William Hyde Wollaston (6.08.1766 —22.12.1828) was an English scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1793). He was born in Norfolk. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1788) and in 1793 took the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
His work was in the fields of optics, electricity, astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy, crystallography and botany. In 1801 he discovered ultraviolet rays (independently of J. Ritter), in 1802 the chemical action of an electric current, in 1803 the chemical element palladium and in 1804 rhodium. He was the first to notice (1802) the dark lines in the spectrum of the Sun, later known as the “Fraunhofer lines”. In 1802 he designed a refractometer and in 1809 a reflecting goniometer. He developed (1802) a method of measuring the refractive index of solids. He discovered (1804) the phenomenon of dichroism in the passage of light through uniaxial crystals.
A member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Copley Medal (1802).