ABSTRACT
Alexander William Williamson was born at Wands worth on May 1, 1824. His father, Alexander Williamson, came from Elgin as a boy, and in 1820 married the daughter of William McAndrew, a Scotsman settled in London as a merchant. In April, 1844, Williamson went to Giessen and entered the famous laboratory under Liebig. He lived for two years in the house of Professor Hillebrand, the professor of philosophy. A subject which seems to have occupied much of Williamson's thought during his first year at Giessen was the theory of galvanism, and in writing to his parents in 1845 he often refers to the experiments he is making in electricity. Alexander Williamson lived till the beginning of the twentieth century, but the work which he did in chemistry was limited to a period of a few years in the middle of the nineteenth.
