Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
The cases were modern aluminum showcases with low-level internal
illumination. They were less close-packed than in the 1920s. The dis-
plays combined objects with illustrations and original documents and the
captions were similar to the two-level captions in the 1926 gallery. The
technical part was detailed, and with more historical information than the
earlier captions which made them sometimes rather long. The three gal-
leries all had a different theme. Gallery 41 which linked the other two
galleries was about the “Evolution of Chemistry” to borrow the phrase
used in the 1927 catalogue. It began with a small case about alchemy and
went via gas chemistry and Thomas Graham to Ramsay on one side, and
dealt with great British chemists (Dalton, Davy, Faraday, and Wollaston)
on the other side. Gallery 42 was very much about the practical applica-
tions of chemistry, with displays of heating apparatus, hydrometers, oil
testing apparatus, and, from more recent times, gas chromatography to
give some prominent examples. A chronological sequence of chemical
balances were displayed - with the scholarly assistance of Peta Buchanan
- to illustrate historical continuity. One side of this gallery was domi-
nated by four reproduction laboratories: assaying in the fifteenth century,
the Government Chemist's Laboratory from around 1897, a typical labo-
ratory of the 1960s (the former “Modern Laboratory” of the 1964 gal-
lery), and a modern archaeological research laboratory. By contrast Gal-
lery 43 was rather about academic chemistry, with a prevailing theme of
the determination of the composition and structure of molecules by vari-
ous means; for example, combustion analysis, UV spectroscopy, X-ray
crystallography, NMR, and electron diffraction. The latest version of the
periodic table - extended to cover all the non-radioactive elements with
the assistance of William Griffith of Imperial College - stood at the cor-
ner between Gallery 41 and Gallery 43 until it was dismantled in 1986.
The 1977 redisplay presented an image of chemistry which had much
in common with its predecessors, obviously there was much overlap with
the 1964 gallery as it was only a redisplay of those galleries - a redisplay
which was furthermore produced under physical and financial constraints
- but also with the 1925 displays in Gallery 66. Chemistry was presented
as a science with a long history of practical applications, stemming back
to the ancient Egyptians, which had developed rapidly during the twenti-
eth century. It showed that British chemists had made a major contribu-
