George Finch (chemist)
George Ingle Finch (* August 4, 1888 in Australia, † November 22, 1970 ) was an Australian chemist and mountaineer. He grew up in the German speaking part of Switzerland and later studied physics at the University of Geneva. Between 1936 and 1952 he was a professor of Applied Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Life and work
Finch had applied for the 1921er reconnaissance expedition to Everest Committee, which had the Royal Geographical Society founded together with the Alpine Club, but had been rejected because of alleged health concerns. The rejection was more likely explained by the "non- adjustment" of Finch in the " Oxbridge " club culture of the Alpine Club.
Finch was then but a member of the second British expedition on Mount Everest under the leadership of Brigadier General Charles G. Bruce. Finch had previously undertaken with Georges Dreyer extensive trials at the University of Glasgow on the use of bottled oxygen, including tests in vacuum chambers where heights could be simulated 9000-10000 meters. As a result of these experiments Finch became the most convincing advocate of the use of so-called " English air ," a quip that then dominated the Sherpas of the 1922er expedition to bottled oxygen. Finch's medical studies on the use of bottled oxygen in the death zone remained until 1980 crucial for many more expeditions to the 8000ern. Even the skeptical George Mallory had the services Finch and other so confident in experimental walking with oxygen at high altitudes that the last summit attempt Mallory was carried out with oxygen - the one experiment in which Mallory and his companion Andrew Irvine died.
On May 23, 1922 reached Finch and Captain J. Geoffrey Bruce, the cousin of the expedition leader, a height of 27300 feet (about 8330 meters) on the north face of Mount Everest before they repent. He fell out with the Everest Committee after 1922 because of disputes over book and lecture fees and subsequently took no part in the expedition in 1924 to Everest. ( The Everest Committee had all the photo, lecturing and publishing rights reserved restrictive, but Finch - not the only - dealt with lectures in Switzerland).
In the Alps, was Finch first ascent of the north face diagonals ( or " Finch Route") on Hérens that he ascended along with TGB Forster and R. Peto on August 2, 1923. Finch was founded in 1938 as a member ( "Fellow" ) of the Royal Society elected and won the 1944 Hughes Medal. He was a lifelong advocate and supporter of the Alpine Club, even though he is a part of the members critical of in the 1920s because of his humble origins, his education away from the English schools and his conduct as a loner and " Leaderless " the mountains of the Alps. Finch was later president of the Alpine Club.