Eric Rideal
Encyclopedia
Sir Eric Keightley Rideal FRS (11 April 1890 – 25 September 1974) was an English physical chemist. He worked on a wide range of subjects, including electrochemistry
, chemical kinetics
, catalysis
, electrophoresis
, colloid
s and surface chemistry. He is best known for the Eley-Rideal mechanism, which he proposed in 1938 with Daniel D. Eley. He is also known for the textbook that he authored, An Introduction to Surface Chemistry (1926), and was awarded honours for the research he carried out during both World Wars and for his services to chemistry.
, which at that time was part of the county of Kent. His father was the chemist Samuel Rideal, whose work on water purification and disinfection included the Rideal-Walker test
. His mother was Elizabeth Keightley, daughter of Samuel Keightley. Rideal was educated at Farnham Grammar School
, Surrey, and then at Oundle School
, Northamptonshire. In 1907 he won a scholarship in Natural Sciences to Trinity Hall
, Cambridge. After he graduated in 1910 he continued his studies in Germany, obtaining his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1912 at the University of Bonn
under Richard Anschütz
.
When World War I
broke out, Rideal was working on water supplies in Ecuador
, an assignment that had come to him through his father. He returned home and enlisted with the Artists Rifles, eventually serving on the Western Front
at the Somme in 1916 with the Royal Engineers
. He was invalided home the same year after an outbreak of dysentry, and spent the rest of the war carrying out research in catalysis at University College London
under Frederick G. Donnan
. During this period he also worked with Hugh Stott Taylor
, co-authoring Catalysis in Theory and Practice (1919), described as a "seminal" work in the field. Rideal was made MBE in 1918 for his war work.
. He then returned to the UK to take up a fellowship at his old college (Trinity Hall), and the Humphrey Owen Jones lectureship in physical chemistry at Cambridge. It was on the return voyage from the USA by ship in 1920 that he met his future wife Peggy (Margaret Atlee Jackson), whom he married the following year.
Rideal remained at Cambridge for the next 26 years, becoming Professor of Colloid Science in 1930, the same year he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. During this time, he founded the Colloid Science Laboratory which became a world centre for surface science, and was used for war work during World War II
. Rideal's students at Cambridge included the physicist and future novelist C. P. Snow
, and the future Nobel laureate Ronald G. W. Norrish. Snow later depicted Rideal in two of his novels: The Search (1934) and Strangers and Brothers
(1940). Rideal's career at Cambridge was disrupted by an operation in 1936 for an intestinal tumour, an operation that left him with a colectomy
and dissuaded him from applying for the vacant chair of physical chemistry in 1937.
Following World War II, Rideal left Cambridge to take up the position of Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
at the Royal Institution
in London (1946 to 1949). This was followed by a period at King's College, London (1950 to 1955). After his retirement in 1955, Rideal took up a position as senior research fellow at Imperial College, enabling him to write the book Concepts in Catalysis (1968). It is estimated that over a period of some 60 years, Rideal authored or co-authored nearly 300 papers and a dozen books.
During his career, Rideal also gave a number of public lectures. These included the Cantor Lecture of the Royal Society of Arts
(1921, 1924 and 1948). He also delivered the 1932 Robert Boyle Lecture
, titled 'On some aspects of adsorption'. In 1947, Rideal gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, titled 'Chemical Reactions: How They Work'.
In 1949, Rideal was one of the founding editors of the journal Advances in Catalysis.
of the Royal Society
in 1951 "For his distinguished contributions to the subject of surface chemistry". He was knighted in 1951 for his services to the Ministry of Supply
during World War II
. Also in 1951, he delivered the Bakerian Lecture
with the title 'On Reactions in Monolayers'. Between 1951 and 1967 Rideal received honorary degrees from the universities of Dublin, Birmingham, Brunel, Belfast, Turin, and Bonn. He was also President of the Faraday Society
(1938 to 1945), the Society of Chemical Industry
(1945 to 1946), and the Chemical Society
(1950 to 1952). He was elected a Fellow of King's College London in 1963.
, London. His obituary was published in The Times.
and the Society of Chemical Industry. The Tadion-Rideal Prize for Molecular Science is an annual grant awarded by King's College London since 1983. The Sir Eric Rideal Lecture is a lectureship awarded every year since 1970 by the Society of Chemical Industry. The Rideal Conference is a triennial UK research conference on surface science and catalysis. It started in 1962 as the Chemisorption and Catalysis Conference and was renamed in his honour in 1971, with the 17th conference scheduled to take place in April 2011.
Electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies chemical reactions which take place in a solution at the interface of an electron conductor and an ionic conductor , and which involve electron transfer between the electrode and the electrolyte or species in solution.If a chemical reaction is...
, chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the study of rates of chemical processes. Chemical kinetics includes investigations of how different experimental conditions can influence the speed of a chemical reaction and yield information about the reaction's mechanism and transition...
