Francis Arthur Freeth (2 January 1884 – 15 July 1970) was a Britishindustrial chemist. He spent much of his career atBrunner Mond and its successorImperial Chemical Industries, as chief chemist, research manager and in a recruiting capacity, with particular knowledge ofphase rule chemistry, and developed many processes related to the manufacture ofexplosives. He made a critical contribution to the BritishWorld War I effort by devising new ways to manufactureammonium nitrate, which was recognised with an honour, and a smaller contribution inWorld War II for theSpecial Operations Executive. Freeth created links between Brunner Mond and Dutch chemistry, particularly at theUniversity of Leiden where he metKammerlingh Onnes and was awarded a doctorate.
Freeth was born on 2 January 1884 in Birkenhead. His father was amaster mariner and was an officer in theRoyal Naval Reserve; his great-grandfather,James Freeth, wasQuartermaster General between 1851 and 1854, and his grandfather was a major-general as well.[1] He attendedAudlem grammar school in Cheshire beginning in 1896; the next year, theCounty Council built a laboratory at the school, sparking young Freeth's interest in the subject. He excelled at chemistry but had poor mathematical skills. On his second attempt, he passed thematriculation exam to study atLiverpool University from 1900, graduating withfirst-class honours in 1905 and then a master's degree in 1906.[2] There, he studied underFrederick George Donnan, aphysical chemist who would be a great influence on Freeth, who was quickly gaining reputation as a chemist himself.[3][4]
After university, Freeth went to work at a factory belonging toHitnetts Tobacco,[2] but did not enjoy the work;[3] he quit, and instead joined Brunner Mond on 25 September 1907. On his first day at Brunner Mond, he arrived with a cache of laboratory equipment that he had bought himself on credit.[5]
Freeth became the company's chief chemist in 1909, working at theWinnington Laboratory in Cheshire.[6][7] In 1909, he was tasked with investigating the manufacture ofammonium nitrate for explosives; needing to read a paper byFranciscus Hubertus Schreinemakers inDutch, he bought study materials for the language and quickly learned to read it. Freeth corresponded with Dutch chemists, joined theDutch Chemical Society in 1911 and devoured the Dutch chemical literature in his areas of interest almost entirely by 1914.[3][6][8]
At the outbreak ofWorld War I, Freeth was in theTerritorial Army, having joined in 1912, and spent six weeks in the trenches in France with theCheshire Regiment as a major[9] in early 1915, but was then sent back to Britain to continue his armaments research at Brunner Mond at the direction ofLord Moulton.[3][4][7] Germany, at the start of the war, had an advantage over Britain in their ability to manufacture explosives inexpensively: they had pioneered mixing ammonium nitrate andTNT to createamatol, which was similar to pure TNT in effectiveness, and understood theHaber–Bosch process and applied it in plants to produce the necessary nitrogen compounds.[10][7]
First, Freeth was charged with finding a way to purify TNT from hot alcoholic solution. Freeth invented a vacuum cooling process; it was, however, very risky, and led to theSilvertown explosion on 19 January 1917, which killed 73 people.[3][10] Writing in 1962, Freeth said that the process was "very dangerous"; a second, safer, process that he devised was implemented atGadbrook and produced larger volumes of explosives.[6] The Gadbrook plant almost suffered a similar disaster, but two courageous Brunner Mond employees put out the fire before the plant exploded.[11] Freeth wrote that he would, on a monthly basis, remind the Silvertown plant of the risk that the plant would explode, but that it was deemed "worth the risk".[7]
Second was the investigation of new ways to produce ammonium nitrate. Freeth built upon his pre-war work and implemented two processes he had devised in 1909 at an industrial scale in plants atLostock Gralam,Sandbach and a specialised factory inSwindon.[12] Together with Herbert Edwin Cocksedge he got a patent on usingsalt metathesis reaction ofsodium nitrate fromChilean saltpeter andammonium sulfate made fromcoke gas followed by separatingsodium sulfate andammonium nitrate based on differences in their solubilities at different temperatures.[13]
For his work during the war, he was appointed an OBE in 1924.[4][3]
Following his experience of the war, Freeth became convinced that the British chemical industry must conduct research itself, and he began on a project to recruit researchers, as well as cultivating closer links with academia, and arguing for theoretical underpinning for industrial research.[14][15] He was also a proponent of a rigorous quantitative approach to chemistry, and used his excellent knowledge ofphase rule chemistry to attract talent to Brunner Mond, particularly from prestigious institutions likeOxford.[16][17]
In 1919, Freeth visited theNetherlands and visitedKammerlingh Onnes' laboratory inLeiden, which was much more elaborate than his own. He maintained contact with Onnes, and also acquainted himself withHendrik Lorentz,Paul Ehrenfest,Pieter Zeeman,Albert Einstein and his original contact with the country, Schreinemakers.[18] After Onnes' death in 1926, Freeth would write his obituary forNature.[19]
Directed to investigate thefractionation of coke oven gas, Freeth was inspired by Onnes' low-temperature work; at his instigation, Brunner Mond set up a new low-temperature laboratory in Winnington in 1931 with a number of talented Dutch assistants, wherepolythene was later discovered. A number of Brunner Mond (and Imperial Chemical Industries) recruits went the other way, to the Netherlands to work with Onnes and increase the fruitful cross-pollination.[3][20][21] Freeth was awarded a doctorate of theUniversity of Leiden in 1924—only possible thanks to a special decree of the Dutch Parliament—and joined theRoyal Society in 1926 on the recommendation of Donnan and Lord Moulton.[4][22]
He stayed with the company after the merger that created Imperial Chemical Industries, despite being replaced as the research manager at Winnington by a non-chemist,Frank Bramwell, in 1927; Freeth was given a higher post in London, becoming Joint Research Manager withWilliam Rintoul, but the change stung and he did not relish the bureaucratic nature of his new role. He retired from his research post in 1938 after a breakdown in 1937, but still did work for the company as a consultant, in addition to secret work for the government.[23]
DuringWorld War II, Freeth undertook secret research for theSpecial Operations Executive, including developing materials for field use or for sabotage by commandos or resistance groups.[24] During this period of activity, he re-connected with friends within ICI and returned to the company as a University Liaison Officer on 1 February 1944, recruiting fresh talent for industrial chemical research. He retired again in 1952, this time to work lightly as a consultant and spend time with his family. Of the second spell at ICI, Freeth said, "These eight years were astonishingly happy and successful".[3][24]
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