Professor
Frederick Stanley Kipping FRSThe 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"...
(16 Aug 1863 - 1 May 1949) was an
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
chemistA 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...
.
He was born in
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the son of James Kipping, a Bank of England official, and educated at
Manchester Grammar SchoolThe Manchester Grammar School is the largest independent day school for boys in the UK . It is based in Manchester, England...
before enrolling in 1879 at Owens College (now Manchester University) for an external degree from the
University of London-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. After working for the local gas company for a short time he went in 1886 to
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to work under
William Henry Perkin, Jr.William Henry Perkin, Jr. was an English organic chemist who was primarily known for his groundbreaking research work on the degradation of naturally occurring organic compounds.-Early life:...
in the laboratories of
Adolf von BaeyerJohann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer was a German chemist who synthesized indigo, and was the 1905 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Born in Berlin, he initially studied mathematics and physics at Berlin University before moving to Heidelberg to study chemistry with Robert Bunsen...
at Munich University.
Back in England, he took a position as demonstrator for Perkin, who had been appointed professor at the
Heriot-Watt College, EdinburghHeriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....
. In 1890, Kipping was appointed chief demonstrator in chemistry for the
City and Guilds of London InstituteThe City and Guilds of London Institute is a leading United Kingdom vocational education organisation. City & Guilds offers more than 500 qualifications over the whole range of industry sectors through 8500 colleges and training providers in 81 countries worldwide...
, where he worked for the chemist
Henry Edward ArmstrongHenry Edward Armstrong FRS was an English chemist. Although Armstrong was active in many areas of scientific research, such as the chemistry of naphthalene derivatives, he is remembered today largely for his ideas and work on the teaching of science...
. In 1897 he moved to University College, Nottingham as professor of the chemistry department, and became the first newly endowed Sir Jesse Boot professor of chemistry at the university in 1928. He remained there until his retirement in 1936.
Kipping undertook much of the pioneering work into the development of
siliconSilicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
polymers (
siliconeSilicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
s) at Nottingham. He pioneered the study of the organic compounds of silicon (
organosiliconOrganosilicon compounds are organic compounds containing carbon silicon bonds. Organosilicon chemistry is the corresponding science exploring their properties and reactivity.Like carbon, the organically bound silicon is tetravalent and tetrahedral...
) and coined the term
siliconeSilicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
. His research formed the basis for the worldwide development of the synthetic
rubberNatural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
and silicone-based
lubricantA lubricant is a substance introduced to reduce friction between moving surfaces. It may also have the function of transporting foreign particles and of distributing heat...
industries. He also co-wrote, with Perkin, a standard textbook in organic chemistry (
Organic Chemistry, Perkin and Kipping, 1899).
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June, 1897. He was awarded their
Davy MedalThe 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...
in 1918 and delivered their
Bakerian LectureThe 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....
in 1936.
He retired in 1936 and died in Criccieth, Wales. He had married in 1888 Lilian Holland, one of three sisters. Both his brothers-in-law were eminent scientists themselves (
Arthur LapworthArthur Lapworth was a Scottish chemist.He was born in Galashiels, Scotland, the son of geologist Charles Lapworth and educated at St Andrew's and King Edward's School, Birmingham. He graduated in Chemistry from Mason College...
and
William Henry Perkin, Jr.William Henry Perkin, Jr. was an English organic chemist who was primarily known for his groundbreaking research work on the degradation of naturally occurring organic compounds.-Early life:...
)
See also
- Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
- Silicone
Silicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
- Siloxane
A siloxane is any chemical compound composed of units of the form R2SiO, where R is a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group. They belong to the wider class of organosilicon compounds....
- Organosilicon
Organosilicon compounds are organic compounds containing carbon silicon bonds. Organosilicon chemistry is the corresponding science exploring their properties and reactivity.Like carbon, the organically bound silicon is tetravalent and tetrahedral...
- Silicone grease
Silicone grease is a waterproof grease made by combining a silicone oil with a thickener. Most commonly, the silicone oil is polydimethylsiloxane and the thickener is amorphous fumed silica...
- Silicone oil
A silicone oil is any polymerized siloxanes with organic side chains. They are formed of alternating silicon-oxygen atoms or siloxane, rather than carbon atoms . Other species attach to the tetravalent silicon atoms, not to the divalent oxygen atoms which are fully committed to forming the...
- Silicone resin
Silicone resins are a type of silicone material which is formed by branched, cage-like oligosiloxanes with the general formula of RnSiXmOy, where R is a non reactive substituent, usually Me or Ph, and X is a functional group H, OH, Cl or OR...
- Silicone rubber
Silicone rubber is an elastomer composed of silicone—itself a polymer—containing silicon together with carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Silicone rubbers are widely used in industry, and there are multiple formulations...
External links