Playfair, Lyon

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Playfair, Lyon (1818–98). Playfair was a chemist and statesman, and one of the organizers of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Educated at Edinburgh and then at Giessen, where Justus Liebig had built up a great research school, Playfair worked in textiles in Manchester, and met John Dalton. In 1845 he moved to London, to the School of Mines, an ancestor of Imperial College; he realized that although the Crystal Palace seemed to show Britain as the workshop of the world, in fact other countries were overtaking her. In lectures, and from 1868 as a Liberal MP and minister, and after 1892 as Baron Playfair, he promoted awareness of the importance of science for the prosperity of the country. He became a great spokesman for technical and scientific education; with his wide circle of friends in high places, including Prince Albert, he has been compared to Joseph Banks as an influential figure.

David Knight

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