Emerson Reynolds

James Emerson Reynolds (8 January 1844 – 18 February 1920) was an Irish chemist who was the first scientist to isolate thiourea and developed the "Reynolds's test" for acetone.

Early life and family James Emerson Reynolds was born at 5 Booterstown Avenue, Blackrock, County Dublin on 8 January 1844. His father, James Reynolds, was a doctor, and his mother (née Campbell) was from England. He was named after, Captain Emerson, RN, his great-uncle. He helped in his father's apothecaries’ hall in Booterstown in his youth, and became his assistant when he left school. He became interested in chemistry, and set up a small laboratory at the family home. He published his first two papers in 1861, at age 17, "On a new process for photographic printing" in the British Journal of Photography and "On the oleaginous matter formed on dissolving different kinds of iron in dilute acids" in Chemical News.

On 12 February 1875 he married Janet Elizabeth Finlayson. They had one son, Alfred John and one daughter, Marion Janet Elizabeth. the Chemical Society and the Royal Society. In 1919 he had a serious accident, which was followed by a stroke. He died at his home 3 Inverness Gardens, Kensington on 18 February 1920. The chemistry department in TCD have his original specimen of thiourea on display.