Frederick Guthrie
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Frederick Guthrie (1833 - 1886) (born Frederick Guthrie) was a British scientific writer and professor. He helped found the Physical Society of London (now the Institute of Physics) in 1874 and was president of the society from 1876. He believed that science should be based on experimentation rather than discussion. He was also a professor at the Royal School of Mines, where he mentored the future experimental physicist C. V. Boys. He also mentored John Ambrose Fleming and was instrumental in turning his interest from chemistry to electricity.
He wrote the Elements of Heat in 1868 and Magnetism and Electricity in 1873.
The first reported use of mustard gas was by a man named Frederick Guthrie in 1860, who combined ethylene with SCl2 (sulfur dichloride), and observed the toxic effects of this mixture on his own skin.
Guthrie was also a linguist, playwright, and poet. Under the name Frederick Cerny, he wrote the poems The Jew (1863) and Logrono (1877). His son was Frederick Bickell Guthrie, an agricultural chemist.
