Background
His mother was Margaret Nimmo Dickson of Kilbucho and Cultur in Scotland. Wilson in 1840 entered his father"s business.
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George Wilson
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated at Wandsworth, and for a short time worked in a solicitor"s office.
Career
He took interest in the firm"s experimental work, and in 1842 patented, with West. C. Jones, a process by which cheap, malodorous fats could be utilised in the place of tallow for candle-making. The original features of the process were the use of sulphuric acid as a decoloriser and deodoriser of strongly-smelling fats, and their subsequent distillation, when acidified, by the aid of super-heated steam. The invention was profitable, and in the Panic of 1847 the business was sold for £250,000.
A new concern, called Price"s Patent Candles Limited., with a capital of £500,000, was then formed, with George Wilson and an elder brother James as managing directors.
Both researched processes of manufacture. Wilson in 1853 introduced moulded coco-stearin lights (from coconut oil) as "New Patent Night Lights".
And the two brothers made improvements on a French patent which led to the wide adoption by English manufacturers of the company"s "oleine" or "cloth oil".’ In 1854 Wilson made a major discovery, a process of manufacturing pure glycerine, which was first separated from fats and oils at high temperature, and then purified in an atmosphere of steam. Previously, commercial glycerine had been impure.
Wilson retired from his position of managing director in 1863, and in later life lived at Wisley, Surrey, where he devoted himself to experimental gardening on a wide scale.
He was particularly successful as a cultivator of lilies. The garden he created at Wisley went to the Royal Horticultural Society, becoming the RHS Garden. Wilson died at Weybridge Heath on 28 March 1902.
The elder son was Scott Barchard Wilson.
Achievements
Membership
Royal Society]
In 1845 Wilson was made a member of the Society of Arts. He contributed frequently to its Journal, read a paper before it in 1852 on "Stearic Candle Manufacture", was a member of its council from 1854 to 1859 and again from 1864 to 1867, and its treasurer from 1861 to 1863.
