Arthur Aikin

Arthur Aikin ( born May 19, 1773 in Warrington, Lancashire, † April 15, 1854 in London) was an English chemist, mineralogist and author.

Aikin was the son of the physician and writer John Aikin (1747-1822) and the older brother of Lucy Aikin (1781-1864), a biographer and historical writer. Also, his aunt Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a well known author.

He studied at the Warrington Academy, a school of nonconformists, where his father had been informed already. 1786, he began an apprenticeship to a Unitarian preacher, but broke it off for reasons of conscience. He learned early on Joseph Priestley know, a former teacher of the Warrington Academy and discoverer of oxygen who helped him in his studies of chemistry, mineralogy and botany. He published several works on mineralogy of England.

In 1807 he was one of the 13 founders of the Geological Society and was from 1811 to 1817 one of its secretary. He resigned the office to undertake the same task at the Royal Society of Arts, a position he held for 23 years. In 1841 he was treasurer of the Chemical Society. He was also a member of the Linnean Society since 1818.

Works

• Journal of a Tour through North Wales and Part of Shropshire with Observations in Mineralogy and Other Branches of Natural History, London 1797.
• A Manual of Mineralogy, 1814.
• A Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy, 2 vols, London 1807 and 1814.

Honors

The 1843 mineral discovered and described aikinite was named after him.