William Henry (chemist)

William Henry was an English chemist, born in Manchester in 1774, the son of the chemist Thomas Henry. He was apprenticed to a Manchester physician, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and took his medical degree in 1807, but ill health ended his medical practice and he turned to chemical research, especially on gases. His paper in the Philosophical Transactions of 1803 on the quantity of gases absorbed by water at different temperatures and pressures gave rise to Henry's law. He also wrote on gas analysis, fire-damp, illuminating gas and the composition of hydrochloric acid and ammonia, and his Elements of Experimental Chemistry of 1799 went through eleven editions in thirty years. He received the Copley Medal in 1808, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809 and died in 1836.