chemistry

Raphael Meldola

Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola rather than just read about it. In short: Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15.

Birth Born in Islington, London, he was descended from Raphael Meldola (1754–1828), a theologian who was acting minister of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London, 1804. Meldola was the only son of Samuel Meldola; married (1886) Ella Frederica, daughter of Maurice Davis of London. The Meldola family traced their family tree to Isaiah Meldola, who died at Toledo in 1340.

Education Meldola was educated at Northwick College, Maida Hill before entering the Royal College of Chemistry, London in 1866, where he studied under Edward Frankland. There is a portrait of Meldola (oil on canvas) by Solomon J. Solomon in the Royal Society collection; also a photograph by Maull & Fox, visiting card size.

Career Meldola worked in the private laboratory of John Stenhouse (FRS 1848). In 1870, he became a laboratory assistant at Messrs Dower of Brantford, where he first worked on coal-tar dyes. He was appointed Lecturer, Royal College of Science (1872) and assisted Norman Lockyer with spectroscopy. Meldola was in charge of the British Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands (1875) and was Professor of Chemistry, Technical College, Finsbury (1885). He was also an entomologist and natural historian. Meldola was a member of many scientific societies: Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry; Fellow of the Chemical Society (London and Berlin); Member of the Pharmaceutical Society; The Geologists Association; The Royal Anthropological Institute; Entomological Society of London. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1886 (Charles Darwin was one of his proposers), awarded the Davy Medal in 1913, and was vice-president of the council from 1914 to 1915.

Meldola was President of the Entomological Society, 1895–1897; the Chemical Society, 1905–1907; Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1907–1910; Society of Chemical Industry 1908–1909; Institute of Chemistry, 1912–1915. He was the first president of the Maccabaeans, 1891–1915. In his honour the Royal Society of Chemistry award the Meldola medal each year.

Mimicry Meldola was a keen naturalist, spending five years eagerly collecting evidence on mimicry in butterflies, inspired by Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. His work provided evidence for natural selection, acknowledged by the evolutionary zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton in his book The Colours of Animals and thanked by Darwin for information on hexadactyly (a rare case of a person having six digits on each limb). In 1910, Meldola gave the Herbert Spencer lecture in Oxford on 'Evolution, Darwinian and Spenserian.'

Meldola Blue He discovered the synthetic dye Meldola's Blue.

Notes

References

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Meldola, Raphael" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.

External links Works by Raphael Meldola at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Raphael Meldola at the Internet Archive

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raphael Meldola

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola

In research: Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola 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: Raphael Meldola is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1849 births, 1915 deaths, Academics of the University of London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Raphael Meldola 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.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Raphael Meldola in simple terms?

Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15.

Why does Raphael Meldola 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 Raphael Meldola?

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 Raphael Meldola.