Hugh Lee Pattinson
| Hugh Lee Pattinson | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 25 December 1796 Alston, Cumberland |
| Died | 11 November 1858 (aged 61) |
| Resting place | Washington, County Durham |
| Nationality | English |
| Fields | Metallurgy, Industrial chemistry |
| Alma mater | Self-taught |
| Known for | Silver refining process, daguerreotypes |
| Spouse | Phoebe Walton |
Hugh Lee Pattinson FRS (25 December 1796 – 11 November 1858) was an English industrial chemist. He was also an entrepreneur, sharing the risk of major industrial developments with famous ironmaster Isaac Lowthian Bell and cable manufacturer Robert Stirling Newall.
Although known in his time for the patent process for refining silver that bears his name, he is best remembered for his daguerreotype photographs taken in 1840. Among these is the earliest known photograph of the Niagara Falls.
Pattinson was the son of Thomas Pattinson, a shopkeeper in the country town of Alston, Cumberland, and his wife Margaret Lee; they were Quakers. He was educated at local private schools. He was interested in science from an early age, doing experiments with electricity when he was 17, and also studying the chemistry of metals.
He began his working life by helping his father in his shop in Alston. In around 1825 he worked for Anthony Clapham, a soap maker in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1825 he became assay master (a tester of the purity of gold or silver coins) to the Greenwich Hospital Commissioners, back at Alston. In continuing experiments in metallurgy, he discovered the basis of his method of separating silver from lead in 1829, but had too little money to go any further. In 1831 he became works manager at Thomas Wentworth Beaumont's lead works. The greater income allowed him to continue his experiments on silver refining until he had a workable process.
In 1834 he resigned from Beaumont's works, and with John Lee and George Burnett, set up a new chemical works at Felling, near Gateshead. It employed around 300 men.
Pattinson patented his silver refining process in 1833. It exploited some familiar properties of metals, namely that lead and silver melt at different temperatures. Pattinson's equipment consisted basically of nothing more complex than a row of about 8–9 iron pots, which were heated from below. Some lead, naturally containing a small percentage of silver, was loaded into the central pot and melted. This was then allowed to cool. As the lead solidified, it was skimmed off and moved to the next pot in one direction, and the remaining metal was then transferred to the next pot in the opposite direction. The process was repeated from one pot to the next, the lead accumulating in the pot at one end and the silver in the pot at the other.
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