SMM+S

Adam Brown

Location: George Square, Southeast corner
Sculptor: William Brodie
Foundry: R.Masefield & Co, of Chelsea
Stonemason: Shearer Smith & Co. Dalbeattie

Probably not one of Glasgow’s most well known sons; Graham was an eminent chemist in Victorian times.

As a scientist he is seated with a chemistry book on his lap. He is in the robes of a D.C.L. of Oxford University (Doctor of Common Law).

The statue is by William Brodie and was unveiled in 1872. It was cast in London by R. Masefield and Co. of Chelsea

The plaque in the flower bed says it was gifted by James ‘Paraffin’ Young. Young was Graham’s pupil at Anderson's College and later his assistant at University College in London. By 1872 Young’s paraffin business had made him a wealthy man and he could afford to honour his friend and mentor.

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Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:38 pm Post subject:

Graham was born in Glasgow in 1805 and became a student at the University of Glasgow in 1819. He received his M.A. in 1824 and stayed on for another two years to study Natural Philosophy and Chemistry.

Over the next four years he studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, taught Chemistry at the Portland Street Medical School and at the Glasgow Mechanics' Institution, before he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Anderson's College in George Street in 1830.

In 1837 he moved to London as Professor of Chemistry at University College. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1836 and was the founder and first President of the Chemical Society of London in 1841.

Thomas Graham is credited as the founder of Colloid Chemistry which is based on his work separating colloids and crystalloids using a ‘dialyzer’. This led to the development of today’s dialysis machine.

He is also responsible for ‘Graham's Law’, which states that the rate of effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of its molar mass. I guess you need to be a chemist to know what that means.

He was at University College London until 1854, when he was appointed to the important position of Master of the Mint which he held for fifteen years until his death. He died in 1869 and was buried in Glasgow.

The Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry of the University of Strathclyde is based in the Thomas Graham Building at 295 Cathedral Street. (Anderson’s College where Graham worked in the 1830’s was one of the institutions which merged over the years to eventually form The University of Strathclyde).

The Royal Society of Chemistry’s office in Cambridge is at the Thomas Graham House on Milton Road.
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Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project