Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
late Victorian period. There were a few historical pieces but they were
greatly outnumbered by chemical specimens. The emphasis was on cop-
ies or replicas rather than the 'original'. There was a copy of Cailletet's
oxygen liquefaction apparatus, a replica of Moissan's apparatus for the
isolation fluorine, and a Bunsen thermostat (for keeping gas samples at a
constant temperature) purchased from the firm established by Bunsen's
technician Peter Desaga. The tenor of the display was thus a mixture of
the trade show or international exhibition and the 'chemical museum'
which was often found in larger chemistry departments (such as in Man-
chester, Leeds, Columbia in New York, and Berlin) which consisted al-
most entirely of chemical samples. By 1906, the key objects on display
also included the collection of the elements bequeathed by Prince Louis
Lucien Bonaparte in 1891, the diffusion apparatus used by Thomas Gra-
ham, a balance constructed by John Fidler around 1800, the Tintometer
developed by Joseph Lovibond, and a model of a school laboratory in
Leiden which had been on display at the Special Loan Exhibition. The
method of display was what would now be called 'visible storage': cases
filled with a large number of objects and packed close together in rows.
The captions appear to have been often long descriptions of the objects
and the techniques they represent. There does not appear to have been
any attempt at an overarching narrative or a unifying theme. It is difficult
to tell how the gallery was organized in the absence of a gallery plan, but
the 1906 catalogue hints at an arrangement by use (“general use”, “dem-
onstrations”, “special researches”, and “technical gas-analyses”) rather
than by sub-discipline.
In the Western Galleries, chemistry was presented as a comparatively
new science which was developing rapidly; there was nothing connected
with alchemy and no attempt to give chemistry a distant past. There was
an emphasis on the use of intricate apparatus and the use of different
methods of achieving the same aim, such as, for instance, fat extraction.
The display of samples showed that chemistry was capable of making
many different products. The overall effect is one of skill and complex-
ity, neither showing the negative side of chemistry nor aggressively pro-
moting the positive aspects. This display was for the visitor who knew or
was learning chemistry and it showed him what the curators perceived as
being relevant. The ordinary visitor would have been captivated by the
