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Science Cafe: William Grove Bicentenary

William Grove Bicentenary

BBC Radio Wales - Science Cafe, William Grove Bicentenary

The life and legacy of William Grove, the scientist who invented the hydrogen fuel cell.

The life and legacy of William Grove, the Swansea-born lawyer and scientist who invented the hydrogen fuel cell.

William Grove was the Welsh lawyer who devised the hydrogen fuel cell, an invention which would eventually take human beings to the Moon. On the bicentenary of his birth, Adam Walton and guests look back at Grove's life and his scientific legacy. 

On 22nd October 1842, the distinguished physicist and chemist Michael Faraday received a letter from a young Welsh lawyer. It contained a sketch and description of an invention called a 'gas battery' which turned hydrogen and oxygen gases into electricity and water. This invention would eventually become the hydrogen fuel cell, the technology which provided water and power for the Apollo missions to the moon and for the space shuttles which have taken astronauts into space for the last thirty years. And the lawyer-scientist's name was William Grove. 

Born in Swansea on 18th July 1811, Grove combined his legal career with a series of remarkable scientific achievements. Three years before the hydrogen fuel cell, he had invented the nitric acid battery which powered the expanding telegraph system. And Grove's theory of the correlation of physical forces is widely regarded as a precursor to one of the most important ideas in physics, the conservation of energy. 

So, how did a magistrate's son who studied Classics at university and then law became such an outstanding scientist? Joining Adam to discuss William Grove's life and legacy are barrister and environmental lawyer William Wilson who co-authored a recent biography of Grove; Dr. Iwan Morus, historian of science at Aberystwyth University; and Dr. Timothy Davies, Lecturer in Electronic Engineering at Swansea University. 

They explore how Grove put himself on a collision course with some of the most influential scientists of his day as he set out to reform the Royal Society. And we ask why, after just a few years of devoting his life to science, Grove put it all aside and returned to his career as a barrister. 

'William Grove - The Lawyer Who Invented the Fuel Cell' by John Wilson, William Wilson and James M. Wilson is published by Metolius Ltd.

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