Edward Divers

Edward DiversFRS(27 November 1837 – 8 April 1912) was a British experimental chemist who rose to prominence despite being visually impaired from young age. Between 1873 and 1899, Divers lived and worked in Japan and significantly contributed to the science and education of that country.

Edward Divers
Born	(1837-11-27)27 November 1837 London, UK
Died	8 April 1912(1912-04-08)(aged 74) London, UK
Alma mater	Royal College of Chemistry Imperial College London
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry

Biography

Divers was born in London and was ofKentishancestry. He had one brother, who was connected with theThames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company,and a sister. Inflammation in the eyes during infancy seriously impaired his vision, which could not be properly corrected by glasses. This deficiency was further aggravated by an explosion during an experiment in 1884 making him blind in the right eye. In 1850, Divers entered theCity of London Schoolwhere he became inspired by chemistry lectures given by Thomas Hall. In 1853–1854 he became an assistant inJohn Stenhouse's laboratory at the medical school ofSt Bartholomew's Hospital.Stenhouse regarded defective vision of Divers too serious a hindrance to admit of the attainment of success in a chemistry career, though he changed this opinion later. In 1854 an assistant vacancy opened withEdmund Ronalds(1819–1889) which Divers accepted and then continued in the same capacity underThomas Henry Rowney(1817–1894). He then went to theQueen's College, Galway,Ireland, to take the university degree in medicine, one of the few scientific degrees then available, and to use the opportunities there afforded for teaching and research in chemistry. He remained in Galway for twelve years, defending his PhD in 1860, until 1866, when he left Ireland for London. After 1860, and until his Japanese appointment in 1873, Divers held various teaching appointments as lecturer in medicine (Queen's College, Birmingham,which later becameBirmingham University),medical jurisprudence(Middlesex HospitalMedical School, London), physics (Imperial College London) and chemistry (Albert Veterinary College).

Divers joined theChemical Societyin 1860, and in 1862 started publishing his experimental work, onmagnesium ammonium carbonate(1862),zinc ammonium chloride(1868), and three papers in 1870 on thecarbonatesandcarbamateofammonium.He had studied in 1863 the spontaneous change whichguncottonundergoes with formation ofgelatinous acids,and published two papers in 1871 onnitriteswhere he announces his discovery ofhyponitrites.In 1873 he reported interaction of ammonia andammonium nitrate,the work which he elaborated in Japan between 1873 and 1899. A saturated solution of ammonium nitrate in ammonia is now known asDivers' solution.His work during that period was acknowledged by D. Sc.honoris causadegree at theNational University of Ireland, Galway,and by the various societies in England. He was president of Section B of theBritish Association(1902); vice-president of the Chemical Society (1900–02); vice-president of theInstitute of Chemistry(1905), and president of theSociety of Chemical Industry(1905). Divers was elected a fellow of theRoyal Societyin 1885, while still working in Japan.

Life and work in Japan

On the recommendation ofA. W. Williamson,in July 1873, Divers left for Japan. This country had then only begun to remodel, in particular by introducing Western sciences and institutions. Divers was invited to teach general and applied chemistry at theImperial College of EngineeringatToranomon,Tokyo. He eventually became the Principal of the College in 1882. In 1886 the college was incorporated with theTokyo Imperial University,where Divers held the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry until his return to England in 1899. During his first seven or eight years in Japan due to administrative and teaching duties, as well as numerous requests from theDepartment of Public Worksto analyse samples of various minerals and noble metals. As a result, his first papers after leaving England were on Japanese minerals, and these were communicated to the meetings of the British Association held inYorkin 1881. One of these papers was on the occurrence ofseleniumandtelluriumin Japanesesulphurobtained from lead-chamber deposits of theOsakasulphuric acidwork. Using this material he later discoveredtellurium sulfoxideand developed a new method for the quantitative separation of tellurium from selenium. These and other papers on tellurium and selenium were published in theJournal of the Chemical Societyduring 1883–1885. There he published more than 20 other paper within a short period of 1884–1885, mostly on the chemistry of nitrogen and sulphur compounds.

