Frances Mary Hamer

Frances Mary Hamer (1894–1980) was a British chemist who specialized in the sensitization compounds used for photographic processing for which she held many patents. She was very active in the Allied efforts to enhance aerial photography during World War I.

Life Frances was born on 14 October 1894 to Sir William Heaton Hamer (1862–1936) and Agnes Conan in Kentish Town, London. Her father studied medicine at Cambridge and in 1912 was named Medical Officer of Health of the London County Council.

Education Hamer attended the same school as her mother and aunts on both sides of the family, the North London Collegiate School. Hamer was named after the founder of the school, and her godmother, educator Frances Mary Buss. Hamer graduated in 1916 and that same year, she read chemistry at Girton College, Cambridge.

Wartime chemist

Even as an undergraduate at Girton during the first World War, Hamer joined the research group of Sir William Pope who was investigating a reliable synthetic photographic sensitizer. They needed a substitute for the chemical pinacyanol (invented by a German company in 1905 and used by them to their advantage during the war), which when incorporated into photographic plates improved their sensitivity toward the red end of the visible spectrum. By using pinacyanol, the photographs taken by German planes showed much more detail than those taken by Allied pilots of German battlefronts. During her time at Ilford and Kodak, she authored more than 70 research papers and filed many patents. In the process she discovered new classes of photographic sensitizers. ). When Hamer moved to Kodak in 1934, Fisher followed, and together they authored seven publications and several patents.

Mills, William Hobson, and Frances Mary Hamer. "CCXLI.—The quaternary salts of quinaldinic acid." Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions 121 (1922): 2008-2014. Hamer, Frances Mary. "CCCCXVIII.—Carbocyanine dyes with substituents attached to the three-carbon chain." Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed) (1928): 3160-3163. Fisher, Nellie I., and Frances M. Hamer. "A comparison of the absorption spectra of some typical symmetrical cyanine dyes." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A-Mathematical and Physical Sciences 154.883 (1936): 703-723. Hamer, Frances M., and Russell J. Rathbone. "Thiazinocyanines. Part II. Cyanines containing the dihydro-1: 3-thiazine nucleus." Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed) (1943): 243-249. Hamer, Frances M. "Some chain-substituted methincyanines and styryl dyes." Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed) (1956): 1480-1498. Hamer, Frances M. The Cyanine Dyes and Related Compounds. New York: Interscience Publishers, 1964. Print.

Selected patents Some 32 patents are credited to Hammer.

Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of dyes, GB GB351555A, Frances Mary Hamer Improvements in the manufacture of dyestuffs and intermediates therefor, US GB GB413300A, Frances Mary Hamer Improvements in and relating to the manufacture of cyanine dyes and their use …, US DE FR GB GB419361A, Frances Mary Hamer Improvements in the manufacture of intermediates for the production of dyes, in …, US BE FR GB GB629123A, Frances Mary Hamer Improvements in the manufacture of cyanine and related dyes, US GB GB455710A, Frances Mary Hamer Preparation of cyanines comprising a single ring nucleus, GB GB369947A, Frances Mary Hamer 2-amino-and 2-alkylthio-4-(2-furyl) thiazoles, CA CA479467A, Frances Mary Hamer