James Alfred Wanklyn

James Alfred Wanklyn

James Alfred Wanklyn (18 February 1834 – 19 July 1906) was a nineteenth-century English chemist who is remembered today chiefly for his "ammonia method" of determining water quality and for his fierce arguments with those, such as Edward Frankland, who opposed him over matters related to water analysis. Wanklyn was born in Ashton-under-Lyne and died in New Malden. He worked with Frankland, Robert Bunsen, and Lyon Playfair. He was Professor of Chemistry at the London Institution after 1864, and many of his papers were published from that institution.

Selected editions of writings

• Tea, coffee and cocoa: a practical treatise on the analysis of tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, maté (Paraguay tea), etc., London: Trubner and Company, 1874
• Milk-analysis. A practical treatise on the examination of milk and its derivatives, cream, butter, and cheese, London: Trubner and Company, 1874
• Air-analysis: a practical treatise on the examination of air. With an appendix on illuminating gas, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1890
• Arsenic, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1901
• Sewage Analysis, 2nd edition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1905
• Water-analysis, a practical treatise on the examination of potable water, 11th edition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1907

Further reading

• Men of the Time, 12th edition, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1887 - contains biographical information
• Cooper, W. J., "Memoir of James Alfred Wanklyn", in Water-analysis, a practical treatise on the examination of potable water, 11th edition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1907
• Brock, W. H., "James Alfred Wanklyn", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, volume 14, pages 168-70, 1976
• Hamlin, Christopher, A Science of Impurity, University of California Press, 1990