Hugh Marshall


Professor Hugh Marshall FRS FRSE FCS was a Scottish chemist who discovered persulphates in 1891. He was the inventor of Marshall's acid. In 1902 he proposed the modified sign of equality <=> which became standard in chemistry to represent dynamic equilibrium.

Life

He was born in Edinburgh on 7 January 1868 and educated at Moray House Normal School. He studied science at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with a BSc in 1886 and gained a doctorate in 1888.
In 1894 he began lecturing in mineralogy and crystallography at the University of Edinburgh, changing to chemistry in 1902 and moving to Dundee University College as Professor of Chemistry in 1908.
In 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Alexander Crum Brown, Leonard Dobbin, John M. MacFarlane, and John Chemist. He won the Society's Keith Prize for the period 1899-1901. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1904.
He died in London on 5 September 1913 aged 45. He did not marry and had no children.

Publications

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