Thomas Edward Thorpe

Thorpe, Thomas Edward 

Born Dec. 8, 1845, in Harpur-shey, near Manchester; died Feb. 23,1925, in Salcombe, Devon. English chemist and historian of chemistry. Fellow of the Royal Society (1876).

Thorpe graduated from the University of Heidelberg. He was a professor at Andersonian College in Glasgow from 1870 and Yorkshire College of Science in Leeds from 1874. He taught at the Royal College of Science from 1885 to 1912. He was president of the Chemical Society of Great Britain from 1899 to 1901.

Thorpe was the first to obtain the phosphorus compounds PF₅ (1877), P₂O₄ (1886), and P₂O₃ (1890–91). He was also one of the first to determine the atomic weight of radium (1908). He was the editor of the Dictionary of Applied Chemistry (vols. 1–3, 1890–93).