ROSCOE, SIR HENRY ENFIELD (1833-1915), English chemist, was born in London on Jan. 7, 1833. After studying at University college, London, where he came under the influence of Graham and Williamson, he went to Heidelberg to work under R. W. Bunsen. In 1857 he succeeded Sir E. Frankland in the chair of chemistry at Owens college, Manchester, where he re mained for 3o years, and from 1885 to 1895 he was M.P. for the south division of Manchester. He served on several royal commissions on educational questions, in which he was keenly interested, and from 1896 to 19o2 was vice-chancellor of London university. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1863 and awarded a Royal Medal in 1873. He was knighted in 1884, and died at Leatherhead, Surrey, on Dec. 18, 1915.
Roscoe's first published paper (1854) deals with the analysis of certain varieties of gneiss, but this problem was set him in order to acquire analytical skill. His scientific work includes a memorable series of researches carried out with Bunsen between 1855 and 1862, in which they laid the foundations of comparative photochemistry; this work was subsequently continued by Roscoe alone. In 1867 he began an elaborate investigation of vanadium
and its compounds, which probably constitutes his chief contri bution to inorganic chemistry ; he devised a process for preparing the metal in a pure state. He was the author of researches on niobium, tungsten, uranium, perchloric acid, the solubility of ammonia, etc. Roscoe also investigated the "constant boiling mixtures" of the common volatile acids with water ; he proved that the compositions of the mixtures depended on the external pressure and so they could not be definite compounds. He was very interested in spectrum analysis, but although he lectured and wrote on the subject he did little research in this direction. His publications include : Lectures on Spectrum Analysis (1869) ; a Treatise on Chemistry (the first edition of which appeared in ; A New View of Dalton's Atomic Theory, with Dr. A. Harden (1896) ; and an Autobiography (1906). The Treatise on Chemistry, written in collaboration with Carl Schorlemmer (1834-92), is a standard work.
See Obituary notice, Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. 93 (1916-17).