Kipping, Frederick Stanley (1863–1949)

English chemist who pioneered the study of the organic compounds of silicon; he invented the term ‘silicone’, which is now applied to the entire class of oxygen-containing polymers.

Kipping was born near Manchester and educated there. At German chemist Johann von Baeyer's laboratory in Munich, he studied under William Perkin Jr (1860–1929), with whom he was to collaborate. Kipping was professor at University College, Nottingham (later Nottingham University) 1897–1936.

Kipping's early research concentrated on the preparation and properties of optically active camphor derivatives and nitrogen compounds. In 1899 he began to look for stereoisomerism among the organic compounds of silicon, preparing them using the newly available Grignard reagents. He prepared condensation products – the first organosilicon polymers – which he called silicones. To Kipping these were chemical curiosities and it was not until World War II that they found application as substitutes for oils and greases.

Kipping and Perkin co-wrote Organic Chemistry (1894), a standard work for the next 50 years.