Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
more knowledge.
2
The wealthy educated gentleman who in Beets' book
teaches his gardener the basics of chemistry is fortunate to encounter
quite an eager student. When the gentleman tells him that in as much as
he busies himself “with fertilizing and improving my soil, [he] also en-
gages in the work of a chemist”, the gardener is swiftly won over: ”Ay,
ay, Sir! Now I see: I should say I learned many a thing again.” (Beets
1815, pp. 4-5) Chemistry allows one, Beets argued, to avoid specific
harm, do away with superstition, while it also “promotes a sensible wor-
ship of God and produces utility and benefit for health and home eco-
nomics” (Beets 1815, p. viii). If today chemistry popularization mainly
serves the interests of chemical science and industry, in the early nine-
teenth century it was still part of a much broader effort aimed at social
progress and the spread of a Christian civilization.
This difference between chemistry popularization then and now is not
just revealing with respect to the development of the popular chemistry
book; it also provides major insights into the social position of chemistry.
Its popularization involves a set of activities that directly pertain to the
interplay of chemistry and society. This is why a consideration of the
popular literature about chemistry offers a surprising outlook on disci-
pline formation, professionalization, and changing views of the function
of chemistry education (
cf.
Meinel 1985, pp. 35-6). It is also from this
angle that this chapter aims to provide a preliminary exploration of the
relevant nineteenth-century popular chemistry literature.
Topics devoted to popularizing chemistry come in many guises: text-
books, handbooks on doing experiments at home, texts devoted to spec-
tacular new developments, apologetic topics that promote the social sig-
nificance of chemistry, popular chemistry histories (
e.g.
French 1937,
Greiling 1938, Reichen 1964), novels and plays (
e.g.
Schenzinger 1937,
see also Krätz 1991), and (auto)biographies of leading chemists (
e.g.
Cu-
rie 1938, Watson 1968). In this chapter I do not address the last three
genres mentioned; while regarding the others my emphasis will be on
their publication context rather than their content. During the nineteenth
2
On chemistry as '
Lieblingswissenschaft
', and on the successful lectures by Humphrey
Davy in London, see: Hufbauer 1982, pp. 13, 28-9, 145, 149; Golinski 1992, pp. 193-
4.
