Van beroep “Chemiker”: De opkomst van de industriële chemicus en het polytechnische onderwijs in Duitsland (1790–1850) by Ernst Homburg

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 611 of the Brigittine order had carried on large-scale iron production in the late Middle Ages. “Peder Mansson, Vadstena Abbey and the Iron Trade” discounts the claim that the 16th-century mining manual of Brigittine monk Mansson shows that Vadstena was heavily engaged in the iron industry. The fifth chapter gives a survey of what is known of “Mechani­ cal Clocks in Medieval Sweden.” The sixth explores “Images of Tech­ nology in the Revelations of St. Birgitta.” Gotlind decides that the writings of the great saint of Sweden (and founder of the Brigittines) must be used with caution in the search for evidence concerning Swedish technology of her time. The seventh chapter exhaustively explores “Technological and Workrelated Motifs in Medieval Swedish Wall Paintings.” These wonderful representations on the walls of Swedish churches do show many a tool and machine in their depiction of scripture stories, but Gotlind decides that, with the exception of hunters wearing skis, they really do not tell much about technologies of the northern lands. Indeed, they do not display an unusual interest in technology at all. In concluding, Gotlind quickly recapitulates the various arguments and her negative findings regarding the two main questions. She urges exploration of Swedish secular evidence for technologies during the Middle Ages. White would be pleased, first that his theories had their part in prompting such detailed investigations, and second that his example influenced Gotlind’s interdisciplinary approach to the elucidation of the history of medieval technology. Brian O’Donnell Mr. O’Donneli. is a doctoral student in the STS Program at the Massachusetts institute of Technology. In the fall of 1992 he was a visiting instructor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. y Van beroep “Chemiker”: De opkomst van de industriele chemicus en het polytechnische onderwijs in Duitsland (1790-1850). By Ernst Homburg. Delft: Delft University Press, 1993. Pp. 581; illustrations, tables, notes, appendixes, bibliography, indexes, f 84.80 (paper). The social history of chemistry in Germany during the 18th and 19th centuries can be divided into three phases. In the first period, charac­ terized by Enlightenment utilitarianism, chemistry emancipated itself from being an auxiliary to medicine. According to K. Hufbauer, this movement resulted in the formation of a German chemical community around 1790. The year 1867, when the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft was established, marks the beginning of the well-investigated third period, the heyday of the German chemical profession and the florescence of science-based industry. Literature on the intermediate period is sparse. Traditional treatments of the establishment of the German chemical profession expounded 612 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE the leading role ofJustus Liebig. Of late, following B. Gustin (1975), the heroic role of Liebig has been questioned, and he has been made part of a reform movement in pharmacy that gained momentum at the end of the 18th century. The reformers made practical laboratory training in chemistry an important part of the education of apothecaries, and Liebig built on this practice. Then in 1831 Liebig discovered the organic analysis apparatus, which was to have a revolutionary impact on laboratory training. Liebig’s denial of a watershed between scientists and “higher technicians” eventually made him the founder of the German chemical profession. But, according to Gustin, it was already clear by the 1840s that the university training in chemistry for apothecary appren­ tices and physicians had important potential applications in industry. Ernst ffomburg further tones down Liebig’s role. He concludes that even without Liebig’s intervention, a “Chemiker von Fach” would have arisen in Germany. Homburg also argues that the context in which Liebig operated is incompletely understood if one focuses—as so many scholars did in the last decade—on the reform movement in pharmacy. What enables Homburg to draw such far-reaching conclusions? His starting point is rather simple. If in the first half of the 19th century the occupational structure of German chemists changed, then it must be possible to trace this change in the educational system. Now, although university education has been studied rather well, a thorough investiga­ tion of the evolution of chemical education at German polytechnics had not been carried out before. Homburg’s...