, catalysis
Catalysis
Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....
, electrophoresis
Electrophoresis
Electrophoresis, also called cataphoresis, is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field. This electrokinetic phenomenon was observed for the first time in 1807 by Reuss , who noticed that the application of a constant electric...
, colloid
Colloid
A colloid is a substance microscopically dispersed evenly throughout another substance.A colloidal system consists of two separate phases: a dispersed phase and a continuous phase . A colloidal system may be solid, liquid, or gaseous.Many familiar substances are colloids, as shown in the chart below...
s and surface chemistry. He is best known for the Eley-Rideal mechanism, which he proposed in 1938 with Daniel D. Eley. He is also known for the textbook that he authored, An Introduction to Surface Chemistry (1926), and was awarded honours for the research he carried out during both World Wars and for his services to chemistry.
Early years
Eric Keightley Rideal was born on 11 April 1890 in SydenhamSydenham
Sydenham is an area and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham; although some streets towards Crystal Palace Park, Forest Hill and Penge are outside the ward and in the London Borough of Bromley, and some streets off Sydenham Hill are in the London Borough of Southwark. Sydenham was in...
, which at that time was part of the county of Kent. His father was the chemist Samuel Rideal, whose work on water purification and disinfection included the Rideal-Walker test
Rideal-Walker coefficient
The Rideal-Walker coefficient is a figure expressing the disinfecting power of any substance and is obtained by dividing the figure indicating the degree of dilution of the disinfectant that kills a microorganism in a given time by that indicating the degree of dilution of phenol that kills the...
. His mother was Elizabeth Keightley, daughter of Samuel Keightley. Rideal was educated at Farnham Grammar School
Farnham Grammar School
Farnham Grammar School is now called Farnham College which is located in Farnham, Surrey.-History:The grammar school was created some time before 1585...
, Surrey, and then at Oundle School
Oundle School
Oundle School is a co-educational British public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. The school has been maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation in 1556. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, a day...
, Northamptonshire. In 1907 he won a scholarship in Natural Sciences to Trinity Hall
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, Cambridge. After he graduated in 1910 he continued his studies in Germany, obtaining his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1912 at the University of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
under Richard Anschütz
Richard Anschütz
Carl Johann Philipp Noé Richard Anschütz was a German chemist.He received his PhD at the University of Bonn for his work with August Kekulé. He became Kekulé's assistant and, later, his successor as professor at the University of Bonn...
.
When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out, Rideal was working on water supplies in Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, an assignment that had come to him through his father. He returned home and enlisted with the Artists Rifles, eventually serving on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
at the Somme in 1916 with the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
. He was invalided home the same year after an outbreak of dysentry, and spent the rest of the war carrying out research in catalysis at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
under Frederick G. Donnan
Frederick G. Donnan
Frederick George Donnan FRS was an Irish physical chemist who is known for his work on membrane equilibria, and commemorated in the Donnan equilibrium describing ionic transport in cells...
. During this period he also worked with Hugh Stott Taylor
Hugh Stott Taylor
Hugh Stott Taylor was an English chemist primarily interested in catalysis. In 1928, in a landmark contribution to catalytic theory, Taylor suggested that a catalyzed chemical reaction is not catalyzed over the entire solid surface of the catalyst but only at certain ‘active sites’ or centers.He...
, co-authoring Catalysis in Theory and Practice (1919), described as a "seminal" work in the field. Rideal was made MBE in 1918 for his war work.
Career and research
Following the war, Rideal went to the USA in 1919 to take a position for a year as visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana, a position for which he had been recommended by James KendallJames Kendall
James Pickering Kendall FRS FRSE was an English chemist.He was born in Chobham, Surrey to soldier William Henry Kendall and his second wife Rebecca. He attended the local village school and then from 1900 Farnham Grammar School...
. He then returned to the UK to take up a fellowship at his old college (Trinity Hall), and the Humphrey Owen Jones lectureship in physical chemistry at Cambridge. It was on the return voyage from the USA by ship in 1920 that he met his future wife Peggy (Margaret Atlee Jackson), whom he married the following year.
Rideal remained at Cambridge for the next 26 years, becoming Professor of Colloid Science in 1930, the same year he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. During this time, he founded the Colloid Science Laboratory which became a world centre for surface science, and was used for war work during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Rideal's students at Cambridge included the physicist and future novelist C. P. Snow
C. P. Snow
Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government...
, and the future Nobel laureate Ronald G. W. Norrish. Snow later depicted Rideal in two of his novels: The Search (1934) and Strangers and Brothers
Strangers and Brothers
Strangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal with – amongst other things – questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power....
