Smithson Tennant FRS (30 November 1761
Life
Tennant was born in
Selby in
Yorkshire. His father was Calvert Tennant (named after his grandmother Phyllis Calvert, a granddaughter of Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore).
His own name derives from his grandmother Rebecca Smithson, widow of Joshua Hitchling. He attended Beverley Grammar School and there is a plaque over one of the entrances to the present school commemorating his discovery of the two elements, osmium and iridium.
He began to study
medicine at Edinburgh in 1781, but after a few months moved to
Cambridge, where he devoted himself to
botany and
chemistry.
He graduated M.D. at Cambridge in 1796,
and about the same time purchased an estate near Cheddar, where he carried out
agriculture experiments.
He was appointed professor of chemistry at Cambridge in 1813, but lived to deliver only one course of lectures, being killed near
Boulogne-sur-Mer by the fall of a bridge over which he was riding.
Legacy
In 2006, American Elements discovered new technology allowing for the casting of seamless iridium rings for use in spacecraft and satellites. In 2016, the company utilized the same technology to introduce a line of iridium wedding bands marketed under the trademark Smithson Tennant.
Notes
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Mary D. Archer, Christopher D. Haley. The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge. Cambridge, 2005, .
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