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Autumn 2003: ‘John Dalton Bicentenary Meeting’
Autumn 2003: ‘Early Metallurgy’
Spring 2003: ‘Justus Liebig (1803-1873): A Critical Appraisal on the 200th Anniversary of his Birth’
‘Justus Liebig (1803-1873): A Critical Appraisal on the 200th Anniversary of his Birth’
22 May 2003, Science Museum London
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry held a meeting on 22 May 2003 in the Conference Room of the Science Museum Library entitled “Justus Liebig 1803-1873: A Critical Appraisal on the 200th Anniversary of his Birth.” Professor Alan Rocke, Professor William Brock, Dr David Leaback and Dr Eric Bridson gave papers on various aspects of Liebig’s life and work. The meeting followed the unveiling of a plaque at 299 Oxford Street by Professor Charles Rees, the former Hofmann Professor at Imperial College, to commemorate the Royal College of Chemistry, which was formerly located there.
Alan Rocke’s paper was entitled “The ‘Giessen Model’ in University Science: Origins and Spread”. In his paper, Professor Rocke drew attention to how in seeking to understand the rise of Justus Liebig’s model for research and teaching, three interrelated and overlapping factors intrinsic to his specialty of organic chemistry have been insufficiently discussed. These three factors are the discovery of isomers, the novel practice of using chemical formulae as “paper tools,” and the “Kaliapparat” method of organic analysis. The existence of these three interacting factors, all of which emerged suddenly and essentially simultaneously around 1830, led to an explosive expansion in the new field of organic chemistry. Moreover, they made it a uniquely positioned context within which to create in Germany the practices that eventually were associated with all modern research universities.
Although the best-known example of the spread of the model was the Royal College of Chemistry in London, for an alternative comparison, Professor Rocke examined the spread of the new model to France and to the United States. In taking an eclectic approach to the subject, his paper placed greater emphasis on contingencies of time, place and discipline than many earlier studies of this problem have done; thus intending to provide a helpful complementary perspective. To conclude, Professor Rocke emphasised the importance of one of Liebig’s qualities: that he was a very fortunate man. Liebig benefited from being in Giessen where his work was encouraged by the administration. He was also fortunate to be close to the starting point of his chosen branch of science and to be working in the field of organic chemistry, a subject with great potential. Liebig’s unique position provided the basis for his style of education and enabled the development of a model that spread throughout the world.
William Brock gave a paper on “Breeding Chemists in Giessen”. Professor Brock highlighted how the factors that contributed to Liebig’s success in founding a research school at Giessen have been well known since the publication of Jack Morrell’s seminal paper in 1972. In his paper Professor Brock re-centred the familiar Liebig-Giessen story in a local geographical and historical context. A garrison was opened in Giessen in early 1819, effectively as a university policing force, but this was soon unnecessary. In 1823 the garrison troops were removed to Mainz and the barracks fell into disuse. The buildings were then made available for the university and the existing teacher of chemistry at Giessen, Wilhelm Zimmerman, took over one of the guard towers as a laboratory.
A variety of historical and political factors had played a role in calling Liebig to Giessen and soon the existing chair holder, Zimmermann, was ousted. Working in partnership with the government, Liebig developed pharmacy teaching as part of the state’s plan of modernization and his success necessarily led to the expansion of the laboratory after 1833. Comparisons with Heinrich Buff’s and Johann Christian Hundeshagen’s attempts to do for physics and forestry what Liebig achieved in chemistry show that the encouragement of private enterprise was a key feature of the Hessen-Darmstadt government’s strategy for the modernization of the university. Liebig put Giessen on the map and boosted the town’s economy through the students that he attracted to the town. Whilst Liebig’s abilities meant he would have achieved wherever he was based, the particular environment in Giessen, where he could concentrate solely on his work, made the association so successful.
Dr David Leaback’s paper was entitled “Liebig’s Laboratory on Oxford Street?” In the 200th anniversary year of Justus Liebig’s birth, Dr Leaback drew attention to the erection of a Royal Society of Chemistry Landmark plaque at 299 Oxford Street – on the site of the former Royal College of Chemistry (ca. 1845-1872). The inscription on the plaque highlights how the College was modelled on Liebig’s Laboratory in Giessen. In his presentation Dr Leaback set out to compare the structures, objectives, developments and achievements of the two institutions – thus exploring the oft-vented criticism that London’s long-departed Royal College of Chemistry on Oxford Street has received inordinate attention and whether there is life still left in making the Liebig connection.
