William Cooper (chemical manufacturer)

William Cooper (26 December 1813 – 20 May 1885) was a British veterinary surgeon, agriculturalist and industrialist who specialised in the manufacture of agricultural insecticides for . He is credited with developing the first successful sheep dip, Cooper's Dip, in 1852.

Cooper was born in Clunbury, Shropshire. He trained as a veterinary surgeon and by the 1843 he had moved to set up a practice in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Legend has it that he arrived in town with nothing but a bag with containing the tools of his trade. In 1849, Cooper became one of the first veterinary surgeons to qualify from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. In the 1851 census he is recorded as a resident of the High Street in Berkhamstead. He later moved to a house on the High Street called The Poplars; this house was later the birthplace of the actor Sir Michael Hordern in 1911.

As a veterinary surgeon he was frequently confronted by the horrendous condition of farm animals caused by various parasitic insects, in particular a skin disease which afflicted sheep known as sheep scab - at the time treated very ineffectually by only ointments composed of tobacco stalk and brimstone emulsified in goose fat. Cooper began to conduct his own experiments with preparations of arsenic and sulphur. By 1852 his experiments were conclusive enough for him to market the first truly effective sheep dip, known as "Cooper's dip". The product was sold in a powdered form which was easily transportable.

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