William Barlow (geologist)

William Barlow <a href="/facts/Royal_Society/KI5yXCuV">FRS</a> (8 August 1845 – 28 February 1934) was an English amateur geologist specialising in <a href="/facts/Crystallography/9B5toeqG">crystallography</a>.
He was born in <a href="/facts/Islington/T28A2Kn4">Islington</a>, in <a href="/facts/London/KozCCsy9">London</a>, England. His father became wealthy as a speculative builder as well as a building surveyor, allowing William to have a private education. After his father died in 1875, William and his brother inherited this fortune, allowing him to pursue his interest in crystallography without the need to labour for a living.
William examined the forms of <a href="/facts/Crystalline/e2R2mk3E">crystalline</a> structures and deduced that there were only 230 forms of symmetrical crystal arrangements, known as <a href="/facts/Space_groups/2XQx0J7M">space groups</a>. His results were published in 1894, after they had been independently announced by <a href="/facts/Evgraf_Fedorov/fPqQhHMn">Evgraf Fedorov</a> and <a href="/facts/Arthur_Sch%25C3%25B6nflies/pRP7SGPY">Arthur Schönflies</a>, although his approach did display some novelty. His structural models of simple compounds such as <a href="/facts/Sodium_chloride/MWcXl3Mb">NaCl</a> and <a href="/facts/Caesium_chloride/MKPHoL6m">CsCl</a> were later confirmed using <a href="/facts/X-ray_crystallography/WtI0F5DN">X-ray crystallography</a>.
He served as the president of the English Mineralogical Society from 1915 until 1918.
He died in <a href="/facts/Great_Stanmore/ETA441n9">Great Stanmore</a>, <a href="/facts/Middlesex/Mzn77Wy7">Middlesex</a>, England.

William Barlow (geologist) open-in-new

William Barlow (geologist)