Frederick
Stanley
Kipping
(1863-1949)
researched
silicone polymers
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Frederick Kipping was
born at Upper Broughton, Manchester into a
talented family. His father , James Kipping was
an official of the Bank of England and also a
farmer and member of the Manchester Chemical
Society.
Educated at
Manchester Grammar School and Owens College
Manchester, Frederick graduated as a zoologist in
1882. Three years later he entered Munich
University to study closed carbon chains and
received his PhD in 1887. He joined Heriot-Watt
College, Edinburgh and became Assistant Professor
of Chemistry. He was elected Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1897 and soon afterwards was appointed
to the Chair of Chemistry at University College,
Nottingham where he stayed until his retirement
in 1936.
Professor
Frederick Stanley Kipping of Nottingham, England
devoted much of his time to the study of organo-silicon
compounds, publishing 54 papers on the subject
between 1899 and 1937 but he failed to forsee the
potential commercial value of his work.
This was taken up
by Corning Glass who, with Dow Chemicals set up
Dow-Corning Corporation to manufacture silicone
polymers in 1943.
Kipping died in
North Wales n 1949, just as the value of silicone
polymers was being realised.
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