Victoria University of Manchester, Manchester, England
Kipping enrolled at the University of London in 1879 but actually attended Owens College in Manchester (now Victoria University of Manchester) and graduated with a degree in chemistry three years later.
University of Munich, Munich, Germany
Kipping entered the University of Munich in 1886 to begin graduate work in Adolf von Baeyer’s laboratory. His work there was supervised by W. H. Perkin, Jr., who became a close friend. Kipping received his doctorate with highest honors in 1887.
1887
University of London, London, England
In 1887 Kipping was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of London, the first person to be awarded this degree from that institution solely on the basis of research.
1930
The Kipping family in 1930.
1938
Frederic Kipping and his wife Lilian Holland in 1938.
Frederic Kipping and his wife Lilian Holland.
1897
Royal Society, London, England
In 1897 Kipping was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society.
1887
University of London, London, England
In 1887 Kipping was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of London, the first person to be awarded this degree from that institution solely on the basis of research.
1897
Royal Society, London, England
In 1897 Kipping was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society.
1918
Kipping was awarded the Davy Medal in 1918.
1930
The Kipping family in 1930.
1938
Frederic Kipping and his wife Lilian Holland in 1938.
Victoria University of Manchester, Manchester, England
Kipping enrolled at the University of London in 1879 but actually attended Owens College in Manchester (now Victoria University of Manchester) and graduated with a degree in chemistry three years later.
University of Munich, Munich, Germany
Kipping entered the University of Munich in 1886 to begin graduate work in Adolf von Baeyer’s laboratory. His work there was supervised by W. H. Perkin, Jr., who became a close friend. Kipping received his doctorate with highest honors in 1887.
Frederic Kipping and his wife Lilian Holland.
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-chemistry-William-Henry-Perkin/dp/1178309355/?tag=2022091-20
1894
Frederic Stanley Kipping was born on August 16, 1863, in Manchester, England. He was the son of James Kipping, a Bank of England official, and Julia Du Val, a daughter of the painter Charles Allen Du Val. Kipping became interested in chemistry through the influence of a neighbor, the district’s public analyst, who convinced Kipping’s banker father that a career in chemistry was honorable.
Kipping enrolled at the University of London in 1879 but actually attended Owens College in Manchester (now Victoria University of Manchester) and graduated with a degree in chemistry three years later. Realizing that his position as chemist at the Manchester Gas Department held little promise of advancement, Kipping entered the University of Munich in 1886 to begin graduate work in Adolf von Baeyer’s laboratory. His work there was supervised by W. H. Perkin, Jr., who became a close friend. Kipping received his doctorate with highest honors in 1887 and was awarded a Doctor of Science degree in the same year from the University of London, the first person to be awarded this degree from that institution solely on the basis of research.
Kipping’s first position after graduation was that of demonstrator under Perkin at Heriot-Watt College in Edinburgh. Two years later he was promoted to assistant professor of chemistry and lecturer in agricultural chemistry. In 1890 he was appointed chief demonstrator of the chemistry department at what is now Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. In 1897 Kipping was appointed to the chair of chemistry at University College in Nottingham. His resignation accepted in 1936, Kipping became emeritus professor of chemistry and continued to work regularly in his laboratory until the outbreak of World War II caused him to move with his wife and daughter to the seaside town of Criccieth, where he died at the age of eighty-five.
Kipping’s early studies involved the preparation and properties of optically active camphor derivatives and nitrogen compounds. He then turned his attention to asymmetric organosilicon compounds and began his most important research. In his preparative reactions he discovered the value of Grignard reagent to substitute organic groups onto silicon atoms. Although his stereoisomer studies were only partially successful, Kipping did report the preparation of the forerunners of the organosilicon polymers. Turning to a detailed investigation of these condensation products, he attempted to prepare the silicon analogues of simple carbon compounds, particularly those with a double bond. The polymeric materials obtained in his endeavor to prepare the analogue of ketones were named “silicones” - the common name now given to the entire class of oxygen-containing organosilicon polymers. Although Kipping was unable to prepare any double-bonded silicon compounds, his extensive studies led to the synthesis of many silicone polymers and to a clear exposition in his fifty-odd published papers of the laboratory techniques necessary to obtain others.
Ironically, Kipping saw absolutely no practical value for the polymeric materials he had laboriously prepared, and in 1937 he lamented that “the prospect of any immediate and important advance in this section of organic chemistry does not seem to be very hopeful.” Within four years the first patents for silicone polymers had been issued, and a rapidly growing industry had been born from a marriage of Kipping’s experimental procedures and the war’s pressure on industry to develop new products.
Frederic Stanley Kipping is regarded as one of the founding fathers of silicon chemistry. In 57 research papers published between 1899 and 1944 he reported the first use of Grignard reagents to make alkylsilanes and arylsilanes and the prepartion of silicone oligomers and polymers, and coined the term silicone. His research formed the foundation for James Franklyn Hyde’s development of the first silicon based insulation materials at Corning Glass Works and then Dow Corning Corporation, as well as inspiring Eugene G. Rochow’s work at General Electric Company in the development of the direct method of silicone synthesis using silicon hydrides.
He was awarded the Longstaff Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1909, the Davy Medal in 1918, and the Royal Society Bakerian Medal in the same year.
In 1897 Kipping was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society.
Kipping was deeply loved by his students and colleagues. He firmly believed in working his young students hard, but after they graduated he did everything he could to find them suitable posts in those years when there was little money for chemistry.
In 1888 Kipping married Lilian Holland, and the couple had four children. His younger son, Frederick Barry, became a well-known chemist, and his elder son, Cyril Henry Stanley, was a noted composer of chess problems.
