chemistry

John Alfred Valentine Butler

John Alfred Valentine Butler 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 John Alfred Valentine Butler rather than just read about it. In short: John Alfred Valentine Butler (14 February 1899 – 16 July 1977) was an English physical chemist best known for his contributions to the development of electrode kinetics (Butler–Volmer equation). Biography John Alfred Valentine Butler (known to his friends and colleagues as J.

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Reference excerpt

John Alfred Valentine Butler (14 February 1899 – 16 July 1977) was an English physical chemist best known for his contributions to the development of electrode kinetics (Butler–Volmer equation).

Biography John Alfred Valentine Butler (known to his friends and colleagues as J. A. V.) was born into a Cotswolds farming family in Winchcombe on 14 February 1899; he was the eldest of three children of Alfred and Mary Ann (née Powell). After attending the local primary school he won a scholarship which covered the travelling expenses and fees for Cheltenham Grammar School. Coming from a non-academic family he had no encouragement to go to university, and so took a short apprenticeship with a local pharmacist. This led to his being drafted into the RAMC towards the end of World War I: after training, he was posted to a field hospital near Ypres. Here, he had the chance for self study, with the help of books on loan from Lewis's Lending Library in London, and the University Correspondence College, Cambridge. Butler was demobilised in October 1919 and enrolled at University of Birmingham, from where he graduated "BSc with 1st Class Honours in 1921 (1st in the year)." In 1922 he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in the University College of Swansea. His work here resulted in the later publication of his first two books (see Works). Butler's next appointment was in 1926 as lecturer in chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, under Sir James Walker, where he studied the behaviour of electrolytes in mixed solvents, on which he published a series of papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (A) with five different collaborators from 1929 to 1933. A wide range of other papers appeared during this productive phase. Productive but not financially rewarding: he found it difficult to support his family on his Lecturer's stipend. In 1939 he was appointed to work at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Princeton and so at the end of August the family sailed on the Queen Mary to New York. Butler worked in J H Northrop's group on the homogeneity of crystallised enzymes. After the outbreak of WWII, Butler offered his services and was appointed Executive Officer at the British Central Scientific Office in Washington, DC, which had a staff of 17 officers, under the direction of Sir Charles Galton Darwin, a grandson of Charles Darwin. He continued in that role until 1944, when Edinburgh asked him to return to teaching there. But he did not find the conditions "at all congenial", and so he secured an appointment in 1946 at the Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry under Professor (later Sir) Charles Dodds, where he worked on the proteolytic degradation of insulin. This work was not altogether successful, in part because of the great strides made by Sanger. So, in 1949, Butler moved to the Chester Beatty Research Institute in Chelsea, directed by Alexander Haddow. There were two main themes to his work at the Chester Beatty, one of which – on the proteins associated with DNA in the structure of chromosomes, the histones – is especially associated with Butler.

Family In 1929 Butler married Margaret Lois Hope, a botanist and Cambridge graduate, at Haddington, East Lothian. They had three children, all successful in their respective fields of biological and medical sciences. From 1949 to 1977 the Butler's lived in Rickmansworth in a house then known as Nightingale Corner, which had previously belonged to Hubert J. Foss, first Musical Editor (1923–1941) for Oxford University Press. Like the Fosses, the Butlers often entertained guests there. J. A. V. died on 16 July 1977

Awards He was awarded the Meldola Medal and Prize in 1928 by the Royal Institute of Chemistry. In 1956 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His candidacy citation read:

"Dr. Butler's main activities have been firstly in thermodynamics and in electrochemistry and secondly the application of physical chemistry to biologically important substances and their reactions. First of all he developed kinetic theories of the origin of electrode potentials; he examined the thermodynamic properties of salts, particularly in mixed solvents; he studied the thermodynamics of surfaces of solutions and developed the general theory of overpotential with hydrogen and oxygen electrodes. Thermodynamically he studied the free energy and entropy of hydration of organic substances and discovered a general relation between heat and entropy of solution. In addition he studied acid and base catalysed reactions in 'heavy water' and some molecular kinetics of enzyme action. Latterly he has been engaged in studies of the physical chemistry of biologically important substances, including the action of proteolytic enzymes on insulin; the action of radiomimetic substances, and of X-rays on deoxyribonucleic acid."

Works The Chemical Elements and their Compounds (Macmillan, 1927) The Fundamentals of Chemical Thermodynamics (Macmillan, 1928) Man is a Microcosm (The Scientific Book Club, UK, 1950) Electrical Phenomena at Interfaces, in Chemistry, Physics and Biology (Methuen, 1951) Inside the Living Cell - some Secrets of Life (The Scientific Book Club, UK, 1957) Science and Human Life: Successes and Limitations (Pergamon, 1957) Gene Control in the Living Cell (Allen & Unwin, 1968) The Life Process (Allen & Unwin, 1970) Modern Biology and Its Human Implications (Hodder and Stoughton, 1976)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Alfred Valentine Butler

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Alfred Valentine Butler 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 John Alfred Valentine Butler 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 John Alfred Valentine Butler 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 John Alfred Valentine Butler

In research: John Alfred Valentine Butler 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 John Alfred Valentine Butler 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: John Alfred Valentine Butler is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1899 births, 1977 deaths, 20th-century English chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Alfred Valentine Butler 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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Frequently asked questions

What is John Alfred Valentine Butler in simple terms?

John Alfred Valentine Butler (14 February 1899 – 16 July 1977) was an English physical chemist best known for his contributions to the development of electrode kinetics (Butler–Volmer equation). Biography John Alfred Valentine Butler (known to his friends and colleagues as J.

Why does John Alfred Valentine Butler 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 John Alfred Valentine Butler?

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 John Alfred Valentine Butler.