Early Life | William Ramsay | 1852-1916

Sir William Ramsay, KCB, FRS, FRSE (/ˈræmzi/; 2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" (along with his collaborator, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of argon). After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases.

His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton and xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table.

Source Wikipedia

Excepted from the book Sir William Ramsay; memorials of his life and work by Tilden, William A. (William Augustus), Sir, 1842-1926 a glimpse into his childhood :

From notes supplied by Miss Flora Mac Vicar and Mrs. McNicol, early friends of the family, we know that young Ramsay had a very happy childhood and youth, though in some respects the circumstances surrounding his life were different from those of other boys. His father and mother were both intelligent and affectionate parents, and as Barrie says, in his Margaret Ogilvie, " so much of what is great in Scotland has sprung from the closeness of the family ties." He had not much liking for the games on which boys usually spend so much time. His youthful amusements had a thread of investigation running through them, and in such pursuits as rigging out toyboats or building bricks he always had a plan of his own, though in the result he had sometimes to confess that he had been mistaken. He was fond of reading and among his favorite books were Alice in Wonderland, Hans Andersen's Fairy Stories, and later the books usually enjoyed by boys about lighthouses, fire-brigades, and other practical things. He had a strong love of animals and always had a favorite dog. From his earliest days he had considerable aptitude for music, and at a preparatory school he attended he was the quickest among the little pupils to learn reading music. In later years he was a pupil of Dr. A. L. Peace, organist of Glasgow Cathedral. He also became an accomplished " whistler," and could accompany him- self on the piano. This accomplishment, it may be added, often gave pleasure to his friends in later life. It was delightful to hear a florid air like Bishop's " Should he upbraid," with all the runs and trills given with perfect clearness and accuracy. His powers as a linguist were remarkable and the readiness with which he acquired a new language served him very notably throughout life and on many public occasions attracted admiration. He used jokingly to say that the only language of which the pronunciation had baffled him was Gaelic. His natural inclination for new languages and the method early adopted for their acquisition is illustrated by the reminiscences of Mr. M. M. Pattison Muir. He says : "I can scarcely remember the time when I did not know Ramsay. Looking back nearly sixty years, I see a small boy seated between his parents in a pew in the front gallery of Free St. Matthew's Church in Glasgow. During the long doctrinal discourses of the minister, I used to wonder what the little boy in the next pew was doing ; he seemed to be intently reading his Bible. In after years he told me he was learning French, or German. Most Scottish boys of that time, all Scottish boys brought up in a Calvinistic household — as Ramsay was — were at home in the language of the Bible. He took a French or a German Bible to church in his pocket ; during the sermon he read it. To translate into English did not require the help of a dictionary ; the English text was at his finger-ends. He used to say that even his mother — a strict Calvinist — could not object to her son reading his Bible in church. As he read, and translated backwards and forwards, he heard what the minister was saying. Years afterwards he often took me back to Free St. Matthew's church by repeating screeds of the sermons of the Reverend Samuel Miller.”

Credit

Sir William Ramsay. Coloured photogravure by Sir L. Ward [Spy], 1908. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

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By Margaret E. Wood | April 26, 2010 | Distillations