Sir William Ramsay: How a Scottish chemist changed the periodic table forever

He was known as the 'greatest chemical discoverer of his time'

Google is paying tribute to the life and research of Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay with a Doodle on what would have been his 167th birthday.

Born in Glasgow on 2 October 1852, Ramsay is best known for his eventual discovery of what are known as the noble gases.

Ramsay became involved in the study of chemistry from an early age, before earning his doctorate at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

After returning home, Ramsay worked in various positions at numerous colleges, before eventually taking the post of Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University College, London, in 1887.

As chair, Ramsay continued his research on liquids and vapours, which he published in numerous papers and books.

However, when Ramsay learned that British physicist Lord Rayleigh had observed nitrogen in the earth’s atmosphere had a higher atomic weight than nitrogen in the lab, his research took on a different focus.

After coming to the conclusion that a previously unknown gas existed in the atmosphere, Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh eventually announced the joint discovery of argon, a chemically inert gas.

During his research, Ramsay also discovered helium – which led to his team’s subsequent identification of additional noble gases neon, krypton, and xenon.

The discovery of the noble gases was notable for both reshaping the periodic table and for their real-life usefulness. Google points out that helium was used in lighter-than-air travel, while argon was used to conserve the filaments in light bulbs.

As a result of his advancements, Ramsay was considered by many the “greatest chemical discoverer of his time”.

In addition to being knighted in 1902, he was named the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904.

Sir William Ramsay died on 23 July 1916, after changing the periodic table forever.