British Chemists Research Articles

Lynn Margulis (1938–2011)

Lynn Margulis (1938–2011)

Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham, Chemistry was their life: Pioneering British women chemists, 1880–1949

The incentive for writing this book was another book published by the Chemical Society about 60 years ago, titled British Chemists [1] that completely ignored women—as if there had not been any women among the chemists of earlier generations. The authors felt that the early women chemists in Britain, quite a few of them working already as early as the late 19th century, deserve credit. The book wholly justifies this. As the Introduction tells us, these women chemists rarely received recognition; most of them were unmarried and could never play a leading role in the profession. But they were most enthusiastic about and dedicated to chemistry—this is what must have given them the strength to fight all barriers. The first of these barriers was getting a secondary education (Chapter 1, ‘‘Setting the Scene’’) and then being accepted to a university. In secondary schools— as the Rayner-Canhams argue—throughout the early 20th century, there was ambivalence about why girls need an academic education at all. It was assumed that most girls would become wives and mothers and only a small minority would be interested in pursuing a career. Who would then be the curriculum aimed at? This reminds us of the American movie, Mona Lisa Smile, set in the 1950s in a rich private New England liberal arts college for women, where even some of the most intelligent and interested girls thought that their role in life was to be a good housewife and mother—and only that. If this was still the attitude in the United States in the 1950s, certainly it was even more so in the late 19th and early 20th century probably everywhere. It is quite astounding to read how relatively early, already in the late 19th century, the demand for university education appeared among women. The authors ascribe this to several factors. In the second half of the 19th century, several women’s organizations were established that stood up for higher education for middle-class women. In fact, middle-class women started to look much farther than ever before when planning their future. Several magazines supported this attitude. One example from an article in 1914 [2]: ‘‘Woman is taking to herself a new significance. She is discovering that she, as well as man, has another M. Hargittai (&) Materials Structure and Modeling Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, P.O. Box 91, 1521 Budapest, Hungary e-mail: hargittaim@mail.bme.hu

Frederick Soddy—Pioneer in Radioactivity

rederick Soddy, a British chemist, won the 1921 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his contributions to the knowl-edge of the chemistry of radioactive substances and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes. In 1913, he was the first to announce the concept that atoms can be identical chemically and yet have different atomic weights. These related atoms are called isotopes, a word coined by Soddy, meaning same or equal place (Greek, isos topos). Soddy, the youngest of 7 children of a London mer-chant, was born on September 2, 1877, in Eastbourne, Sus-sex, in southern England (about 60 miles south of London). Soddy’s mother died when he was 2 years old, and he was raised by a half sister. He attended the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, a seaport town in western Wales, for 1 year (1893-1894) before entering Merton College, Oxford University, in 1895, where he majored in chemistry; Wil-liam Ramsay (1852-1916) was one of his teachers. After re-ceiving his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1898, Soddy conducted independent research at Oxford University for 2 years (1898-1900). In 1900, Soddy went to Canada to pursue postgraduate work at McGill University, Montreal, with Ernest Ruther-ford (1871-1937). Soddy remained in Canada until 1902, during which time he and Rutherford announced a general theory of radioactive disintegration. From 1903 to 1904, Soddy worked with his former teacher Ramsay, now at the University College in London. At the University Col-lege, Soddy identified helium as a product of the decay of radium. In 1904, he became a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, a position he held until 1914. In 1910, Soddy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1914, Soddy accepted the position of professor of physical chemistry at the University of Aberdeen (Scot-land), where he remained until 1919, when he became professor of inorganic and physical chemistry at Oxford University. In 1920 while at Oxford, Soddy predicted that, because the rates of radioactive decay were known, iso-topes could be used to determine the geologic age of rocks and fossils. This prediction was later fulfilled, leading to the development of modern radioactive dating techniques, which were devised by American physicist Willard Libby (1908-1980) in the 1940s, for which he won the 1960 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Soddy wrote extensively in the field of his expertise; 2 of his best known books are Matter and Energy (1912) and The Story of Atomic Energy (1949). After his wife died in 1936, Soddy retired from Oxford University at the age of 59 years. After his time in Glasgow, Soddy withdrew from active research in chemistry and radioactivity and devoted his time to economic, social, and political theory and wrote several books on these subjects. He became a controversial figure and an outspoken critic on social issues, blaming scientists for their disregard of the social consequences of their work, including his own work on radioactivity. Soddy received many honors and awards besides the Nobel Prize. On September 22, 1956, at the age of 79 years, he died in Brighton, Sussex. He was honored on a stamp (Scott No. 1389) issued by Sweden in 1981. The stamp is one in a set of 3 stamps honoring 1921 Nobel Prize win-ners. The others honored were Albert Einstein (1979-1955) in physics and Anatole France (1844-1924) in literature.

