We are excited to kick off this year’s Society for the History of
Alchemy and Chemistry on-line seminar series, which we are running due
to the continuing Covid crisis, with a talk from Dr Georgiana ‘Jo’
Hedesan, University of Oxford, on ‘The Promise of an Alchemical
Panacea: Francis Anthony (1550-1623) and his English Potable Gold.’

The seminar will run live on Zoom on Thursday 21 January 2021 beginning
at 5.00pm GMT (6.00pm CET, 12 noon EST, 9.00am PST). The format will be
a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an
hour. Anyone, member of SHAC or not, may register to attend the seminar
by e-mailing meetings [AT] ambix.org; a link to the seminar will be sent the
day before. (If having registered you do not receive a link please check
your junk folder).

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites submissions for its 12th Annual Postgraduate Workshop. The theme will be “Secrets of Matter, Matters of Secrecy: Concealing (al)chemical Knowledge from Ciphers to the Military Industrial Complex.”

The workshop will be held on 3-4 June, 2021.

Please submit your proposal, together with your CV, to: studentrep [AT] ambix.org by 15 February, 2021.

More info can be found here.

The Science History Institute is organising a conference on “The applied Arts of Alchemy.” The conference will take place virtually on 20-21 May 2021.

To apply, please submit a 150-250 word proposal for individual 10-minute presentations or a 250-350 word proposal for a collaborative round table or workshop. The deadline for submissions is 15 December, 2020.

More information can be found here and on the website of the Science History Institute.

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, which we are running due to the continuing Covid crisis, will be given by Dr Carolyn Cobbold, University of Cambridge, on ‘A Rainbow Palate’. 

This will be live on Zoom on Tuesday 3 November beginning at 5pm GMT (6pm CET, 12 noon EST, 9am PST). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour. Anyone, member of SHAC or not, may register to attend the seminar by e-mailing meetings@ambix.org; a link to the seminar will be sent the day before. (If having registered you do not receive a link please check your junk folder). 

A Rainbow Palate – chemists, colour and consumption  

Carolyn Cobbold 

Drawing from research for her recently published book A Rainbow Palate – How Chemical Dyes Changed the West’s Relationship with Food, SHAC’s Carolyn Cobbold will discuss how dye and food producers sought public support and approbation from chemists for the widespread use of synthetic chemicals in food, despite concern among some chemists that their new chemical substances had not been created for use in food.     

You may be interested to know that recordings of the previous two seminars in this series are now available of the Society’s YouTube channel. You can watch them using the following URLs:

Alchemy Behind Bars: Practitioners, Patrons, and Prisons in Early Modern England https://youtu.be/j_GN9vnt81Q

Humphry Davy as revealed by his Correspondence https://youtu.be/WYAnjHeBYU0

William Nicholson is coming to life on Saturday 17^th October in St George’s Gardens, as part of the 2020 Bloomsbury Festival.

His biographer, Sue Durrell, shall be interviewing him about his life – from travels with the East India Company, work with Josiah Wedgwood, and socialising with a radical literary circle, and launching a school.

Concluding with his discovery of electrolysis, Mr Nicholson then takes the lead and interviews a team from UCL who will demonstrate how they are using electrolysis to create clean energy for the future.

Numbers are strictly limited for the live event in St Georges Gardens in London, on Saturday 17^th October, at 2.30pm

Click here for details of the live event on 17.10.20

But an online webinar with opportunity for Q&A will also be broadcast at 2.30 PM (GMT) on Tuesday 20^th at this time only

Click here for details of the video event

For further information

You are invited to register to attend the next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry which will be given by Professor Jennifer Rampling of Princeton University on Alchemy behind Bars.  

 This will be live on Zoom on 1 October beginning at 5pm BST (6pm CEST, 12 noon EDT, 9am PDT). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour. Anyone, member of SHAC or not, may register to attend the seminar by e-mailing meetings[AT]ambix.org they will be sent a link to the seminar the day before. (If having registered you do not receive a link the day before please check your junk folder).  Spaces are limited so please register early.

 Alchemy behind Bars: Practitioners, Patrons, and Prisons in Early Modern Europe 
Jennifer M. Rampling 
Associate Professor of History, Princeton University 

This talk explores a neglected but fascinating theme in the history of alchemy—the strategies used by alchemical practitioners to extricate themselves from prison. In early modern Europe, alchemists found themselves incarcerated for various reasons: some failed to make good on their gold-making promises, some were suspected of practicing magic, and others simply fell into debt. Once confined, some drew on their practical and rhetorical skills to write their way out of trouble, addressing petitions and alchemical treatises to princes and highly-placed figures in government. Perhaps surprisingly, they often ended up being released. 

I will focus on English practitioners, starting in the fourteenth century when John of Walden fell foul of Edward III, and moving into the sixteenth century, when at least two alchemists were arrested as suspected conjurors under Henry VIII. Finally, the notorious Edward Kelley, best known for his collaboration with the mathematician John Dee, wrote a series of elaborate treatises to Emperor Rudolf II while imprisoned in Bohemia. Although Kelley’s “prison writings” have not been previously studied, they offer new evidence for his alchemical activities—and show how the promise of transmutation might offer a “get out of jail free” card for beleaguered alchemists.  

The latest issue of Chemical Intelligence is now out! In it you will find, as usual, lots of information of relevance to our members. First, the Chair of SHAC, Frank James, addresses all members as he discusses the effects of the current pandemic on SHAC’s activities, and of the UKRI’s requirements of open access on SHAC’s future. His note to members is followed by an open letter to Sir Duncan Wingham about open access.

This issue of Chemical Intelligence further contains lots of useful information about our future (on-line) events, special issues of Ambix and Annals of Science, calls for papers, presentations of our student ambassadors, and much more!

You can now download Chemical Intelligence here.