Humphrey, Edith (1875–1977)

views updated

Humphrey, Edith (1875–1977)

English chemist. Name variations: Edith Ellen Humphrey. Born Sept 1875 in UK; died 1977; studied physical chemistry at Bedford College, London, 1893–97, and cobalt salt crystals at University of Zurich, PhD, 1901.

A crystal expert, worked as a chemical laboratory assistant to professor Alfred Werner; researched the polarization of light in opposite directions by pairs of crystals with the same chemical makeup (after her death, her crystals were rediscovered in the 1980s); as a chief chemist at Arthur Sanderson and Sons (wallpaper manufacturers) in London, created a company research laboratory.