O primeiro curso regular de química no Brasil

Chemistry gradually became a discipline in a number of institutions in Brazil after the arrival of the Portuguese court in 1808. The first of these was the Royal Military Academy in Rio de Janeiro, founded by the Prince Regent in 1810. Due to lack of local personnel for the post of Professor of Chemistry the British chemist Daniel Gardner was hired. He occupied that chair until his retirement in 1825. In this article we discuss the circumstances involving the creation of that chair, its occupant and the contents of his course.

Insights into the history of chemistry

From Atoms to Molecules is part of the ongoing Variorum series of collected essays by senior scholars in history of science. The articles are photographically reproduced from their original source with the original pagination, allowing scholars to cite the original source. This collection is by Colin Russell, a prominent historian of chemistry who has been active since the 1960s. The collection in this volume contains eighteen essays published between 1959 and 2005. The first eight articles discuss the early electrochemical theories of Humphry Davy and Jakob Berzelius, and most of the remainder discuss issues in the history of nineteenthand twentieth-century organic chemistry, making this volume an excellent companion to Russell’s book on the history of valence and his biography of the English chemist Edward Frankland (Russell 1971, 1996). Two of the articles included usefully supplement Russell’s biography of Frankland. The first considers the relationship, or more correctly, the lack of one, between Frankland and the great German chemist August Kekule. Despite being two of the most predominant and influential chemists of their generation, they did not correspond or interact with each other in any significant way, a fact that Russell attributes to a number of factors, including rivalry over credit for valence theory (although Frankland never mentioned this publicly) and the fact that because of geographic and cultural differences they never spent extended periods of time together and therefore had no compelling reason to correspond (XII—the roman numerals are the ones assigned to each article in the volume). An article published in the year 2000 on Frankland’s invention of chemical techniques highlights Frankland’s practical ability to make simple modifications of existing common chemical apparatus, many of which were outlined in his book How to Teach Chemistry (1875) and were perhaps influenced by his early training in pharmacy. Russell describes many of Frankland’s techniques, but the simplest and longest

Frederic Stanley Kipping—Pioneer in Silicon Chemistry: His Life & Legacy

Frederic Stanley Kipping FRS is regarded as one of the founding fathers of silicon chemistry. In 57 research papers published between 1899 and 1944 he reported the first use of Grignard reagents to make alkylsilanes and arylsilanes and the prepartion of silicone oligomers and polymers. He coined the term ‘silicone’ in relation to these materials in 1904. His research formed the foundation for James Franklyn Hyde’s development of the first silicon based insulation materials at Corning Glass Works and then Dow Corning Corp., as well as inspiring Eugene G. Rochow’s work at General Electric Company in the development of the ‘direct method’ of silicone synthesis using silicon hydrides. Kipping was the first Sir Jesse Boot Professor of Chemistry at Nottingham University College and was married to Lily Holland whose sisters, Mina and Kathleen were married to two other prominent early 20th century British Chemists, William H. Perkin Jr. FRS and Arthur Lapworth FRS. This paper provides an insight into Professor Kipping’s life, personality and career.

The 2009 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting: Sir Harold Kroto, Chemistry 1996

