WHAT'S NEW

26 September 2007

WILLIAM ROBERT GROVE
THE LAWYER WHO INVENTED THE FUEL CELL

A new biography of William Robert Grove - The Lawyer Who Invented the Fuel Cell, by John Wilson, William Wilson and James M. Wilson, was launched at a reception at the Tenth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium in London by the Chairman of that event, Professor Lars Sjunnarson.

William Robert Grove is still remembered as the inventor of the fuel cell, but, unlike Faraday or Darwin, his is not a household name. Grove’s scientific achievements, as an inventor, researcher, lecturer and writer about science were matched by a legal career in which he rose to become a Queen’s Counsel, leading patent lawyer and High Court judge.

This remarkable man who invented the nitric acid ‘Grove Battery’ and later the fuel cell, and wrote The Correlation of Physical Forces also played an important part in the defence of the notorious William Palmer, the ‘Rugeley Poisoner’, one of the most celebrated criminal cases of the 19th century.

A proud Welshman, born and brought up in Swansea, Grove’s scientific and legal interests came together in areas such as the earliest development of photography, where he lectured on the new science and corresponded with many of its pioneers. This short biography gives a picture of Grove himself, his personal life and his work as one of the leading scientists of his day and one of its leading lawyers.

Authors

John Wilson won the Whitbread Prize for Biography for his critically acclaimed first book about the Liberal Prime Minister, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Constable, 1973). He is also the author of Fairfax – General of Parliament’s Forces in the English Civil War (John Murray, 1985), which was described by C.V. Wedgwood as …“A remarkably vivid and comprehensive account of this wholly admirable man”. He served in the Navy during the war and then in the Diplomatic Service from 1945 to 1983, becoming Ambassador to Chad, Hungary and Portugal and High Commissioner in Canada. In 1977 he succeeded his father as Lord Moran. He sits in the House of Lords as a Cross Bencher (independent), has taken part in many select committees and speaks mainly on the environment, agriculture and Europe.

William Wilson is a barrister and environmental lawyer, and author of Making Environmental Laws Work: Law and Policy in the UK and USA (Hart, 1999), based on a year’s Harkness Fellowship in America. He worked for nearly 10 years in the Solicitor’s Office of the Department of the Environment, DETR and Defra, on UK and European Union environmental legislation, advice and litigation, and was the legal manager of several key bills including the Environment Act 1995 which established the Environment Agency. He divides his time between environmental law at the Bristol law firm Burges Salmon and being a director and co-founder of his own environmental policy company Cambrensis Ltd.

James M. Wilson is Chief Executive and co-founder of Source2, which makes start-up and clean technology investments. In 2006 Source2 organised the recapitalization and took control of Accumentrics, a manufacturer of power supplies and developer of solid oxide fuel cells based in Massachusetts. He is an adviser to Aureos Capital on investments in developing countries, and has set up Madagascar Bamboo to make and export bamboo flooring to the United States. From 1983 to 2005 he was a founding partner of Boston Ventures, a leading U.S. private equity fund that grew to invest over $2billion in six successor funds. Before that he worked at First National Bank of Boston in both London and America, and for the Bank of England.

Contents Page

List of Illustrations

Tenth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium

The new book is available priced £15 from the following outlets in the UK -

Amazon.co.uk

Bertram Books

Gardners Books

Paperbackshop

 

and priced $30 from the following outlets in the U.S.A.-

 

Amazon.com

Baker & Taylor

Barnes & Noble

Cypher

Ingram Book Company

Mathews Medical

NACSCORP

Spring Arbor

Please quote ISBN 978-0-9557193-0-1

For inquiries about wholesale discounts for orders of over 10 copies, fuel cell conferences or similar events, please contact wwilson@cambrensis.org

 

 

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