Peter Townsend Austen was born on September 10, 1852 in Staten Island, New York, United States. He was the son of the auctioneer John H Austen and Elizabeth Townsend. John's father was Peter Townsend of Sterling Iron Works who in 1776 had introduced into America from Germany a new process for the manufacture of steel.
Peter Townsend Austen, after attending a local private school and the Columbia School of Mines, went abroad for three years' further study. In 1876 he received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Zurich and returned to America to become instructor in chemistry at Dartmouth.
In 1878 Peter Townsend Austen went to Rutgers as full professor of general and applied chemistry. This connection continued for thirteen years, during which he served also on the faculty of the New Jersey Science School, as state chemist, and as adviser to various state and municipal boards.
As a pioneer in university extension work he was a pleasing and popular lecturer who obtained much satisfaction from public speaking, a taste possibly derived from his father, a well-known auctioneer. Austen left Rutgers expecting to devote himself thenceforth to private practise, but he soon resumed college work at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
A few years later (1896) he gave up educational work altogether and established a consulting office and laboratory in New York City. He belonged to a number of chemical societies at home and abroad and was at one time chairman of the New York section of the American Chemical Society.
His interests were not confined to pure science. They included the popular presentation of the subject and the practical applications of chemistry to the arts and industries. His lectures on "Science Teaching in the Schools, " "Scientific Speculations, " and "The Chemical Factor in History" aroused much interest as did also his article entitled "Harnessing the Sun, " which appeared in the North American Review, June 1895. He invented several manufacturing processes used in dyeing and bleaching.
Austen was a great chemist. He made a great contribution to the development of the world chemistry. He published a number of text books, including a translation of Adolph Pinner's Introduction to the Study of Organic Chemistry. He was author of many papers which appeared in the American Chemical Journal and in the Proceedings of the Chemical Society of Berlin. He gave lectures on Science Teaching in the Schools, Scientific Speculat.
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Austen was recognised among his fellow chemists for his pleasing personality, his keen insight into technical problems, and his facility as a speaker.
He married Ellen Middleton Munroe in 1878.
