Andrew Ure (1778-1857), chemist, succeeded George Birkbeck as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson’s Institution in 1804. Ure had graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1801 and had served, briefly, as an army surgeon in Scotland. Ure continued the mechanics’ class begun by Birkbeck and delivered a very successful course of evening lectures on mechanics and chemistry. This outline of the contents of the evening lectures he delivered to the class in 1822 shows the type and range of subjects he tackled.
Ure was perhaps more famous for his experiments with galvanism. In 1818, he caused a sensation by galvanising the body of an executed criminal and apparently bringing it back to life. Many consider this and similar experiments by other scientists to be the inspiration behind Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein.
Mural showing illustration of Frankenstein's monster on the Graham Hills building, George Street.
In 1830, Ure left Anderson’s University to move to London where he set himself up as a consulting chemist, probably the first in Britain.
