Brown, Alexander Crum (1838-1922), was a Scottish chemist who was particularly interested in applying mathematics to chemistry. Together with the English chemist Sir Edward Frankland, he worked on the problems of structural formulas. A structural formula is a chemical formula that shows how the atoms in a molecule are arranged. Crum Brown is known for Crum Brown’s Rule, which is concerned with the formulas of derivatives of benzene. He also studied the organic (carbon-containing) compounds of sulfur.
Crum Brown was born on March 26, 1838, in Edinburgh. He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh; Heidelberg, in Germany; London; and Marburg, also in Germany. In 1863, he became a professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University. He died on Oct. 28, 1922.
