Ill 



ADRIAN BROWN, 1852—1919. 



Adrian Brown was the junior member of the very remarkable amateur 

 scientific quartette, Peter Griess, Cornelius O'Sullivan and the brothers 

 Brown — Horace and Adrian, once active in the scientific service of brewing at 

 Burton-on-Trent. 



The amateur scientific worker is a peculiarly British prodiict — he hates drill 

 and grows through force of example, not of precept. He has not matured in 

 countries where drill has been in the ascendant. Griess was an outstanding 

 example. He spent six or seven years at the University — doing nothing as a 

 formal student ; the saying goes, that he wasted his time. Far from this — 

 whilst he took his fill of student life, what to-day would be called his sub- 

 conscious mind was clearly at work and he suddenly displayed extraordinary 

 activity in the laboratory. His great ability was appreciated by Kolbe, his 

 teacher, himself a man of the highest intelligence, to some extent trained here, 

 under the late Lord Playfair, as fellow worker with the late Sir Edward 

 Franklancl, the ablest chemist of his time in the laboratory and the author of 

 the theory of valency upon which our entire system of structural formula? is 

 based. Kolbe recommended Griess to Hofmann, then Professor at the Royal 

 College of Chemistry, in Oxford Street, London — whence arose the dyestuff 

 industry as the outward and visible sign of the great leader's activity and 

 example as an original worker. Griess brought with him from Germany his 

 discovery of the Diazo-compounds, one of the most remarkable in the history 

 of chemistry, as it involved recognition of the fact, that nitrogen, up to that 

 time regarded as an inert element, could form compounds of unusual chemical 

 activity and extreme instability. He developed his discovery in London, 

 until in 1862 he become assistant in Allsopp's Brewery in Burton-on-Trent. 

 Here, until his death in 1888, he occupied an anomalous position, living a life 

 all but apart from the brewery, an indefatigable worker, high up in an 

 empyrean of constructive organic chemistry. Apparently, Griess did nothing 

 in particular for brewing, beyond criticising its products ; but he laid the 

 foundation of a branch of the dyestuff industry which has since been the 

 most remunerative of its many activities. His services were once sought by 

 an English dyestuff firm, but the beggarly terms offered him were naturally 

 declined and we lost an irrecoverable opportunity. 



In the past scientific workers had their individual patrons who supported 

 their inquiries ; but the Allsopp firm behaved to their chemist in a way which 

 is without parallel in the history of industrial enterprise ; they seem to have 

 gloried in having so distinguished a man on their staff, without considering 

 the direct value of his services. His presence was testimony to their breadth 

 of view, as well as to their liberality ; they undoubtedly gained in repute from 

 their action. 



