Discoveries
Stenhouse focused on organic chemistry, particularly the chemical products of plants - and the derivatives that could be made from those products - which were of medical or commercial value; e.g., Stenhouse discovered betorcinol, a homologue of orcinol, and erythritol, both of which are found in lichens.
He was the author of many ingenious and useful inventions in dyeing (patents 13 Oct. 1855 and 12 June 1856), waterproofing (patents 8 Jan. 1861 and 21 Jan. 1862), sugar manufacture, and tanning; but he will always be known for his application of the absorbent properties of wood charcoal to disinfecting and deodorising purposes in the form of charcoal air-filters and charcoal respirators, which have proved of great value (patents 19 July 1860 and 21 May 1867). Among other patents which he took out was one for the manufacture of glue (7 May 1857) and another for the manufacture or preparation of materials for sizing or dressing yarns and textile fabrics (29 April 1868).
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“Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses ... merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces—in the beginning, there was spice.”
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