Bryan Higgins

Bryan Higgins (1741 – 1818) was a natural philosopher in chemistry.

He was born in Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland. His father (d. 1777) was also called Dr. Bryan Higgins. Higgins entered the University of Leiden in 1765, from whence he qualified as a doctor of physics. He subsequently ran a School of Practical Chemistry at 13 Greek Street, Soho, London during the 1770s, which was patronised by the then Duke of Northumberland amongst others. He was more of a speculator than an experimenter, and published many works on chemistry and related disciplines. Joseph Priestley was an attendee of Higgins's lectures, but the two became enemies following a dispute over experiments on air (Priestley at the time was working on his six-volume tome Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air).

At some point between 1780 and 1790, Higgins visited Saint Petersburg at the favour of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. He returned to London in January 1794 to continue his lectures at the School of Practical Chemistry.

In 1779, Higgins obtained a patent for a cheap and durable cement, "...composed of sand and lime, and a certain proportion of bone-ashes, the lime being slaked with limewater instead of common water, and the mixture made use of as rapidly as possible after being made".

In 1797, Higgins was hired by a public committee in Jamaica for the improvement of the manufacture of Muscovado sugar and rum. He resided in Jamaica from 1797 to 1799.

Higgins died at his estate in Walford, Staffordshire in 1820.

Read more about Bryan Higgins:  Published Works

Famous quotes containing the words bryan and/or higgins:

    I think we will live through his term, Archie, and I’ll tell you something, old man, if they don’t stop hammering me, first Bryan for not enforcing the Anti-Trust Law and Wall Street for enforcing it, they may succeed in electing me to another term whether I want it or not.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    Politics is a choice of enemas. You’re gonna get it up the ass, no matter what you do.
    —George V. Higgins (b. 1939)