English Chemist Harold Kroto shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for their discovery of Fullerenes (C(60;)), molecules composed completely of carbon (C(60;)) that form hollow spheres (also known as Buckyballs), tubes, or ellipsoids. These structures hold the potential for use in future technologies ranging from drug development and antimicrobial agents, to armor and superconductors. Harold Kroto was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire in 1939 and grew up in Bolton. Educated at Bolton School, he entered Sheffield University in 1958 to study Chemistry. During his time there he played tennis for the university team, illustrated the university's magazine covers, and played folk music with other students. Enjoying his time at Sheffield very much, he chose to stay on and complete a Ph.D. in Chemistry under Richard Dixon. Following graduation in 1964, Kroto went on to post doc at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottowa, Canada where microwave spectroscopy became his specialty. After two years of study at the NRC he spent a year at Bell Laboratories. He then accepted a position as a tutorial fellow at the University of Sussex, where he was soon offered a permanent position. There, he applied his expertise in microwave spectroscopy to the field of astronomy and spent several fruitful years detecting long carbon chains in the interstellar medium. Upon hearing of the work of Richard Smalley at Rice, who developed a laser that could vaporize graphite, Kroto thought they could use Smalley's instrument to see carbon chains similar to those they had observed in interstellar matter. He suggested his idea for an experiment to Bob Curl, also at Rice. In 1985 he traveled to Rice to perform the experiment (and also to visit a half-price bookstore he'd heard about in Houston). Although he felt certain that the apparatus would create the carbon chains, the experiment revealed a totally unexpected result: the spontaneous formation of spherical shapes, which they called Buckminster Fullerenes in honor of the architect who popularized the geodesic dome. Though he is pleased to have received the Nobel Prize, Kroto does not believe in prizes or competition as a motivator for scientific (or athletic) progress. Rather, he believes that the pursuit of science or athletics should be simply for the enjoyment or interest in the subject matter, and he prefers to investigate subjects that other people aren't working on. Kroto has mixed feelings about the effect the prize has had on his life. On the one hand, he would like to be able to spend more time pursuing graphic design, something he has always deeply enjoyed. On the other hand, he now enjoys a sense of responsibility for supporting the scientific community. As an atheist, Kroto feels that science is, in itself, atheistic. He doesn't accept anything without evidence. Kroto expresses concern about people holding positions of power who do not use evidence as a basis for decision-making. "When they are prepared to accept one of 20-30 stories from thousands of years ago, I wonder what else they are prepared to accept when it comes to decisions which affect me?" Kroto is particularly worried about the effect of policies that require the teaching of non-scientific ideas, to the detriment of evidence-based scientific education. He points to the forced teaching of creationism in public schools and the existence of a "creation museum" in the United States as sources of misinformation that have given rise to "a whole generation of school children who've been abused."

Benjamin R. Cohen . Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil, and Society in the American Countryside . New Haven : Yale University Press . 2009 . Pp. xii, 272. $55.00.

Claiming that there is a prevailing view that agricultural chemistry only became known in the United States with the publications of the German chemist Justus Liebig in 1840 or possibly even earlier with those of the British chemist Humphry Davy in 1813, Benjamin R. Cohen has examined many published and unpublished writings from 1790 to 1840 and finds plenty of what he calls “georgic science” in the work of John Spurrier of Delaware, Samuel Deane of Maine, and Daniel Adams of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. These works grew out of what Cohen calls the “Georgic Tours” of England in the 1770s and 1780s in reference to the influence of Englishman Arthur Young's agricultural writings on prominent American gentlemen “improvers” such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Since many American soils were losing their fertility as measured in crop yields per acre, even before 1800, a landowner would be interested in almost any kind of improvement, including soil and fertilizer experiments in particular. Some landowners performed their own experiments over many years and even decades; other experiments were carried out by slaves, who hauled hundreds of bushels of marl and other heavy substances to fields and spread them around.

The age of wonder: how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science

Richard Holmes, prize-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley, explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of 18th century in his ground-breaking new biography 'The Age of Wonder'. 'The Age of Wonder' is Richard Holmes's first major work of biography in over a decade. It has been inspired by the scientific ferment that swept through Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, 'The Age of Wonder' and which Holmes now radically redefines as 'the revolution of Romantic Science'. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, hoping to discover Paradise. Many other voyages of discovery swiftly follow, while Banks, now President of the Royal Society in London, becomes our narrative guide to what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder. Banks introduces us to the two scientific figures that dominate the book: astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphry Davy.Herschel's tireless dedication to the stars, assisted (and perhaps rivalled) by his comet-finding sister Caroline, changed forever the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the meaning of the universe itself. Davy first shocked the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments in Bristol, then went on to save thousands of lives with his Safety Lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. But at the cost, perhaps, of his own heart. Holmes proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and deep space, the creative rivalry with the French scientific establishment, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. With his trademark sense of the human drama, he shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide.The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy, and not least, in its intellectual significance.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