Two years before coming to Japan, Divers reported an important paper on "The existence and Formation of Salts ofNitrous Oxide",which he elaborated in Japan in 1884 to establish the composition of silver hyponitrite as (AgNO)_x,against the formula Ag₅N₅O₅asserted byBerthelotand Ogier. In 1885 he discarded the work byGeorg Ludwig Carius,according to whichthionyl chlorideformed by the action ofphosphorus pentachlorideon inorganicsulfiteswas regarded as a direct product of the reaction and which formed the only experimental evidence in favour of the symmetrical constitution of the sulfites. Divers demonstrated that thionyl chloride was instead produced by a secondary reaction betweensulphur dioxideand phosphorus pentachloride. It was in the course of this work, on 24 November 1884, that Divers lost vision in his right eye as he was badly cut by pieces of glass resulting from the sudden bursting of the bottle withphosphorus oxychloride.

Chemistry ofsulfonatednitrogen compounds was the subject of most attention for Divers while staying in Japan. In collaboration with Haga, he showed that the numerous complex acids belonging to this group of compounds are the products of the reaction betweensulphurousandnitrous acids,thebasebeing essential only in so far as it protects the products of the reaction againsthydrolysis,and that, contrary to the statements of previous workers, normal sulfites and nitrites have no action on each other. Divers and Haga further showed that the primary product of the reaction between sulphurous and nitrous acids is always hydroxylaminedisulfonic acid and nothing else.

Divers was pre-eminently an experimental chemist and rarely occupied with the theoretical study of chemical questions. He greatly encouraged the spirit of experimental research among his pupils includingJōkichi Takamine,who was the first to prepare pureadrenaline,andMasataka Ogawawho discovered "nipponium" (later found to berhenium). By advice of Divers, M. Chikashige of theKyoto Imperial Universitystudied theatomic weightof Japanese tellurium in 1896, in the hope that this tellurium, which contrary to the European tellurium is associated with sulphur and not with any heavy metal, might yield an atomic weight in conformity with theperiodic table.No difference was observed, however.

Divers had two great misfortunes while staying in Japan. One was the sudden death of his son Frederic, which occurred in China, where he was in the service of theMaritime Customs.The other was death, in Tokyo in 1897, of his wife, Margaret Theresa Fitzgerald, whom he married in 1865. After this loss, Divers never seemed to be in the best of spirits, and this fact, combined with his advancing age and isolation, led him to return to England in 1899. He was much respected in Japan, particularly byItō Hirobumi,who, in the early days of the Engineering College, was the Minister of Public Works, and thus came in frequent contact with Divers. The contribution of Divers to education was recognised by the Japanese government, which, in 1886, conferred upon him theOrder of the Rising Sunof the Third Class, in 1898, theOrder of the Sacred Treasureof the Second Class. He was further an Honorary Member of theTokyo Chemical Society,theSociety of Chemical Industry of Japan,and theEngineering Society,the last of which was established by students of Divers at the Engineering College. On leaving Japan in 1899, Tokyo Imperial University conferred upon him the title ofProfessor Emeritus.A memorial bust of Divers was erected in the university grounds on 17 November 1900.

Divers was survived by his two daughters, both of whom were married in Japan. The elder, Edith, being married to Count Labry, a military attache to the French Legation in Tokyo, and the younger, Ella, to E. W. Tilden, a resident ofKobe.

References

This article incorporates text fromObituary notices,by Joji Sakurai (1858–1939), a publication from 1913, now in thepublic domainin the United States.

Further reading

• The Times,Wednesday, 10 April 1912; page 9; Issue 39869; col B.
• Davis, William J. (2004). "Divers, Edward (1837–1912)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56158.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)