Edward Charles Howard
Encyclopedia
Edward Charles Howard FRS (28 May 1774 – 28 September 1816) the youngest son of Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk
Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk
Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk , styled Earl of Surrey from 1777 to 1786, was a British peer, the son of Charles Howard, 10th Duke of Norfolk and Catherine Brockholes....

, was a British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 who has been described as the first chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...

 of any eminence.

In January, 1799 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1800 awarded their Copley medal for his work on mercury. He discovered mercury fulminate
Mercury(II) fulminate
Mercury fulminate, or Hg2, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction and shock. It is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and blasting caps...

, a powerful primary explosive. In 1813 he invented a method of refining sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 which involved boiling the cane juice not in an open kettle, but in a closed vessel heated by steam
Steam
Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...

 and held under partial vacuum. At reduced pressure, water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 boils at a lower temperature, and so Howard's development both saved fuel and reduced the amount of sugar lost through caramelization
Caramelization
Caramelization is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color. As the process occurs, volatile chemicals are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor....

. The invention, known as Howard's vacuum pan, is still in use.

Howard also was interested in the composition of meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...

s especially those of "natural iron
Iron meteorite
Iron meteorites are meteorites that consist overwhelmingly of nickel-iron alloys. The metal taken from these meteorites is known as meteoric iron and was one of the earliest sources of usable iron available to humans.-Occurrence:...

". He found that many of these contained an alloy of nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

 and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 that was not found on Earth, and thus they may have fallen from the sky. One type of meteorite is now known as Howardite
Howardite
Howardites are achondritic stony meteorites that originate from the surface of the asteroid 4 Vesta, and as such are part of the HED meteorite group. There are about 200 distinct members known.-Characteristics:...

.

Further reading

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