Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Since these two images are in no way based on actual activity in the
laboratory, they were meant to convey the role of the chemist as inter-
mediary and conduit between the mundane and the powerful and sacred.
These images place in the viewer's mind the association between the
scientist's appearance and the larger context. Even if viewers reject the
idea of the chemist as a religious figure, viewers have added the met-
onym to their interpretive framework.
Compare the priest image in Figures 4a and 4b with the scientist in
chapter six, 'From Papyrus to Television' (Figure 4d). Here is a different
application of the metonym, since in this image, the lab coat is worn by
the spirit of chemistry, who floats over an inventor, perhaps representing
Guglielmo Marconi. The inventor's sleeves are rolled up, indicating
work, but clearly he is having some trouble, and is sitting, head on hand,
struggling to solve some problem. The spirit of chemistry, chemical ap-
paratus cradled in one arm, appears to be dispensing some material,
which presumably will solve the inventor's problem (ibid., p. 147).
Figure 5. (a) A chemist and family from 'All the Comforts of Home'; (b) Chemist pro-
tecting society in 'Security'; (from Morrison 1937, pp. 159, 231).
Although industry was the primary focus of Morrison's argument, he
also introduced a more domestic connection between the chemist and the
