Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
chemical laboratories and replicas. Priestley's apparatus, Dalton's atomic
diagrams, and De Chancourtois' telluric screw were all reproduced for
this new gallery. Models were also popular, including stereochemical
models and models of different proposals for the structure of benzene.
More modern developments were represented by radioactive minerals
and salts, electroanalytical apparatus, and apparatus for the study of ex-
plosives. The key objects in the new gallery tended to emphasize chemi-
cal achievement and British chemical achievement in particular, with ar-
tifacts such as Faraday's benzene, Crookes' thallium samples, and
Tilden's synthetic rubber (Barclay 1927, p. 6). Synthetic dyes were also
prominent, but curiously there were no artifacts relating to Perkin's syn-
thesis of mauve. Oxygen liquefaction continued to be prominent with
Hampson's liquefier joining the earlier Cailletet apparatus. Unusually for
the period, there was considerable attention given to biochemistry, and
there were exhibits which illustrated the formation of vitamins A and B
and the preparation of insulin. For many visitors, especially the younger
ones, the centerpiece of the 1926 gallery was the periodic table which
was used to display the Bonaparte collection. The cases were the same
ones that had been used in the Western Galleries and they were still
packed close together, but there was perhaps somewhat greater use of
graphics, mainly charts, to explain what was on display. The method of
writing the captions had been revised, to make them more comprehensi-
ble to the general visitor, with a brief non-technical description in bold,
followed by a longer technical explanation. By order of the director, no
caption could now be longer than 400 words (Follett 1978, p. 101).
Chemistry was now displayed as a subject with a long history stretch-
ing back to the alchemists and Paracelsus and even as far back as the an-
cient Egyptians - the Science Museum was fascinated by the ancient
Egyptians in this period. Notwithstanding this ancient lineage, it was
now developing rapidly and chemists were making major discoveries not
least in Britain. The 1926 gallery also emphasized the usefulness of
chemistry, not only in making new things and helping medicine but also
by giving us a better understanding of a wide range of processes. Again,
we cannot be certain of the arrangement of the themes in the gallery in
the absence of a floor plan, but the 1927 catalogue began with the “Evo-
lution of Chemistry” up to the time of Thomas Graham, then divided the
