Morris Travers and the Inert Gases

Posted by Tel Asiado Jan 24, 2009

This day, January 24 (1872), Morris W. Travers is born in Kensington London. He is the founding director of the Indian Institute of Science, an English chemist who worked with Sir William Ramsay. Together, they discovered the inert gases xenon, neon and krypton.

In search for other gases, Travers and Ramsay experimented in heating minerals and meteorites. Then in 1898, they obtained a large quantity of liquid air subjecting this to fractional distillation. So began their extensive experiment, first discovering krypton, then neon, and finally, xenon.

Travers continued work on cryogenics, and in Europe, assisted in building esperimental liquid air plants. For his brief biography, check out Morris Travers Biography.