one of the pioneers of the scientific study of coals and of the many varied forms of solid carbon, died recently at the age of 86 years at Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. He was well known for his many and lucid writings concerned with the structure of coals and solid carbons and for his studies of carbonization processes.
His early scientific research was concerned with the chemistry of complex organo-metallic salts. He also contributed to the development of phthalic anhydride manufacture.
Dr. Riley was born on Sept. 7th, 1899 at Kieghley, Yorkshire. His early education was interrupted by army service in France between 1917 and 1919 and was later continued at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, where he graduated with B.Sc Honours in Chemistry (1921) and A.R.C.S. He was an Otto Beit Scientific Research Fellow at the Royal College of Science and was appointed demonstrator, and later lecturer, in Chemistry. He continued his scientific studies in this period, working initially under H. B. Baker, with whom he published a major scientific paper (1926) on the determination of the atomic weight of silver. He was awarded a D. Sc. in 1930. Between 1924 and 1934 he carried out research with various collaborators and published some 25 papers in various scientific journals. They were concerned chiefly with the formation, behavior and electrochemistry of complex organo-metallic salts of the transition elements, copper, cobalt and nickel. Later research on the oxidative reactions of selenium dioxide formed the basis of several joint patents with Imperial Chemical Industries.