Richard Holmes, prize-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley, explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of 18th century in his ground-breaking new biography 'The Age of Wonder'. 'The Age of Wonder' is Richard Holmes's first major work of biography in over a decade. It has been inspired by the scientific ferment that swept through Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, 'The Age of Wonder' and which Holmes now radically redefines as 'the revolution of Romantic Science'. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, hoping to discover Paradise. Many other voyages of discovery swiftly follow, while Banks, now President of the Royal Society in London, becomes our narrative guide to what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder. Banks introduces us to the two scientific figures that dominate the book: astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphry Davy.Herschel's tireless dedication to the stars, assisted (and perhaps rivalled) by his comet-finding sister Caroline, changed forever the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the meaning of the universe itself. Davy first shocked the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments in Bristol, then went on to save thousands of lives with his Safety Lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. But at the cost, perhaps, of his own heart. Holmes proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and deep space, the creative rivalry with the French scientific establishment, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. With his trademark sense of the human drama, he shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide.The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy, and not least, in its intellectual significance.

Birefringent neutron prisms for spin echo scattering angle measurement

In the first decade of the 19th century, an English chemist, William Wollaston, invented an arrangement of birefringent prisms that splits a beam of light into two spatially separated beams with orthogonal polarizations. We have constructed similar devices for neutrons using triangular cross-section solenoids and employed them for Spin Echo Scattering Angle Measurement (SESAME). A key difference between birefringent neutron prisms and their optical analogues is that it is hard to embed the former in a medium which has absolutely no birefringence because this implies the removal of all magnetic fields. We have overcome this problem by using the symmetry properties of the Wollaston neutron prisms and of the overall spin echo arrangement. These symmetries cause a cancellation of Larmor phase aberrations and provide robust coding of neutron scattering angles with simple equipment.

Chemistry was their life: pioneer British women chemists, 1880-1949

Chemistry was their life: pioneer British women chemists, 1880-1949

British Chemists Abroad, 1887–1971: the Dynamics of Chemists’ Careers

Summary This paper investigates the extent of overseas migration by British chemists over the period 1887–1971. Notwithstanding the ‘brain drain’ alarms of the 1960s, overseas employment was characteristic of some 19% of British chemists’ careers throughout our period, though its nature changed considerably. Our study examines the overseas employment histories of four cohorts of members of the [Royal] Institute of Chemistry in the ‘Chemists’ Database’ at the Open University. Those employed abroad were not only highly qualified but also both geographically mobile and occupationally versatile. Over the period, the pattern of chemists’ migration was broadly similar to that of British migration trends more generally. Except in the interwar years, chemists’ rate of migration was relatively constant. However, the length of time they spent abroad declined markedly over the period: long-term migration became less characteristic than short-term overseas employment for purposes of career development. From the late nineteenth century, British chemists staffed the Empire, but also found employment in the expanding US economy. After 1945, chemists’ destinations shifted more markedly towards North America, including Canada, and later also to Europe. Our work thus provides a new perspective on the dynamics of scientists’ migration and contributes to studies on the brain drain.

