Edward Frankland: Chemistry, Controversy, and Conspiracy in Victorian England by Colin A. Russell

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 155 single-word entry “portraits.” This specialized book is most likely to appeal to those historians of science who are interested in witnessing the technological genius ofan innovative mind atwork. It is unfortu­ nate, however, that Records ofthe Dawn ofPhotography does not repro­ duce any ofTalbot’s images (though the dustjacket does offer two), despite the fact that Schaaf’s own scholarship has successfully linked these notebooks to several extant examples ofTalbot’s photographic work. Unless already familiar with Talbot’s images, a reader would have little idea what Talbot’s photogenic drawings or calotypes look like, let alone be transported by their elegiac beauty. This decision— quite possibly a financial one beyond Schaaf’s control—seems to me a missed opportunity, since it is often through the visual experi­ ence of seeing the images that a modern reader chooses to seek more information about the images’ technological history. Nonethe­ less, this expertly annotated facsimile edition of Talbot’s notebooks provides an excellentwritten resource for historians of 19th-century science, especially those interested in the early years ofphotographic technology. Elspeth Brown Ms. Brown is a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, currently researching the rela­ tionships among photography, the science of work, and modern consumer culture in the early 20th-century United States. Edward Frankland: Chemistry, Controversy, and Conspiracy in Victorian England. By Colin A. Russell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xx+535; illustrations, figures, tables, notes, index. $100.00 (hardcover). The British chemist Edward Frankland (1825-99) was the illegiti­ mate son of a distinguished British lawyer, and he spent most of his career establishing legitimacy for himself and for his profession. Born into what were, ostensibly, humble circumstances (though per­ haps not those that Samuel Smiles would have admired), Frankland worked his way up to become the leading British chemist of Victo­ rian times and along the way, as Colin Russell makes clear in Edward Frankland: Chemistry, Controversy and Conspiracy in Victorian England, amassed a considerable personal fortune (pp. 514-19). Following a period ofapprenticeship to a pharmacist in Lancaster, northwest England, Frankland traveled to London at the age of twenty-one, where in Lyon Playfair’s Museum of Economic Geology he began to pursue chemical analysis. He attended lectures in chem­ istry and became acquainted with many new applications of chemis­ try as well as with leading chemists, including Hermann Kolbe. This led to a research post in organic chemistry in Robert Bunsen’s Mar­ burg laboratory. It was in Marburg that Frankland met Sophie Fick, 156 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE of impeccable pedigree, who later became his first wife. On re­ turning to England, Frankland taught at a Quaker school, where a fellow teacher wasJohn Tyndall. In 1848, they both left for Marburg to study for doctorates, after which Frankland moved on to Justus von Liebig’s laboratory in Giessen. Back in England, he made his way through a number ofinstitutions that all, in one way or another, served his ultimate purpose. Hejoined Owens College, Manchester, in 1851, and, because of the city’s industrial activities, became en­ gaged in highly lucrative work as a consultant and expert witness and in studies on atmospheric pollution. For the last few years of the East India Company’s existence he taught at its Addiscombe College, then moved on to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, the Royal Institution, and, in 1865, to the Royal College of Chemistry. Frankland contributed much to the theory of valency, to organic synthesis in general, and to what he named organometallic chemis­ try. He also transformed the teaching of chemistry, at the same time providing manufacturers and suppliers oflaboratory equipmentwith greatlyexpanded markets (and no doubt a substantialcommission for himself). It was an age when the practical application of science was synonymous with chemistry, and in which a man, especially a wily entrepreneur such as Frankland, could usefully indulge in a variety of its activities. Of course, there was a price to pay, as Frankland discovered when his money-making activities created problems with the X-Club, an exclusive dining club of influential (mainly London) scientists, and delayed his recognition by the Royal Society. For historians of technology...