ABEL, SIR FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, BART. 1902), English chemist, was born in London on July 17, 1827. After studying chemistry for six years under A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (established in London in 1845), he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military academy in 1851, and three years later was appointed chemist to the War Department and chemical referee to the government. During his tenure of this office, which lasted until 1888, he carried out a large amount of work in connection with the chemistry of explosives. He developed an improved and safer process for the manufacture of gun-cotton, and prepared the way for the "smoke less powders" which came into general use towards the end of the 19th century; cordite, the particular form adopted by the British government in 1891, was invented jointly by him and Professor James Dewar. In conjunction with Sir Andrew Noble he carried out one of the most complete enquiries on record into the behaviour of ordinary black powder when fired. The invention of the apparatus, legalized in 1879, for the determination of the flash-point of petroleum, was also his work. His first instrument, the open-test apparatus, was prescribed by the Act of 1868, but was superseded in 1879 by the Abel close-test instrument. In elec tricity Abel studied the construction of electrical fuses and other applications of electricity for war purposes, and his work on problems of steel manufacture won him in 1897 the Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel institute, of which from 1891 to 1893 he was president. He took an important part in the work of the Inventions Exhibition (London) in i885, and in 1887 became organizing secretary and first director of the Imperial institute, a position which he held till his death, which took place in London, Sept. 6,1902. He was knighted in 1891, and was created a baronet in 1893.