Dr Leaback proceeded to describe the location and layout of the Royal College of Chemistry and the features of the College that remained after its closure, with the premises subsequently used for retailing shoes and now suits. Having discussed John Gardner’s and John Lloyd Bullock’s roles in setting up the College, August Hofmann’s teaching and the achievements of his students such as Edward Nicholson and William Perkin were highlighted. The personalities and locations involved were all considered in the context of the chemical community in London at the time, whilst drawing attention to the impact of the College’s teaching on chemistry in the United Kingdom.
Dr Eric Bridson was the final speaker on “The rise and fall of the Fray Bentos-Liebig’s Meat Extract enterprise in Uruguay”. The Liebig Extract of Meat Company was created in 1865 to commercially exploit Justus Liebig’s meat extract, using George Giebert’s engineering and entrepreneurial skills. It was established in Fray Bentos, a small town in Uruguay and Giebert successfully expanded it up to the time of Liebig’s death in 1873 and his own death in 1874. Charles Croker succeeded Giebert and he added new products to the Fray Bentos range. These included tinned corned beef and later the installation of freezer units enabled frozen and chilled raw meat to be exported around the world. By 1964 the Fray Bentos enterprise employed 40,000 staff.
The dramatic end of this large industrial unit came about because of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Aberdeen in May 1964. There were 507 cases and three deaths from Salmonella typhi phage type 34. Epidemiological investigations traced the organism to a tin of Fray Bentos corned beef. In spite of stout denials by Fray Bentos staff that their product could have caused the epidemic, phage type 34 was rare in Britain but common in South America. Further investigation in the canning plant revealed that cooling water used in the canning process had not been chlorinated for 14 months and that cases of phage type 34 typhoid had occurred in the town of Fray Bentos. The sales of corned beef across the world dropped very considerably and the trade name Fray Bentos was shunned; eventually the entire enterprise was given to the Uruguayan government in 1971. They could not make the large industrial unit financially viable and it completely closed in 1979. It is now an industrial museum: a sad end to 100 years of magnificent achievement.
Anna Simmons
‘Early Metallurgy’
11 October 2003, Science Museum London
On 11 October 2003 the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry held a joint meeting with the Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science (SHMTS) in the Conference Room of the Science Museum Library on the subject of Early Metallurgy. This was the first joint meeting to be held between the two societies and resulted from a suggestion made by Dr Frank Greenaway. Twenty-six people attended the meeting, which covered a range of metallurgical topics, and an enjoyable lunch was arranged by SHMTS at the Polish Club on Exhibition Road.
The first paper was given by Dr Paul Craddock of the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum, with the title “Metal Distillation in the Medieval Period, an Early Application of Science to Industry”. The talk described the development of zinc distillation technology, in India about 1000 years ago, and quite independently in China around 500 years later. Dr Craddock explained how both technologies could be viewed as the adaptation of scientific techniques to make pragmatic industrial processes.
Following on from this, the distillation technologies also could be seen as more typical of the sort of processes associated with the European Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The paper showed that perhaps the study of early technology has been too centred on the Romano-Greek tradition and on Europe and the Mediterranean, and also that the development of sophisticated industrial technologies of mass production was a much longer and broader based phenomenon than is sometimes credited.
The Indian zinc distillation process ceased around 200 years ago, but the medieval furnaces, still bearing their last load of retorts, survive just beneath the surface at Zawar in Rajasthan. The traditional zinc distillation process is still practised in some remote areas of western China, which Dr Craddock demonstrated by showing a video of his visit there. Dr Craddock concluded by highlighting how the excavation and scientific study of the physical remains of processes and the recording of surviving technologies can be invaluable in recreating past technologies and in the interpretation of the often rather enigmatic contemporary literary sources on early science and technology.
Dr Barrie Cook, Curator of Late Medieval, early Modern and Modern Coins (to 1800) at the British Museum, gave the second paper, which was entitled “Crimes Against the Currency in Twelfth and Thirteenth Century England”. The paper identified and discussed a significant change in the attitude to crimes against the currency in medieval England.
