University Of Birmingham
University Of Birmingham
the earliest beginnings of the university were previously traced back to the Queen's College which is linked to William Sands Cox in his aim of creating a medical school along strictly Christian lines, unlike the London medical schools, further research has now revealed the roots of the Birmingham Medical School in the medical education seminars of Mr John T, the first surgeon to the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary, and later to the General Hospital. These classes were the first ever held outside London or south of the Scottish border in the winter of 1767–68. The first clinical teaching was undertaken by medical and surgical apprentices at the General Hospital, opened in 1779.[15] The medical school which grew out of the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary was founded in 1828 but Cox began teaching in December 1825. Queen Victor her patronage to the Clinical Hospital in Birmingham and allowed it to be styled "The Queen's Hospital". It was the first provincial teaching hospital in England. In 1843, the medical college became known as Queen's College.[16]
In 1870, Sir Josiah Mason, the Birmingham industrialist and philanthropist, who made his fortune in making key rings, pens, pen nibs and electroplating, drew up the Foundation Deed for Mason Science College.[3] The college was founded in 1875.[2] It was this institution that would eventually form the nucleus of the University of Birmingham. In 1882, the Departments of Chemistry, Botany and Physiology were transferred to Mason Science College, soon followed by the Departments of Physics and Comparative Anatomy. The transfer of the Medical School to Mason Science College gave considerable impetus to the growing importance of that college and in 1896 a move to incorporate it as a university college was made. As the result of the Mason University College Act 1897 it became incorporated as Mason University College on 1 January 1898, with Joseph Chamberlain becoming the President of its Court of Governors.It was largely due to Chamberlain's enthusiasm that the university was granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 24 March 1900.[17] The family offered twenty-five acres (10 hectares) of land on the side of their estate in July. The Court of Governors received the Birmingham University Act 1900, which put the royal charter into effect on 31 May. Birmingham was therefore arguably the first so-called red brick university, although several other universities claim this title.The transfer of Mason University College to the new University of Birmingham, with Chamberlain as its first chancellor and Sir Oliver Lodge as the first principal, was complete. All that remained of Josiah Mason's legacy was his Mermaid in the sinister chief of the university shield and of his college, the double-headed lion in the .[18] It became the first civic and campus university in England.[citation needed]The University Charter of 1900 also included provision for a commerce faculty, as was appropriate for a university itself founded by industrialists and based in a city with enormous business wealth, in effect creating the first Business School in England.[citation needed] Consequently, the faculty, the first of its kind in Britain, was founded by Sir William Ashley in 1901, who from 1902 until 1923 served as first Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty.From 1905 to 1908, Edward Elgar held the position of Professor of Music at the university. He was succeeded by his friend .[19]The university's own heritage archives are accessible for research through the university's Research Library which is open to all interested researchers.[20]The Great Hall in the Aston Webb Building was converted into the 1st Southern General Hospital during World War One, with 520 beds and treated 125,000 injured servicemen.[21]The university has been involved in many scientific breakthroughs and inventions. From 1925 until 1948, Sir Norm Professor and Director of the Department of Chemistry. He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Science and acted as Vice-Principal from 1947 until 1948. His research focused predominantly on carbohydrate chemistry in which he confirmed a number of structures of optically active sugars. By 1928, he had deduced and confirmed the structures of maltose, ,lactose, , as well as the ring structure of sugars. His research helped to define the basic features of the starch, cellulose, glycogen, and molecules. He also contributed towards solving the problems with bacterial He was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1937.[25]The cavity was developed in the Department of Physics by Sir John Randall, Harry Boot and James Sayers. This was vital to the Allied victory in World War II. In 1940, the memorandum, a document which demonstrated that the atomic bomb was more than simply theoretically possible, was written in the Physics Department by Sir Rudolf The university also hosted early work on gaseous diffusion in the Chemistry department when it Sir Mark made a proposal for the construction of a proton- in 1943, however he made no assertion that the machine would work. In 1945, phase stability was discovered; consequently, the proposal was revived, and construction of a machine that could surpass began at the university. However, because of lack of funds, the machine did not start until 1953. The National Laboratory managed to beat them; they started their in 1952, and get it entirely working in 1953, before the University of Birmingham.[26]In 1947, Sir Pet was appointed Mason Professor of Zoology at the university. His work involved investigating the phenomenon of tolerance and transplantation immunity. He collaborated with Rupert E. and they did research on problems of pigmentation and skin grafting in cattle. They utilized skin grafting to differentiate between and in cattle. Taking the earlier research of R. D. Owen into consideration, they concluded that actively acquired tolerance of could be artificially reproduced. For this research, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He left Birmingham in 1951 and joined the faculty at University College London, where he continued his research on transplantation immunity. He was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1960.