(1850-1885) English metallurgist and inventor who, with his cousin Percy Gilchrist, developed a process for removing phosphorus impurities from the iron melted during steel manufacture.
Thomas was born in London and for most of his life worked as a police-court clerk. His deep interest was in industrial chemistry; he experimented systematically at home and attended the laboratories of various chemistry teachers.
The steel produced from phosphoric ores (such as most British, French, German, and Belgian iron ore) was brittle and of little use. Towards the end of 1875 Thomas arrived at a theoretical solution to the problem of how to dephosphorize pig iron when it was loaded into a Bessemer converter. He thought of adding lime, or the chemically similar magnesia or magnesian limestone, to the lining of the converter or furnace. Gilchrist, a chemist at a large ironworks, helped him try out this idea, and Thomas's patent was filed in 1878. The slag that formed as a by-product of this process found use in the developing artificial fertilizer industry.

(1785-1859) US clock manufacturer. Establishing his own firm 1812, he became enormously successful in the manufacture of affordable shelf clocks. In 1853 the firm was reorganized as the Seth Thomas Clock Company and continued to prosper into the 20th century.
Born in Wolcott, Connecticut, Thomas trained as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. In 1807 he joined a partnership in Plymouth, Connecticut, for the production of clocks. Seth Thomas Clock Company's headquarters were based in Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut, now renamed Thomaston.

St (lived 1st century AD) In the New Testament, one of the 12 Apostles, said to have preached in S India, hence the ancient churches there were referred to as the “Christians of St Thomas”. He is not the author of the Gospel of St Thomas, the Gnostic collection of Jesus’ sayings.R(onald) S(tuart) (1913-) Welsh poet. His verse contrasts traditional Welsh values with encroaching “English” sterility. His poems, including The Stones of the Field 1946, Song at the Year’s Turning 1955, and Laboratories of the Spirit 1975, excel at the portrayal of the wild beauty of the Welsh landscape and the religious spirit that the harshness of life there engenders.

(1884-1968) US political leader, six times Socialist candidate for president 1928–48. One of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union 1920, he also served as a director of the League for Industrial Democracy 1922–37. He was a brilliant speaker and published A Socialist’s Faith 1951.
Born in Marion, Ohio, US, Thomas graduated from Princeton University 1905 and after study at the Union Theological Seminary was ordained a Presbyterian minister 1911. As pastor of the East Harlem Church he first confronted the problem of urban poverty and joined the Socialist Party 1918, leaving the ministry for political activism two years later.
By 1950, he noted, most of his so-called radical platform had been adopted by the US, such as Social Security and public-health programs.

(1944-) US conductor and pianist. He was appointed principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra 1988. An enthusiastic proponent of “authentic” restorations of modern repertoire, he has championed US composers. He has made first recordings of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music 1983, the complete symphonies of Charles Ives, and a reconstruction of George Gershwin’s original Rhapsody in Blue.
His career was launched 1969 when he took over from an unwell William Steinberg in the middle of a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert, subsequently becoming principal guest conductor for the orchestra 1969–74.

(Jackson) (1892-1981) US journalist, a radio commentator for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) 1930–76. Traveling to all World War II theaters of combat and to remote areas of the world, he became one of America's best-known journalists.
Born in Woodington, Ohio, Thomas was educated at Northern Indiana University and the University of Denver and joined the staff of the Chicago Journal 1912. After receiving an MA from Princeton 1915, he served as a special observer for President Wilson during World War I. His first-person account of the Arab Revolt was published as With Lawrence in Arabia 1924.

(1913-1993) US physician and academic, best known as a writer of essays on science, especially medicine and biology, for the nonscientist. Essays include The Lives of a Cell 1974 and Medusa and the Snail 1979.

(Philip) (1878-1917) English poet and prose writer. He met the US poet Robert Frost and began writing poetry under his influence. His poems, like his essays, were quiet, stern, melancholy evocations of rural life. Poems was published Oct 1917 after his death in World War I, followed by Last Poems 1918.

(1914-1953) Welsh poet. His poems, characterized by complex imagery and a strong musicality, include the celebration of his 30th birthday Poem in October and the evocation of his youth Fern Hill 1946. His “play for voices” Under Milk Wood 1954 describes with humor and compassion a day in the life of the residents of a small Welsh fishing village, Llareggub. The short stories of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog 1940 are autobiographical.
Born in Swansea, son of the English teacher at the local grammar school where he was educated, he worked as a reporter on the South Wales Evening Post, then settled as a journalist in London and published his first volume Eighteen Poems 1934.

(1948-) US Supreme Court justice (1991– ). Born in Savannah, Georgia, he received a law degree from Yale University Law School (1974). President Reagan appointed him head of the civil rights division of the Department of Education 1981 and the head of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission 1982. Thomas served there until 1990, when President Bush appointed him a justice on the US Court of Appeals. It was widely believed that his Republican views and opposition to abortion, rather than his legal experience, caused him to be nominated to the Supreme Court the following year, and the nomination was not supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which would normally back a black nominee. After extremely bitter and sensational confirmation hearings, in which he was accused of sexual harassment by former colleague Anita Hill, Thomas was confirmed by the Senate by 52 votes to 48, the narrowest margin for any nominee to the Supreme Court in the 20th century, and took his seat on the Court.

1. City in West Virginia (USA); zip code 26292.
2. The Apostle who would not believe the resurrection of Jesus until he saw Jesus with his own eyes; Also called: doubting Thomas, Thomas the doubting Apostle.
3. Town in Oklahoma (USA); zip code 73669.