J. Walter Leather

John Walter Leather (1860-14 November 1934) was an agricultural chemist who worked in India as the first Imperial Agricultural Chemist at the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in Pusa, Bihar. Appointed in 1892, he worked on a variety of agricultural production and chemistry related issues in India.

Leather was born at Rainhill, Lancashire in 1860 and after school he joined his father's chemical factory at St. Helens. In 1883 he went to study chemistry at Bonn under August Kekule. He received a PhD in 1886 and became an assistant to J A Voelcker. His work included methods to detect castor seeds in animal feed. In 1891 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Harris Institute, Preston but in the next year he was appointed chemist to the agricultural department in India at the recommendation of Voelcker. In 1906 he was designated as the Imperial agricultural chemist, a position he held until his retirement in 1916. His work included the analysis of Indian soils, foodstuffs and other matters of interest. He served as the head of the chemical department at the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute established in 1904 at Pusa in Bihar. The institute itself was established partly due to the indigo industry in India. The synthesis of indigo dye in Germany made it necessary to examine methods for a possible revival of the indigo industry in Bihar. Leather was sent on a tour to the indigo districts in 1899 and the location in Pusa was close to the main indigo plantations in northern Bihar. After his retirement he returned to England and lived in Malvern.

Leather published extensively in government reports. Some of Leather's key publications as books and in journals include the following:

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