Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
tific memoirs became less numerous. In addition, he traveled extensively
to meetings and conferences and he became involved in many close cor-
respondences. Since then, Liebig would describe chemistry as a universal
science and the source of innumerable precious applications.
3.
1837: The Crucial Year
In 1837, five young foreign students were working in Liebig's Giessen
laboratory. Three of them were English: T. Richardson, W. Eatwell, and
T. Thomson, the son of the Glasgow professor of chemistry who invited
Liebig to attend the meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science (BAAS), which took place in Liverpool in September
1837. The travel to Great Britain seems to have played an important role
in changing Liebig's mind.
Liebig had an early interest in technology. During his study in Paris,
he was impressed by Nicolas Clément's lectures and the applications of
chemistry to the arts.
6
In 1832, on Liebig's insistence, Vieweg accepted
the idea of publishing the
Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten
Chemie
('Dictionary of Pure and Applied Chemistry'), which would be-
come of great help to technological chemists and manufacturers.
7
Liebig
also pushed Vieweg to manufacture his own paper “as beautiful as Eng-
lish paper” and, after visiting the most important paper mills of Ireland,
Scotland, and England, he advised Vieweg about the manufacturing
technologies.
8
On his way to the Liverpool meeting, Liebig took the opportunity to
visit many factories of soda, sulfuric acid, soap, steel, and paper. He be-
came more aware of the importance of chemistry in every sector of in-
dustry and of its crucial importance to the prosperity of a country,
“chemistry, the real mother of every industry” (Liebig 1838). He consid-
ered chemistry the most worthy science and the most useful matter of
education: “If a person well trained in pure chemistry, but completely in-
experienced, happens to manage soda, sulfuric acid, or sugar factories,
6
Liebig to Schleiermacher, 17 Feb. 1823, in Brock 1997, p. 29.
7
Liebig to Vieweg, 3. Nov. 1832.
8
Liebig to Vieweg, 1837-8.
