Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
zine, its notion of
useful knowledge
had a much broader purport, refer-
ring to the total of the various knowledge areas dubbed
Realwissen
in
Germany. It comprised science, technology, history, manufacturing, ge-
ography, modern languages, and, in particular, knowledge about the
crafts - or basically all areas of knowledge except classic languages, pure
mathematics, and religion.
17
Innovative Dutch publishers such as Diederichs Brothers (Amster-
dam), K. Fuhri (The Hague), A.C. Kruseman (Haarlem), and A.W. Si-
jthoff (Leiden), followed the British example (Van Lente & De Wit
1993, pp. 189-90, 232-3, 268-9, 271). They also belonged to the first
Dutch publishers who marketed inexpensive popular topics and maga-
zines on chemistry and the other natural sciences. For instance, Died-
erichs, with its
Nederlandsch magazijn ter verspreiding van algemeene
en nuttige kundigheden
('Dutch magazine for the diffusion of general
and useful skills') that appeared since 1834 and was modeled after a Brit-
ish example, also published Millard's cheap and illustrated
Scheikunde
ten algemeene nutte
('Chemistry for general use', 1842) and popular
booklets on physics and physiology (Van Lente & De Wit 1993, pp. 264-
5; Hemels & Vegt 1993, pp. 309-11).
More important for the popularization of the natural sciences in the
Netherlands was the Haarlem apothecary son A.C. Kruseman (1818-
1894), who in 1844 published a Dutch version of Liebig's
Familiar Let-
ters on Chemistry
, and this was followed in 1852 by the first annual vol-
ume of the well-known popular science magazine
Album der natuur
.
18
Within a year 3,080 copies were sold, which suggests that the editors
were right when in their preface of the first volume they posited that a
fair and equal social distribution of knowledge of nature and its phenom-
ena is “one of the basic needs of our times” (
Album der natuur
,
1
[1852],
p. v). Although later on its circulation would drop, for years the
Album
was by far the main popular science magazine in the Netherlands (En-
17
On the
Penny Magazine
and Knight's view on educating the people voiced in it, see
Anderson 1994, pp. 50-83.
18
Album der natuur
(Haarlem, 1852-1909); on Kruseman, see Enschedé 1898.