(1940). Rideal's career at Cambridge was disrupted by an operation in 1936 for an intestinal tumour, an operation that left him with a colectomy
Colectomy
Colectomy consists of the surgical resection of any extent of the large intestine .-History:Sir William Arbuthnot-Lane was one of the early proponents of the usefulness of total colectomies, although his overuse of the procedure called the wisdom of the surgery into question.-Indications:Some of...
and dissuaded him from applying for the vacant chair of physical chemistry in 1937.
Following World War II, Rideal left Cambridge to take up the position of Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
The Fullerian Chairs at the Royal Institution were established by John 'Mad Jack' Fuller.-Fullerian Professors of Chemistry:*1833 Michael Faraday* 1868 William Odling* 1874 John Hall Gladstone* 1877 James Dewar* 1923 William Henry Bragg* 1942 Henry H...
at the Royal Institution
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...
in London (1946 to 1949). This was followed by a period at King's College, London (1950 to 1955). After his retirement in 1955, Rideal took up a position as senior research fellow at Imperial College, enabling him to write the book Concepts in Catalysis (1968). It is estimated that over a period of some 60 years, Rideal authored or co-authored nearly 300 papers and a dozen books.
During his career, Rideal also gave a number of public lectures. These included the Cantor Lecture of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
(1921, 1924 and 1948). He also delivered the 1932 Robert Boyle Lecture
Robert Boyle Lecture
The Robert Boyle Lecture is a lecture series delivered to the Oxford University Scientific Club at the University of Oxford, England...
, titled 'On some aspects of adsorption'. In 1947, Rideal gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, titled 'Chemical Reactions: How They Work'.
In 1949, Rideal was one of the founding editors of the journal Advances in Catalysis.
Awards and honours
Rideal was awarded the Davy MedalDavy Medal
The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a gift of £1000. The medal was first awarded in 1877 to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff "for...
of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1951 "For his distinguished contributions to the subject of surface chemistry". He was knighted in 1951 for his services to the Ministry of Supply
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Also in 1951, he delivered the Bakerian Lecture
Bakerian Lecture
The Bakerian Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society, a lecture on physical sciences.In 1775 Henry Baker left £100 for a spoken lecture by a Fellow on such part of natural history or experimental philosophy as the Society shall determine....
with the title 'On Reactions in Monolayers'. Between 1951 and 1967 Rideal received honorary degrees from the universities of Dublin, Birmingham, Brunel, Belfast, Turin, and Bonn. He was also President of the Faraday Society
Faraday Society
The Faraday Society was a British society for the study of physical chemistry, founded in 1903 and named in honour of Michael Faraday. It merged with several similar organisations in 1980 to form the Royal Society of Chemistry...
(1938 to 1945), the Society of Chemical Industry
Society of Chemical Industry
The Society of Chemical Industry is a learned society set up in 1881 "to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit". Its purpose is "Promoting the commercial application of science for the benefit of society". Its first president was Henry Enfield Roscoe and...
(1945 to 1946), and the Chemical Society
Chemical Society
The Chemical Society was formed in 1841 as a result of increased interest in scientific matters....
(1950 to 1952). He was elected a Fellow of King's College London in 1963.
Later years
Rideal died on 25 September 1974 in West KensingtonWest Kensington
- Commercial/education :Local business consists of small shops, offices and restaurants, with the Olympia Exhibition Centre nearby. Indeed, it is the mix of local shops that give the area its character....
, London. His obituary was published in The Times.
Legacy
Rideal's name is still honoured today, with bursaries, grants, lectures and conferences named for him. The travel bursaries are administered jointly in the form of the Rideal Trust by the Royal Society of ChemistryRoyal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences." It was formed in 1980 from the merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new...
and the Society of Chemical Industry. The Tadion-Rideal Prize for Molecular Science is an annual grant awarded by King's College London since 1983. The Sir Eric Rideal Lecture is a lectureship awarded every year since 1970 by the Society of Chemical Industry. The Rideal Conference is a triennial UK research conference on surface science and catalysis. It started in 1962 as the Chemisorption and Catalysis Conference and was renamed in his honour in 1971, with the 17th conference scheduled to take place in April 2011.
Selected works
- Catalysis in Theory and Practice (1919, co-author)
- Industrial electrometallurgy (1919)
- Ozone (1920)
- An Introduction to Surface Chemistry (1926)
- Interfacial Phenomena (1963, co-author)
- Concepts in Catalysis (1968)
- Sixty Years of Chemistry (1970)
External links
- Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, portrait circa 1922 (National Portrait Gallery)
- Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, portrait in later life (Advances in Catalysis, 1977)
- Eric Keightley Rideal (1890-1974) (Biography page at the Royal Institution)
- Eric Keightley Rideal (Archives page at the Royal Institution)
- Eric Rideal Collection (AIM25 listing of the collection at the Royal Institution)
- Rideal, Sir Eric Keightley (1890-1974) Knight Physical Chemist (The National Archives)
- Sir Eric Rideal (Obituary published in Nature)