Abel, Frederick Augustus, Sir

1827 - Born on the 17th of July in London.

1851 - He studied chemistry for six years under A.W. Von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry, then
             became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy.

1854 - He was appointed chemist to the War Department and chemical referee to the government.

1868 - His first instrument, the open-test apparatus, was specified in an Act of Parliament.

1877 - He was president of the Institute of Electrical Engineers.

1879 - He close-test instrument by August much more reliable.

1885 - He took an important part in the work of the Inventions Exhibition in London.

1887 - He became a member of the Royal Society and received a royal medal.

         - He became organizing secretary and first director of the Imperial Institute, a position he held until

                 his death.

1888 - He carried out a large amount of work in connection with the chemistry of explosives.

1891 - He and Sir James Dewar jointly invented The "smokeless powder" which came into general use

                towards the end of the 19th century

         - He became a knight.

1895 - He and Dewar were unsuccessfully sued by Alfred Nobel over infringement of Nobel's patent  for a
            similar explosive called ballistite.

1897 - He studied the construction of electrical fuses and other applications of electricity to warlike purposes.

1902 - He died on the 6th of September and was buried in Nunhead Cemetery, one of London's Magnificient
           Seven cemeteries.