RAMSAY, ANDREW MICHAEL French writer, of Scottish birth, commonly called the "Chevalier Ram say," was born at Ayr on Jan. 9, i686. Ramsay served with the English auxiliaries in the Netherlands, and in 1710 visited Fenelon, who converted him to Roman Catholicism. He remained in France until 1724, when he was sent to Rome as tutor to the Stuart princes, Charles Edward and Henry, the future cardinal of York. He was driven by intrigue from this post, and returned to Paris. He died at St. Germain-en-Laye (Seine-et-Oise) on May 6, The best known of Ramsay's many works is Les voyages de Cyrus (London, 1728 ; Paris, 1727), written in imitation of Telemaque. RAMSAY, SIR WILLIAM (1852-1916), British chemist, was born in Glasgow on Oct. 2, 1852. From 1866 to 1870 he studied in his native city, and in 1871 went to work under R. Fittig at Tiibingen. In 1872 he became assistant in the Young laboratory of technical chemistry at Anderson's college, Glasgow, and from 1874 was tutorial assistant in the university. In 1880 he was appointed to the chair of chemistry at University college, Bristol, and made principal in the following year. In 1887 he succeeded A. W. Williamson as professor at University college, London, a position which he resigned in 1913. He was awarded the Davy medal of the Royal Society in 1895 and the Nobel prize for chem istry in 1904. He was made a K.C.B. in 19o2 and died at High Wycombe, Bucks, on July 23, 1916.
Ramsay's earliest investigations covered a wide field—from a new bismuth mineral to the physiological action of certain alkaloids —in the course of which he showed that the alkaloids are related to pyridine ; later he specialized definitely on inorganic and physi cal chemistry. With S. Young and others, he investigated the critical state, the relationship between vapour pressure and temper ature and other properties of liquids. With J. Shields he verified the Eotvos law of the constancy of the rate of change of molecular surface energy with temperature, and obtained evidence concern ing the molecular complexity of certain liquids. In 1892 Lord Ray leigh had asked for suggestions from chemists to account for the difference between the densities of chemical and atmospheric nitro gen, and Ramsay became interested in the problem. He devised methods for removing oxygen and nitrogen completely from air, and found that there was present in addition a small quantity of an hitherto unknown gas ; in Aug. 1894 Ramsay and Rayleigh announced the discovery of this new gas, afterwards called "argon," present to the extent of almost 1% in the atmosphere. The high density of this gas accounted for the atmospheric nitro gen having a greater density than the chemical variety. In 1895,
whilst searching for new sources of argon, Ramsay heated the mineral cleveite with acid and obtained a gas which gave a spec trum identical with that of helium, detected in the sun by Sir J. N. Lockyer and Sir E. Frankland in 1868 ; in this way helium was first obtained, but it was later found to be present in the air to the extent of about one part in 250,00o.
Both helium and argon were found to be absolutely inactive chemically, and so were called the "inert gases." A study of their position in the periodic table led to the belief that at least three more such gases should exist, and Ramsay, with M. Travers, found them in 1898 in the liquid air residues from which oxygen and nitrogen had been removed; they were called neon, krypton and xenon, and were found to be present in the air only to an extremely minute extent (e.g., xenon, one part in i7o million). Ramsay next turned to radioactivity since he noted the association of helium with radioactive minerals, and with F. Soddy (q.v.) he found in 1903 that helium was continuously produced as a disintegration product of radium emanation ; this discovery led to the transmuta tion theory and its important consequences. In 1910 Ramsay ob tained a small quantity of radium, and with D. Whytlaw Gray he was able, as a result of a wonderful piece of experimental work, to determine the density, and incidentally the atomic weight, of about one three-millionth part of a cubic inch of radium emana tion. The atomic weight showed that this gas was the last of the "inert gas" series and it was called "niton." Ramsay's eminence, and his interest in educational matters, resulted in his being asked by the Indian Government to advise on the best way to utilize the Tata bequest ; as a consequence the Indian Institute of Science was founded at Bangalore. During the World War he was an active member of the Royal Society Committee for the pooling of scientific knowledge, to be placed at the command of the Government. He made strong representa tions on the necessity of preventing cotton and fats from reaching central Europe. Ramsay was an inspiring teacher as well as a brilliant researcher ; he had remarkable skill as a manipulator, and this, as well as his spirit of enthusiasm for research, contributed to his success as an investigator.
Sir W. Ramsay's works include: A System of Chemistry (1891) The Gases of the Atmosphere (1896) ; Modern Chemistry (2 vols., 1901) ; and Essays Biographical and Chemical (1908).
See Sir William Tilden, Sir William Ramsay: Memorials of his Life and Work (1918), and Famous Chemists (1921) Obituary notice, Proceedings Royal Soc. (1916-17).