In the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods the frequent change of design of the silver penny, and associated recoinage, were features of the English monetary system. This policy had the effect of maintaining the currency to a good standard by minimising the impact of potentially damaging intrusive elements, such as clipped coin, counterfeit coin and foreign coin. As a result, the main concern on the part of the royal government was to prevent fraud inside the system, on the part of the moneyers who were responsible for making and distributing the coinage.
In the mid twelfth century the English money system was changed, and recoinages became far less frequent, no more than one a generation or less, and new coin joined much older accumulated coin of the same design. There was thus a much larger potential for the currency to become poorer in standard. The result, from the twelfth century onwards, was a greater need to actively police the currency in use. Along with this went a much more aggressive attitude to clippers and counterfeiters, and an increase in severity in the punishment of these crimes, now aligned in the mind of government with treason and felony. Dr Cook concluded by giving evidence for this shift from government ordinances, legal cases, and chronicle reports illustrating the different ways in which offenders were punished.
After lunch, Dr Alan Williams of the University of Reading presented a paper entitled “The Creation of the Suit of Armour in Fourteenth Century Italy”. He began by explaining how all cultures developed protective garments for warriors. These were usually flexible armours made of numerous small pieces of metal loosely joined together. Europe was unique in devising rigid defences of large plates shaped to fit the wearer and articulated like an exoskeleton. However, these suits of armour were very expensive to produce.
While the suit of plate armour offered an extremely effective defence against missile weapons, it placed unusual demands upon the metallurgical industries of medieval Europe. These demands were met for the first time in fourteenth century Lombardy, and enabled an enormous export trade to develop. Dr Williams then explained the technical aspects of armour production and the use of quench hardening. The later mass-production of cheap suits of armour was then to be accompanied by radically different forms of iron-making in the early modern period. Dr Williams concluded by discussing examples of sixteenth century armour. The metallurgical processes used were adapted to incorporate the demand for highly decorative armour, which although including finishes such as gilding, did not affect the functionality of the armour.
The final paper was given by Tru Helms and entitled “Document Based Speculations on Italian Bronze Casting Technology”. She explained that whilst much work has been done on the casting technology of small bronzes using analytical techniques, such methods are not as successful when applied to large bronzes and so she outlined her approach to the subject. The commissioning and/or payment records for seventy-five fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian bronze sculpture projects, when studied in conjunction with sixteenth century treatises by Gauricus, Biringuccio, Vasari and Cellini, provide invaluable information on workshop procedure, technology and transmission of technical information.
By comparing the materials purchased, any notations that characterize them, and the timing of their purchase within the timeframe of the project with descriptions in the treatises of direct and indirect casting methods it is possible to speculate about the technology being used. The essential materials needed for direct casting are clay, cloth clippings, wax, ironwork, fuel, and metal, while gesso is the only material that has to be added to that list for the most straightforward of indirect casting methods.
The materials ordered for Francesco di Giorgio’s Angels for the Cathedral of Siena, 1488-1490, are with one exception identical to the materials needed for an unusual method of indirect casting described by his fellow Sienese, Biringuccio. A model, made of tow and paste clothed in wax impregnated cloth, is burned out of the mould, then a layer of wax is applied to the negative and a clay core packed in. The major difference was that the Angels had cores of gesso, not clay. This is one example of the way that the materials specified in documents can be used to suggest the particular technology, or variation, a sculptor was using as well as the possible transmission of technology and Ms Helms gave various other examples in her paper.
Anna Simmons
‘John Dalton Bicentenary Meeting’
21 October 2003, Manchester
The Society held a meeting on 21 October 2003 in the Cardwell Auditorium of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Dalton’s first announcement of his atomic theory. Papers were given by Dr Diana Leitch and John Woodhouse, Dr Howard Oliver, Mrs Raj Williamson-Jones, Prof. Mel Usselman and Dr Katherine Watson, and John Hudson.
