Frederick Settle Barff

Frederick Settle Barff (6 October 1822 – 11 August 1886)

He is best known as a chemist, having invented several important preservation methods for a range of materials, including iron, stone, wood and foodstuffs. Several of his stained glass windows still survive throughout Ireland and the north of England. where he earned a BA in 1844, followed by an MA in 1847. After graduating, he was ordained at Peterborough before, in 1852, converting to Catholicism. Location Building Date Works St Johnstown St Baithen's Church 1860 Stained glass, high altar and side altar Gargary St Patrick's Church 1860ca Altar and tabernacle. Newtowncunningham Church 1860ca Stained glass in chancel and W gable Letterkenny Loreto Convent 1861 Stained-glass window in chapel. Glenvar Church of St Mary Star of the Sea 1862 Altar and reredos panels filled with enamel work Galway Congretational Church 1862 Stained glass window Monaghan St Patrick's Church 1862 Lord Rossmore testimonial window. Dublin St Catherine's Church 1862 High altar window, stereochromic painting Dublin St Paul's Church 1862–1863 Decoration Dublin St Patrick's Cathedral 1862 & 1863 Ascension window in S. transept, 1862. Window in N transept. Celtic Revival clerestory windows, 1863. Mullagh Church 1862ca Caen stone altar. Dublin Shop(?) No. 93–94, Ryan Bros 1863 Decoration. Ballinasloe St Michael's Church ? Stained glass window in apse. Carlow St Patrick's College 1858ca Chapel decoration Dublin St Mary's Pro-Cathedral ? Decoration Ardcath St Mary's Church ? High altar.

During this period, Barff gave a lecture on Decorative Art to the Dublin Mechanics Institute and successfully patented several processes associated with his work, one of which won honourable mention during the 1862 International Exhibition. Oct. 1860 An improved self-acting apparatus for extinguishing candles in lamps or otherwise. July 1861 A new or improved process for the induration and preservation of stone and other analogous absorbent substances or materials, which process is also applicable for the production of artificial stone. June 1863 An improved means of protecting, preserving, and hardening surfaces of brick, cement, stone, stucco, and other analogous substances, which invention is also applicable to the preservation of timber.

The company continued to operate until 1864, when it went bankrupt, at which time Barff returned to England. a role he was first awarded in 1873. to form a layer of tri-iron tetroxide(Fe3O4), which proved much cheaper than traditional galvanisation. The method was subsequently improved by George Bower, after which the process became known as the Bower–Barff process. The Bower-Barff Rustless Iron Co. had works in Southwark and New York, the latter supplying cast-iron for many of the city's landmark buildings. primarily for the preservation of meats but which subsequently found many medical uses. It is still used in some parts of the world as an oral antiseptic in the treatment of mouth ulcers. A caricature of Barff, contemplating a barrel of boro glycerine, appeared in an 1882 edition of Punch as No.84 of the Fancy Portraits series.

Barff's design experiments to remove noxious elements from the exhaust products of combustion in locomotives and similar furnaces, a precursor to the catalytic converter, were met with some ridicule as the weight of reagents needed were almost equal to the weight of fuel burned. 1876 A process by which iron is preserved from rusting (forerunner to the Bower–Barff process)

Death Barff died of complications associated with diabetes at Buckingham, and was buried with his wife Margaretta in Kensal Green Cemetery.