Fiat Lux — et facta est lux

The virtuous are early to bed and early to rise not wishing to waste the daylight. The less virtuous party on under the glow of artificial light. A poor light, though, compared to the sun but better than nothing. First there was firelight then candles and lamps and then in historically recent times the gas lamp until this in its turn gave way to devices powered by electricity. Maybe that’s the end of an energy road, changing from one type to another – maybe not, crystal ball gazing is notoriously inaccurate. It’s probably safe to say that electricity is here to stay, or at least for a very long time. Even the most way out futurologists surmise only that the future will be lit by electric light. Where the electricity comes from will change and how it is used will change but the one will still beget the other. It started a while ago but nothing useful could happen until a stable source of electricity was available and in 1800 Alessandro Volta, invented the voltaic pile which would produce a steady electric current from two dissimilar metals immersed in a conducting solution. Within 10 years the English chemist, Sir Humphry Davy connected a charcoal strip across such a device and demonstrated ‘‘electric luminosity.’’ This was the first glowing lamp, albeit probably very short lived. The first experiments to produce commercially viable ‘‘electric light’’ were in 1820 when Warren De la Rue, son of Thomas De la Rue, the founder of the firm of stationers, enclosed a platinum coil in an evacuated tube and passed an electric current through it. This worked, but then as now, platinum was too expensive to develop the idea. Many others tried using cheaper materials, often based on a carbonized natural material, but the pumps available could not produce a ‘‘hard’’ enough vacuum to stop the filaments burning up. It was not until 1875 when Herman Sprengel invented the mercury vacuum pump that it became possible to develop a practical electric light bulb. In the same year a patent for such a device was granted and shortly after this was sold to Thomas Edison and the rest is history. By 1879, using lower current electricity, a small carbonized filament, and an improved vacuum inside the bulb Edison was able to produce a reliable, long-lasting source of light. Another 20 or 30 years later tungsten filaments were introduced instead of carbon and, further development followed further development until we reach where we are today. Of course that is not the whole story; even in the early days there were arc lamps and vapour lamps these in time became fluorescent lamps. All these ways of producing light had their particular uses and any improvements were driven by need. But now things are changing, the lights are fine but there is fear that the electricity to run them is running out. The incandescent bulbs which have served us well for over a century may have run their course. They use too much electricity. Australia was the first country to announce an outright ban on these bulbs by 2010. Now Europe and the US have jumped in with their proposals and bans. We have to wait and see what will happen since the manufacturers are not giving in easily. There may still be life in the old incandescent bulb. The General Electric Co. (think back to 1890 and its origins as the Edison General Electric Company and realize the wheel has turned full circle) has said that by 2010 it would make an incandescent bulb twice as efficient as today’s – and by 2012 produce one that

Advances in chemical carcinogenesis: a historical review and prospective.

The American Association for Cancer Research has been the citadel for communicating research on chemical carcinogens for over a century. It therefore seems appropriate that a review of chemical carcinogenesis inaugurates a series of articles highlighting advances in understanding, treating, and

Marking out a disciplinary common ground: The role of chemical pedagogy in establishing the doctrine of affinity at the heart of British chemistry

Summary This paper presents a case study that contributes to the current debate among historians of chemistry concerning the role and influence of pedagogy in science. Recently, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and her colleagues concluded that in nineteenth-century France, ‘textbooks played an important role in discipline building and in creating theories’.1 Developing this idea further, this paper examines the dissemination of knowledge through face-to-face chemical lectures, showing that the influence of pedagogical strategy on theoretical content of the science is far from negligible. The pedagogy of William Cullen was essentially responsible for the prevalence of the doctrine of affinity in British chemistry from the 1760s onwards. Cullen used his affinity theory as a pedagogical tool that to a large extent defined his discipline, and the pedagogical pyramid that he headed similarly ensured that the doctrine would remain at the heart of British chemistry. From a pedagogical tool, the doctrine of affinity was transformed over time into a chemical tool, offering British chemists a disciplinary common ground that both set and reinforced the boundaries to their discipline. 1A. Garcia-Belmar, B. Bensaude-Vincent and J.R. Bertomeu-Sánchez, ‘The Power of Didactic Writings: French Chemistry Textbooks of the Nineteenth Century’, in Pedagogy and the Practice of Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by D. Kaiser (Cambridge, MA, 2005), 243.

Two hundred years of aluminum ... or is it aluminium?

Two hundred years ago the word aluminum was used for the first time when a new metal was produced by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy. Later work has shown that this metal was not pure, but rather an aluminum-iron alloy. This article commemorates the anniversary of aluminum production with a look back at the metal’s origins.

The Ecology of Environmental Health

The Ecology of Environmental Health

Spheres of Influence: Illustration, Notation, and John Dalton's Conceptual Toolbox, 1803–1835

Summary In the early years of the nineteenth century, the English chemist John Dalton (1766–1844) developed his atomic theory, a set of theoretical commitments describing the nature of atoms and the rules guiding their interactions and combinations. In this paper, I examine a set of conceptual and illustrative tools used by Dalton in developing his theory as well as in presenting it to the public in printed form as well as in his many public lectures. These tools—the concept of ‘atmosphere’, the pile of shot analogy, and Dalton's system of chemical notation—served not just to guide Dalton's own thinking and to make his theories clear to his various audiences, but also to bind these theories together into a coherent system, presented in its definitive form in the three volumes of A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808, 1810, and 1827). Despite these links, Dalton's contemporaries tended to pick and choose which of his theories to accept; his system of notation failed to be adopted in part because it embodied the whole of his system indivisibly.

Irina Victorovna Gannushkina

Irina Victorovna Gannushkina