William James Russell

Educated at schools at Bristol and Birmingham, he entered University College, London, in 1847, studying chemistry under Thomas Graham and Alexander William Williamson.

[2] For two years a demonstrator at Owens College, Manchester under Edward Frankland (1851–3), Russell moved on to Heidelberg University, becoming a pupil of Robert Bunsen and graduating Ph.D. in 1855.

He was (1860–70) professor of natural philosophy at Bedford College, London, and in later life was chairman of its council.

[2] The results of Russell's work on gases were communicated to the Chemical Society, and in Henry Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry he wrote the article on "Gas Analysis" (1868).

[3] Other investigations were the determination of the atomic weights of cobalt and nickel; memoirs on absorption spectra; and papers on the action of wood and other substances on a photographic plate in darkness.