Hans Sloane

• Died: 1753

Hans Sloane is known as the founder of the British Museum. His personal collection of some 71,000 items, bequeathed to the English nation upon his death in 1753, formed the core of what was then established that same year as the British Museum.

His collection included, among items from around the world, objects from the collection of Engelbert Kaempfer, which he obtained shortly after Kaempfer's death in 1716. Sloane also published an English translation of Kaempfer's History of Japan.

Sloane is also credited with the invention of the drink hot chocolate; having been introduced to chocolate as a rather bitter thing during a visit to Jamaica, he experimented with mixing the chocolate with hot milk, sugar, and gin, thus producing a drink that was rather more palatable and which he claimed aided in digestion.