Alfred Bird was an English food manufacturer and chemistry
Background
He was born in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England in 1811 and was the inventor of a series of food products. His father was a lecturer in astronomy at Eton College. His son Alfred Frederick Bird continued to develop the business after his father"s death.
Education
King Edward"s School, Birmingham.
Career
Alfred Bird registered as a pharmacist in Birmingham in 1842, having served an apprenticeship to Phillip Harris of that city. He was a qualified chemist and druggist and went on to open an experimental chemist"s shop in Bulletin Street. Alfred Bird"s first major invention was egg-free custard in 1837.
Alfred Bird used cornflour instead of egg to create an imitation of egg custard.
Only when the custard was accidentally federal to guests did Alfred Bird realise that his invention had a wider use. This formula for baking powder is essentially the same as used in modern baking powders.
Alfred Bird died on 15 December 1878 in Kings Norton, Worcestershire and is buried at Key Hill Cemetery in Birmingham. Famously his obituary in the journal of the Chemical Society (of which he was a fellow) discussed at length his skills and research but did not mention his other activity – the by then famous Bird"s Custard.
lieutenant read:
Mr. ALFRED BIRD was born in 1811, his father, Mr.
John Bird, being lecturer on astronomy at Eton College. In addition to practising as an analytical and consulting chemist at Birmingham, he devoted considerable attention to physics and meteorology. In the course of his investigations into the laws of sound, he constructed a beautiful set of harmonized glass bowls, extending over five octaves, which he used to play with much skill.
In meteorology he devised a plan of demonstrating experimentally that the wind blows in circles.
He also, in 1859, constructed a water barometer, a description of which is published in the Philosophy. Magazine. for 1865, and which is still in perfect working order.
With this he was fond of observing and showing to others the minute oscillations of the atmospheric pressure. He was well known for his originality and as the inventor of several useful appliances.