1-156-197 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Lyon Playfair, Scottish chemist and politician, 1881. Playfair (1818-1898) in the chair as Deputy Speaker of the Commons during a late night session. Playfair studied chemistry at Glasgow under Thomas Graham, and under Liebig at Giessen. Professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University from 1858-1896, he discovered the nitroprusside class of salts. Playfair was appointed chemist to the Geological Survey in 1846 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 1848. He was engaged in the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Liberal MP for the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh from 1868-1885, Playfair served as Secretary of State for Science and Art in 1855 and was Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 1880-1883. He was knighted in 1883 and was created a Baron in 1892. Cartoon in the Fancy Portraits series from Punch. (London, 12 February 1881).