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rjlanc
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Historic Chemists

Today is the bicentenary of the birth of Wilton George Turner. He was born in Clarendon, Jamaica on the 9th Dec 1810.

Following the death of his elder brother, Edward Turner, (1796-1837, first Professor of Chemistry at the University of London) he was an Editor for the 6th edition of Edward's very successful Chemistry book "Elements of Chemistry".

He did a PhD with Liebig at Giessen (1838)  was involved with Christian Allhusen in establishing Chemical Works at Newcastle.

Allhusen appears to have named a son after him. He took out several patents on Industrial Chemistry around this time.

He moved to British Guyana where he ran a Zinc refinery and Rum distillery and is one of those credited with building the Guyanese Rum Industry. He argued against the use of Lead Acetate as an agent in the sugar refining process.

His wife, Marie Auguste Frick, was the younger sister of Friederike Auguste Frick who married Gustav Rose, the Chemist/Mineralogist.

Wilton is credited as being the first to isolate K3[Cr(oxalate)3].3H2O (around 1830)

He died at Salt Quay, Turks Island, West Indies, on 23rd October 1855 en route to Canada where his remaining family settled.

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