Frankland, Sir Edward (1825-1899), was an English chemist whose research covered a wide field. With the Scottish chemist Alexander Crum Brown, Frankland worked on structural formulas. A structural formula is a chemical formula that shows how the atoms in a molecule are arranged. With the German chemist Hermann Kolbe, he worked on the theory of valence. The valence of a chemical element is a number that indicates the element’s ability to combine with other elements (see Valence ).
Frankland was the first person to make the organometallic compounds zinc methyl and zinc ethyl. An organometallic compound is a compound of a metal with one or more groups of atoms containing carbon. Frankland was knighted in 1897 for his research on water purification and his work for the government as a water analyst.
Frankland was born on Jan. 18, 1825, in Churchtown, Lancashire. He died in Norway on Aug. 9, 1899.
