Grove, Sir William Robert

Grove, Sir William Robert

▪ British physicist
born July 11, 1811, Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales
died Aug. 1, 1896, London

      British physicist and a justice of Britain's high court (from 1880), who first offered proof of the thermal dissociation of atoms within a molecule. He showed that steam in contact with a strongly heated platinum wire is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen in a reversible reaction. Grove also developed the two-fluid electric cell, consisting of amalgamated zinc in dilute sulfuric acid and a platinum cathode in concentrated nitric acid, the liquids being separated by a porous container.

      Grove was educated by private tutors and then at Brasenose College, Oxford, and also studied law at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar in 1835. Ill health interrupted his law career, and he turned to science. At the London Institution, where he was professor of physics (1840–47), he used his platinum-zinc batteries to produce electric light for one of his lectures.

      His classic On the Correlation of Physical Forces (1846) enunciated the principle of conservation of energy a year before the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz did so in his famous paper Über die Erhaltung der Kraft (“On the Conservation of Force”).

      His scientific career led to the practice of patent and other law after 1853. He was appointed to the court of common pleas in 1871 and was knighted in 1872. After retirement from the bench in 1887, he resumed his scientific studies.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • GROVE. SIR WILLIAM ROBERT —    lawyer and physicist, burn at Swansea; called to the bar; was made a judge in 1871, and knighted a year later, and from 1875 to 1887 he was one of the judges in the High Court of Justice; throughout his life he busied himself in optical and… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • William Robert Grove — William Grove Pour les articles homonymes, voir Grove. William Robert Grove Sir William Robert Grove (né le 11 juillet …   Wikipédia en Français

  • William Robert Grove — Infobox Scientist name = PAGENAME box width = image width =150px caption = PAGENAME birth date = 11 July, 1811 birth place = Swansea in Wales death date = 1 August, 1896 death place = London residence = citizenship = nationality = ethnicity =… …   Wikipedia

  • Sir William Grove — Grove bei einem Treffen der British Association for the Advancement of Science (1844) Grove sches Element (Holzstich 1897) Sir William Robert Grove (* …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Robert Grove — Grove bei einem Treffen der British Association for the Advancement of Science (1844) Grove sches Element (Holzstich 1897) Sir William Robert Grove (* …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Grove — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Grove. William Robert Grove Sir William Robert Grove (né le 11 juillet 1811 à Swansea …   Wikipédia en Français

  • William Grove — Grove bei einem Treffen der British Association for the Advancement of Science (1844) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Grove — (spr. grōw ), 1) Sir William Robert, Physiker, geb. 14. Juli 1811 in Swansea, gest. 2. Aug. 1896 in London, studierte die Rechte in Oxford, war fünf Jahre Advokat in London, widmete sich dann der Physik, wurde 1840 Professor an der London… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Grove-Element —   [ grəʊv ; nach dem britischen Physiker Sir William Robert Grove, * 1811, ✝ 1896], ein elektrochemisches Element mit einer Zinkelektrode als Kathode und einer nichtauflösbaren Platinelektrode als Anode sowie Salpetersäure als Elektrolyt …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Grove [2] — Grove (spr. grohw), Sir William Robert, engl. Physiker, geb. 14. Juli 1811 in Swansea, 1841 Prof. zu London, gest. das. 2. Aug. 1896; entdeckte die galvanische Gasbatterie; Hauptwerk: »On the correlation of physical forces« (6. Aufl. 1874;… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

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