John Percy (metallurgist)

In 1836 Percy went for a tour in Switzerland and the south of France, and made a collection of mineralogical and botanical specimens.

in the university, and received a gold medal for a thesis on the presence of alcohol in the brain after poisoning by that substance.

In 1851 he was elected Fellow of the Geological Society, and was appointed lecturer on metallurgy at the newly founded Metropolitan School of Science in London, under Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche; the post was later made a professorship.

In 1851 he undertook to superintend the analysis of a large number of specimens of iron and steel collected by his friend Samuel Holden Blackwell (which went to the Jermyn Street Museum).

His results were an early attempt at a survey of national resources of iron ore. Percy was appointed lecturer on metallurgy to the artillery officers at Woolwich, around 1864, and retained this post till his death.

In December 1879 the government decided to complete the removal of the Royal School of Mines from the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street to South Kensington.

Percy circulated a pamphlet containing his views on the subject In 1887 he was awarded the Millar prize of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

In 1889 Percy received the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts on his deathbed, with the words, "My work is done".