Percy , John , 1817-1889 , metallurgist

Born, Nottingham, 1817; educated at private school, Southampton; studied medicine in Paris, 1834-1836, and Edinburgh University, graduated, 1838; physician, Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, 1839; studied metallurgy at local metallurgical works; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1847; invented process for extracting silver; lecturer in metallurgy, later Professor, Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts (later Royal School of Mines), 1851-1879; member, Council of the Royal Society, 1857-1859; lecturer in metallurgy, Woolwich, [1864]-1889; superintendent of ventilation for the Houses of Parliament, 1865; member, Secretary for War's commissions on the application of iron for defensive purposes, 1861, 'Gibraltar' shields, 1867; member, royal commissions on coal, 1871, spontaneous combustion of coal in ships, 1875; Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1876; President, Iron and Steel Institute, 1885-1886; Millar prize of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1887; Albert medal of the Society of Arts, 1889; died, 1889.
Publications: include: An experimental inquiry concerning the presence of alcohol in the ventricles of the brain after poisoning by that liquid (Hamilton, Adams & Co, London, 1839); The Metallurgical Treatment and assaying of gold ores (1853); Metallurgy. The art of extracting metals from their ores, and adapting them to various purposes of manufacture 5 vol (London, 1861-1880); The Manufacture of Russian Sheet-Iron (London, 1871); Address to the Iron and Steel Institute May 12, 1886 (Ballantyne, Hanson & Co, Edinburgh, [1886]).