts/Humphry_Davy/aDNRfNou">Humphry Davy</a> and is now known as <a href="/facts/Strontium/ABaA5qQK">strontium</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p> <h3>Diabetes</h3> <p>Cruickshank worked with <a href="/facts/John_Rollo/tDjRBS3H">John Rollo</a> at Woolwich in the 1790s, and some of his discoveries about <a href="/facts/Diabetes/2xeHXbsI">diabetes</a> were published in Rollo's book on the dietary treatment of the condition.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> This research led him to isolate <a href="/facts/Urea/6j84AoCG">urea</a> in 1798, though his priority was not recognised at the time.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> </p> <h3>Trough battery</h3> <p>Circa 1800, Cruickshank invented the <a href="/facts/Trough_battery/gfj45yq9">Trough battery</a>, an improvement on <a href="/facts/Alessandro_Volta/W9rIYxmv">Alessandro Volta</a>'s <a href="/facts/Voltaic_pile/9KoUfqGE">voltaic pile</a>. The plates were arranged horizontally in a trough, rather than vertically in a column.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> </p> <h3>Electrolysis</h3> <p>Shortly after learning of Alessandro Volta's discovery of the Voltaic Pile in 1800, Cruickshank conducted a number of experiments involving <a href="/facts/Electrolysis/pU75nCDI">electrolysis</a>. He connected wires of silver to the poles of a battery and placed them into a solution of distilled water, and later into a variety of other solutions, observing the results. When the wires were placed into the various solutions of lead acetate, copper sulfate and silver nitrate, deposits of pure lead, copper and silver formed, respectively, on one wire. From these experiments he observed that "where metallic solutions are employed instead of water, the same wire which separates the hydrogen revives the metallic calx, and deposits it at the extremity of the wire in its pure metallic state."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> This process of extraction of pure metals from metallic solutions is known today as <a href="/facts/Electrowinning/XYkUqWVM">electrowinning</a>. It is used in the refining of copper and other metals. </p> <h2 id="retirement-and-death">Retirement and death</h2> <p>In March 1803, Cruickshank became very ill and it is possible that this was due to exposure to <a href="/facts/Phosgene/Adeazsck">phosgene</a> during his experiments. On 6 July 1804, he retired on a pension of 10 <a href="/facts/Shilling_(British_coin)/Cp9zWw8T">shillings</a> a day. He died in 1810 or 1811 and military records state that the death occurred in <a href="/facts/Scotland/VGwbbxB2">Scotland</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/William_Cumberland_Cruikshank/LfadGWq0">William Cumberland Cruikshank</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://people.clarkson.edu/~ekatz/scientists/cruickshank.html">Biography at Clarkson University</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Watson, K. D. (23 September 2004). "Cruickshank, William (d. 1810/11), military surgeon and chemist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57592. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="978-0-19-861412-8" target="_blank">978-0-19-861412-8</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Neild, G. H. (September 1996). "William Cruickshank (FRS-1802): clinical chemist". Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation. 11 (9): 1885–1889. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.ndt.a027695. ISSN 0931-0509. PMID 8918649. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8918649/" target="_blank">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8918649/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Coutts, A. (June 1959). "William Cruickshank of Woolwich". Annals of Science. 15 (2): 121–133. doi:10.1080/00033795900200118. ISSN 0003-3790. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033795900200118" target="_blank">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033795900200118</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Watson, K. D. "Cruickshank, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 519–20. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57592. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Rosenfeld, Louis (1999). Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry. CRC Press. ISBN 978-90-5699-645-1. <a href="978-90-5699-645-1" target="_blank">978-90-5699-645-1</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Rollo, John; Cruickshank, William (1798). Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids, and other substances, in the cure of the lues venerea. Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. London : Printed by T. Gillet, for C. Dilly, in the Poultry. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DAVgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA441" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=DAVgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA441</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Hopper, Christopher P.; Zambrana, Paige N.; Goebel, Ulrich; Wollborn, Jakob (June 2021). "A brief history of carbon monoxide and its therapeutic origins". Nitric Oxide. 111–112: 45–63. doi:10.1016/j.niox.2021.04.001. PMID 33838343. S2CID 233205099. <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1089860321000367" target="_blank">https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1089860321000367</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Rideal, Samuel (1895). Disinfection and Disinfectants, p. 59. J.B. Lippincott Co. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>A Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands... by Frederick William Rudler publ. HMSO (1905) page 211(available digitized by Google) <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WaQLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=WaQLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Weeks, Mary Elvira (1932). "The discovery of the elements: X. The alkaline earth metals and magnesium and cadmium". Journal of Chemical Education. 9 (6): 1046–1057. Bibcode:1932JChEd...9.1046W. doi:10.1021/ed009p1046. <a href="/wiki/Mary_Elvira_Weeks" target="_blank">/wiki/Mary_Elvira_Weeks</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Partington, J.R. (1942). "The early history of strontium". Annals of Science. 5 (2): 157–166. doi:10.1080/00033794200201411. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Doi_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Watson, K. D. "Cruickshank, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 519–20. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57592. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Schiller, Joseph (1967). "Wöhler, l'urée et le vitalisme". Sudhoffs Archiv. 51 (3): 229–243. ISSN 0039-4564. JSTOR 20775601. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20775601" target="_blank">https://www.jstor.org/stable/20775601</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Electricity by Robert M Ferguson, publ. Chambers (1873) page 169 (available digitized by Google). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ISoJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=ISoJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Elements of Galvanism in Theory and Practice, Vol. 2 by C.H. Wilkinson, publ. M'Millan (1804) pages 52 – 60 (available digitized by Google). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IpM5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA52" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=IpM5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA52</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Watson, K. D. "Cruickshank, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 519–20. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57592. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>