Smithson Tennant

Background

Smithson Tennant was born on November 30, 1761, in Selby, Yorkshire, the only child of the Reverend Calvert Tennant and Mary Daunt, whose family was connected with the medical profession in Selby. His father died in 1772 and his mother in 1781. Tennant was educated at grammar schools in Scorton, Tadcaster, and Beverley, where he developed an early interest in experimental science.

In 1781 he went to Edinburgh intending to study medicine and attended the chemistry lectures of Joseph Black. He moved to Cambridge in 1782, where chemistry and botany became his principal interests. His later life combined scientific investigation with agricultural experiments on an estate near Cheddar in Somerset.

Education

Tennant attended grammar schools at Scorton, Tadcaster, and Beverley before entering the University of Edinburgh in 1781 to study medicine. Edinburgh was one of the leading centers of medical and chemical education in eighteenth-century Britain, and its experimental tradition was associated with teachers such as Joseph Black.

In 1782 Tennant entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied chemistry and botany, later transferring to Emmanuel College in 1786. The University of Cambridge was an established center of mathematical and natural philosophical learning, although chemistry was still developing as a university discipline. Tennant received the Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1788 and the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1796. In 1813 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge, a position from which he delivered one course of lectures in 1814.

Career

Tennant's early scientific work addressed mineral substances, gases, combustion, and agricultural chemistry. His experiments on diamond demonstrated that it produced carbon dioxide on combustion in the same proportion as charcoal, supporting the conclusion that the two substances consisted of the same elemental material in different physical forms. He also investigated the action of nitre on gold and platinum and the composition of emery and agricultural lime.

In 1800 Tennant entered a business association with William Hyde Wollaston involving platinum. Tennant's most important chemical discovery came from the black residue left when platinum ore was dissolved in aqua regia. In 1803–1804 he showed that the residue contained two previously unrecognized metals, which he named iridium and osmium. The discovery helped expand knowledge of the platinum-group elements and was recognized by the Royal Society's Copley Medal.

Tennant continued publishing papers on chemistry, mineralogy, metallurgy, agriculture, and practical chemical processes. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge in 1813 and delivered his first and only formal course of lectures in 1814. On February 22, 1815, while travelling near Boulogne-sur-Mer, he was killed when a bridge collapsed as he was riding over it.

Achievements

• Tennant established experimentally that diamond and charcoal were forms of the same elemental substance by comparing the carbon dioxide produced when equal quantities were burned.

• Tennant discovered the elements iridium and osmium in the black residue left after platinum ore was dissolved in aqua regia, identifying two previously unrecognized members of the platinum-group elements.

• Tennant contributed chemical studies of minerals, platinum, gold, emery, lime, potassium, and other substances through papers communicated to the Royal Society and other scientific institutions.

Works

• scientific paper

  • On the decomposition of fixed air

    (An early chemical paper concerning the decomposition of f...)

    1791
  • On two metals, found in the black powder remaining after the solution of platina

    (The paper in which Tennant described the two metals later...)

    1804
  • On different sorts of lime used in agriculture

    (An investigation of varieties of lime used in agriculture...)

    1799
  • On the nature of the diamond

    (Tennant's paper reporting experiments that supported the ...)

    1797
  • On the action of nitre upon gold and platina

    (A study of the reactions of nitre with gold and platinum,...)

    1797
  • On the means of producing a double distillation by the same heat

    (A practical chemical paper concerning the use of the same...)

    1814
  • Notice respecting native boracic acid

    (A mineralogical communication concerning native boracic a...)

    1811
  • On an easier mode of procuring potassium than that which is now adopted

    (A paper proposing an improved method for obtaining potass...)

    1814
  • On the composition of emery

    (A chemical examination of emery and its composition.)

    1802

Views

Tennant's scientific work reflected an empirical approach grounded in measurement, chemical analysis, and experimental comparison. His investigations of diamond, charcoal, platinum residues, and mineral substances treated chemical composition as something to be established through reproducible observation rather than inherited classification.

Membership

Tennant was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1785. The Society, founded in 1660, was Britain's principal institution for the communication and recognition of experimental science, and its Philosophical Transactions provided an important venue for his chemical papers.

• Fellow

  Royal Society , United Kingdom

  January 13, 1785 - 1815

Personality

Contemporary accounts describe Tennant as intellectually curious, sociable in learned company, and capable of presenting scientific subjects with wit and literary fluency. His scientific interests ranged from chemistry and mineralogy to agriculture and practical technology.

Interests

• Agricultural experimentation, mineralogy, botany, and scientific travel.

Connections

Tennant was the only child of the Reverend Calvert Tennant and Mary Daunt. His scientific and commercial work was closely connected with William Hyde Wollaston, with whom he entered a platinum-related business association around 1800.

Father:

Calvert Tennant

The Reverend Calvert Tennant was an absentee rector of Great Warley in Essex and a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.

Mother:

Mary Daunt

Mary Daunt was the daughter of William Daunt, a surgeon-apothecary in Selby.

Collegue :

William Hyde Wollaston

Tennant's scientific associate and business partner in platinum-related work from around 1800.

References

• Smithson Tennant, 1761–1815 Royal Society catalogue record documenting Tennant's birth and death, Royal Society fellowship, Copley Medal, professorship at Cambridge, and chemical research.
• Tennant, Smithson (1761–1815), chemist Oxford Dictionary of National Biography account of Tennant's family background, education, scientific career, agricultural interests, and relationship with William Hyde Wollaston.
  2004
• Smithson Tennant, Osmium, Iridium, Selby Yorkshire historical account describing Tennant's origins in Selby and his discoveries of osmium and iridium.