chemistry

Harold Ellingham

Harold Ellingham is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harold Ellingham rather than just read about it. In short: Harold Johann Thomas Ellingham, OBE, (1897–1975) was a British physical chemist, best known for his Ellingham diagrams, which summarize a large amount of information concerning extractive metallurgy. Ellingham was born in Tottenham on 21 November 1897, the son of Thomas Robert Ellingham (fine art designer) and Katherine Caroline Bauer.

Key takeaways

Harold Ellingham belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harold Ellingham to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harold Ellingham from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harold Johann Thomas Ellingham, OBE, (1897–1975) was a British physical chemist, best known for his Ellingham diagrams, which summarize a large amount of information concerning extractive metallurgy. Ellingham was born in Tottenham on 21 November 1897, the son of Thomas Robert Ellingham (fine art designer) and Katherine Caroline Bauer. He studied at the Royal College of Science from 1914 to 1916. During the war years he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, in Mesopotamia (1917-1919) and India (May-June 1919). On returning to the College he became a demonstrator at the college in 1919 and reader in physical chemistry in 1937. He was secretary of the Royal College of Science 1940–44 and of the Royal Institute of Chemistry 1944–63. He was made a fellow of Imperial College in 1949 and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1962. Ellingham is best known for his diagrams plotting the Gibbs energy change for the reaction

2x⁄y M + O2 ⇌ 2⁄y MxOy against temperature. By normalizing the thermodynamic functions to the reaction with one mole of oxygen, Ellingham was able to compare the temperature stability of many different oxides on the same diagram. In particular, he could show graphically that carbon becomes a stronger reducing agent as the temperature increases. The reduction of metal oxides with carbon (or carbon monoxide) to form the free metals is of immense industrial importance (e.g., the manufacture of iron in a blast furnace), and Ellingham diagrams show the lowest temperature at which the reaction will occur for each metal. He married Doris Karin Russell in Kensington in 1945. He died in Harrow on 19 December 1975. Doris died in Hawkhurst on 27 September 1984.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harold Ellingham

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harold Ellingham claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harold Ellingham before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harold Ellingham ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harold Ellingham

In research: Harold Ellingham appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harold Ellingham in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harold Ellingham is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1897 births, 1975 deaths, Alumni of the Royal College of Science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harold Ellingham outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harold Ellingham in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harold Ellingham means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harold Ellingham out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harold Ellingham in simple terms?

Why does Harold Ellingham matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harold Ellingham?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harold Ellingham.