Diana Leitch and John Woodhouse gave a paper on “The Dalton Archives”. Dr Leitch described how the majority of Dalton’s manuscripts had been destroyed when the premises of the Manchester Lit. and Phil. were consumed by fire after a bombing raid in 1940. However a significant number of papers contained in a metal box in the basement did survive, although badly charred. In 1979 these were sold by the Lit. and Phil. to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. The manuscripts were in urgent need of conservation, and in 1991 the North West Region Committee of the Industrial Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry provided substantial funds for the necessary work to be undertaken. John Woodhouse then described the conservation process which had been carried out under his supervision. The paper had become very acidic, and each page had to be sprayed with a solution of methyl magnesium carbonate. The paper was so fragile that it was necessary to support the pages in enclosures made of PVC-coated glass fibre mesh during the deacidification process. It was then necessary to find a method of enabling the papers to be handled without further disintegration. The manuscript pages were individually encapsulated and sealed in clear polyester wallets, and then bound into specially made folders. As a result of this work the surviving documents can now be consulted by researchers. Attendees were able to inspect some of the conserved materials during the lunch break.
Howard Oliver’s paper on “Dalton’s Meteorology” described how Dalton’s interest in meteorology was fired during his time at Kendal by his contacts with John Gough. He then began regular observations which he continued, quite literally, for the rest of his life. He published the first edition of his textbook Meteorological Observations and Essays shortly after taking up his position at the Manchester Academy – which has subsequently evolved into Harris Manchester College at Oxford. The book contains both detailed observations made by himself at Kendal and his friend Peter Crossthwaite at Keswick plus a series of articles on meteorological processes and the aurora. He published a second edition containing additional data some forty years later. During his time as the ‘professor of mathematics and natural philosophy’ he continued his observations and worked on what is one of his most important papers: Experiments and observations to determine whether the quantity of rain and dew is equal to the quantity of water carried off by the rivers and raised by evaporation. This presented the first quantitative water balance of England and Wales which, despite sparse information, provided the first confirmation of the probable hydrological balance for a large area – a topic which had been a matter of contention since classical times. It is for this reason that the European Geophysical Society named their award for hydrology the ‘Dalton Medal’.
Dalton’s works on evaporation culminated with the publication of important tables of evaporation rates for a range of temperatures and wind speeds. His evaporation process law still forms the basis of the equations in use today. His interest in the natural environment, fuelled by his Quaker enthusiasm for developing an understanding of the workings of God’s world, was satisfied by his annual visits to the Lakes and his mountain excursions. He combined these climbs, often made with the guide Jonathan Otley, with meteorological measurements of air temperature and dewpoint to support his studies of mountain climatology and atmospheric composition. In 1842 he published his last meteorological paper which provided summaries of his measurements of the Manchester climate from 1794 to 1840 – an amazing achievement. The evening before his death, Dalton made the last of his 200,000 meteorological observations. Many of his records survived until 1940.
Raj Williamson-Jones’s paper was entitled “A New Light on Dalton’s Atomic Theory: The Manchester Gas Affair”. Using previously unpublished papers and new sources, she described Dalton’s extensive contributions to the coal gas industry from the first use of gas as an illuminant in the opening years of the 19th century. This is an aspect of Dalton’s multifaceted activities that was not known before. Dalton’s study of mixed gases, such as their partial pressures, diffusion, and behaviour on heating – and particularly of their solubilities, which led him to the idea of atomic weights – were contributory to the understanding of the science of coal gas. Dalton also established the composition of several hydrocarbons in coal gas, e.g. methane, a major constituent, ethylene, and butylene. Dalton’s friend and collaborator, William Henry, who had close connections with the firm of Boulton and Watt, the pioneers of coal gas industry, also played a significant part in the rapid establishment of coal gas as a public utility.
Many mills and large institutions installed their own gas works. The Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company of London built the first public gas supply in 1812 and its Chief Engineer, Samuel Clegg, was a former pupil of Dalton. Manchester established its gas works in 1817, but unlike other provincial towns, where the gas industry developed as a private enterprise, Manchester, the home of laissez faire, paradoxically chose to build it out of rates. It became the first and for some time the only municipal gas works in the country. It served as a model for other enterprises, such as water works, tramways, electricity stations and the Manchester ship canal
In the 1820s, however, the legality of the gas venture was challenged and it faced severe competition from a private joint stock company, The Manchester Imperial Oil Gas Company. Manchester opposed the granting of a charter to its rival, and presented its own bill to legitimise its municipal gas enterprise. Dalton spent two weeks in the spring of 1824 on behalf of Manchester along with other members of the Gas Committee giving evidence to a parliamentary select committee. Manchester triumphed and the gas enterprise evolved into the largest in the region. Dalton was a recognised authority in the coal gas industry, and acted as a consultant to the Manchester Gas Committee for many years.
