William Hampson (1854–1926) was the first person to patent a process for liquifying air.

Early life

William Hampson was born on 14 March 1854, the second son of William Hampson of Puddington, Cheshire, England.^[1] He was educated at Liverpool College, Manchester Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford, where he matriculated in October 1874.^[1] He studied classics, graduating with a second class degree. He then joined the Inner Temple in London to qualify as a barrister.^[2]

There is no record of Hampson's enrolment in a course of physics or engineering; he therefore seems to have educated himself in science and engineering.^[3]

Liquefaction of air

In 1895, Hampson filed a preliminary patent for an apparatus to liquify air.^[4] His apparatus was simple:^[5] A compressor raised the pressure of a quantity of air to 87–150 atmospheres. The high-pressure air was then passed through cylinders that contained material which removed water and carbon dioxide from the air. The dried air then passed through a copper coil and exited through a nozzle at the end of the coil, which reduced the air's pressure to one atmosphere. After expanding through the nozzle, the air's temperature would drop greatly (due to the Joule-Thomson effect). The cold air then flowed back over the coil, chilling the air that was flowing through the coil. As a result, within 20–25 minutes, the apparatus would begin to produce liquified air. The apparatus typically measured approximately one cubic metre.^[6][7]

Hampson made a preliminary filing for a patent on his liquefaction process on 23 May 1895; Carl von Linde, a German engineer, filed for a similar patent on 5 June 1895.^[8][9]

Hampson's method of liquifying gases was adopted by Brin's Oxygen Company of Westminster, London, England (renamed the "British Oxygen Company" in 1906).^[10] In 1905, the company acquired Hampson's three patents on the liquefaction and separation of atmospheric gases.^[11]

From Brin's Oxygen Company, which retained Hampson as a consultant, Hampson provided William Ramsay with the liquid air that allowed Ramsay to discover neon, krypton, and xenon, for which Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in chemistry of 1904.^[12]

Other pursuits

In 1900–1901, Hampson also conducted adult education courses; specifically, a series of lectures at the University College in London. From these lectures came two books: Radium Explained (1905) provided a lay audience with an account of recent developments in research on radioactivity, while Paradoxes of Nature and of Science (1906) presented scientific curiosities that were contrary to common experience; e.g., how ice could be used as a source of heat.^[13][14]

Hampson also became interested in medical science. He became a licensed apothecary in 1896, and by 1910 he was practising in several London hospitals. In 1912, he published his research on a crude pacemaker.^[15] The system electrically stimulated large muscles of the body to contract regularly; pulses of blood were thus forced towards the heart and these pulses would then cause the heart to synchronise with the external electrical stimulator. Hampson also made a minor improvement to X-ray tubes.^[16]

Hampson also ventured into economics. He published a book on the subject: Modern Thraldom: A New Social Gospel (1907).^[17] Hampson regarded credit—broadly interpreted as debt or borrowing in any form—as responsible for many of an economy's ills. He prescribed a world in which there would be no credit, interest, mortgages, or rents. All sales would be in cash; debts would not be legally recognised; factories would be run as a cooperative of their workers. The national government would be funded by a sales tax, and the national economy would be sheltered from foreign competition.

He married Amy Bolton.^{[citation needed]}

References

Further reading

• Mansel Davies (2009) "William Hampson (1854–1926): A Note," British Journal for the History of Science, 22 (1) : 63–73.
• Encyclopedia.com: Hampson, William
• "Hampson, William" in: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Charles C. Gillispie, ed. (New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972), vol. 6, page 93.