William Hyde Wollaston

William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828) was an English chemist and physicist who discovered palladium and rhodium, refined platinum, and developed the camera lucida.

Platinum metallurgy: The extraction, purification, and working of platinum and its alloys. Wollaston made platinum workable by developing a powder-based route to malleable metal.
Royal Society: A British learned society founded in 1660 to promote scientific inquiry. Wollaston became a leading Fellow and served as its president from 1820 to 1822.
Polarimetry: The measurement and analysis of the polarization state of light. Wollaston’s prism became a means of producing and analyzing polarized beams.
Anders Gustaf Ekeberg: A Swedish chemist who discovered the element tantalum in 1802. Ekeberg’s contemporary discovery shows the parallel search for new elements in minerals.
Discovery of palladium: The identification and announcement of palladium as a new chemical element in 1803. Wollaston introduced palladium after isolating it from platinum ore.
Palladium: A chemical element with symbol Pd and atomic number 46, discovered by Wollaston in 1803. Wollaston isolated this platinum-group metal from crude platinum ore.
Thomas Young: An English polymath whose work ranged across physics, medicine, and language. Young and Wollaston exchanged ideas during a period of rapid advances in optics.
Metallography: The study of the structure and composition of metals and alloys. His platinum-processing work illustrates how metal structure and purity shape useful properties.
Smithson Tennant: An English chemist who discovered iridium and osmium in platinum residues. Tennant analyzed residues from platinum refining, the same material that yielded Wollaston’s metals.
Discovery of rhodium: The identification of rhodium as a new chemical element in 1803. Wollaston named rhodium for the rose-colored compounds observed during its study.

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