Mel Usselman and Katherine Watson gave a paper entitled “A Reconstruction and Analysis of the Contentious Nitrous Gas Experiments”. They described how in October and November of 1803 Dalton performed simple experiments on the combination of nitrous gas [NO] with the oxygen in atmospheric air which demonstrated that nitrous gas reacted with oxygen in a 1:1.8 volume ratio to form nitric acid, and in a 1:3.6 ratio to form nitrous acid. The result is Dalton’s first experimental report of multiple combining proportions and, as such, played an important role in the development of his atomic ideas. Some prominent historians of chemistry have questioned the reliability of Dalton’s result and there are even published claims that Dalton ‘fudged’ his numbers to achieve a pre-determined result. In their paper, Usselman and Watson reported the results of their reconstruction of Dalton’s experiments and provided an interpretation of the results on the basis of current chemical theory.
Although the equilibrium concentrations of the reactant and product gases over water are such that oxygen can be made to react entirely with twice its volume of nitrous gas to form nitric acid, theory suggests it is not possible to isolate the reaction in which oxygen reacts with four times its volume of nitrous gas. Replication of Dalton’s ‘narrow tube’ experiment does not yield the expected 1:2 ratio but instead gives Dalton’s reported 1:1.8 ratio. This result can be explained by the participation of oxygen dissolved in the water used as a seal for the gaseous reaction. The 1:3.6 combining gas ratio can then be achieved by using larger volumes of water, as Dalton did in his ‘wide vessel’ experiment. These results lead to the conclusion that i) Dalton obtained his published results by honestly reported experiments, ii) the results are replicable if the experiments are reproduced exactly as described, iii) modern theoretical interpretations of past experiments are not valid unless all relevant experimental parameters are considered and, most importantly, iv) Dalton did not falsify or misreport his results on the combination of nitrous gas with oxygen. This investigation suggests that careful reconstruction of scientific experiments can provide historical insights not possible by other historical methods.
John Hudson concluded the meeting with a short paper on “Dalton’s Lakeland Excursions”. Dr Sydney Ross, who was to have given a paper on this topic, was unable to attend. Hudson’s paper described how after his move to Manchester, Dalton was in the habit of returning to his native Lakeland for a short vacation most years. As Dalton himself said he used these holidays to ‘unite instruction with amusement’; i.e. he took the opportunity to make scientific, and especially meteorological, observations. He ascended Helvellyn over 40 times, but as he said ‘most, or all, of the other high mountains in the vicinity have occasionally served my purpose’. Dalton had a portable barometer which he took with him on some of his ascents, and he usually measured the dew point and temperature at intervals. He carried a telescope with him, and on one occasion he hired a pony to take a large theodolite to the top of Helvellyn. However mountain walking was not the only activity. On one occasion, he and his companion Jonathan Otley went fishing from a boat on Derwentwater, but they took the opportunity to collect samples of gas from a submerged decomposing mass of peat. Dalton subsequently analysed the gas, and found it to be half carburetted hydrogen (methane) and half azote (nitrogen), with a trace of carbonic acid gas (carbon dioxide).
To date most of our information concerning Dalton’s Lakeland Excursions has come from the account in William Charles Henry’s biography of Dalton, published in 1854. However three letters written by Dalton in the years 1827, 1828, and 1829 to John Fletcher, his former teacher at Pardshaw school, and currently in Dr Ross’s possession, were published for the first time by Dr Ross in 1999. These letters contain Dalton’s own account of his vacations in those years, and give a vivid impression of energy and enthusiasm with which he undertook his trips. On one day in 1828 he accomplished a 14½ hour day to be followed the next day by a trip to the top of Helvellyn from Keswick – a round trip of 11 miles with 2850 feet of ascent and descent. Dalton was 62 years old, and was still evidently a fit man.
Dalton’s ties to his native Lakeland were always strong. It was in the countryside of Cumberland and Westmorland that he made his first scientific observations, and until he became frail he returned almost every year both for relaxation and to carry out scientific observations. Dalton is rightly remembered as a Manchester man, but a study of his Lakeland excursions helps to emphasis that he was also a Lakeland man.
John Hudson
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