Charles Romley Alder Wright

Charles Romley Alder Wright (7 September 1844 – 25 June 1894) was an English lecturer in chemistry and physics at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, England. He was a founder of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. He also discovered aluminium antimonide.

Biography Wright was born in Southend, Essex on 7 September 1844, to Romley Wright and Elizabeth Alder.

In 1881, Wright was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). He also acted as an Examiner for the University of Durham and the Royal College of Physicians and the City and Guilds of London.

Wright died from complications due to diabetes mellitus on 25 June 1894, at forty-nine years of age. He was described in one obituary as "an ardent and thorough investigator in the field of chemical and physical science." At the Annual General Meeting of March 27, 1895, President Henry Edward Armstrong of the Chemical Society of London lamented his loss:

Scientific contributions Wright was extremely versatile, having initially considered and trained for a profession in engineering. This allowed him to make diverse contributions to the chemical field. also known as heroin.

After Wright's death, Heinrich Dreser, a chemist at Bayer Laboratories, continued to test heroin. Bayer marketed it as an analgesic

AlSb, aluminium antimonide In 1892, Wright was the first to report the existence of the stoichiometric intermetallic compound AlSb (aluminium antimonide), which is now recognized as a compound semiconductor with potential use in high-frequency, low-power consumption microelectronics applications, as well as gamma radiation detection.

Other contributions In addition to his researches in organic chemistry, Wright published works on numerous topics including soap, photographic and waterproof papers, canvas goods, insulating materials, disinfectants, metallurgy, iron smelting, manganese dioxide, ternary alloys and chemical dynamics.