Epitomizing chemistry for changing audiences in Britain, 1820-2020

Anderson, Robert G. W.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128606 Copy

Description

Title

Epitomizing chemistry for changing audiences in Britain, 1820-2020

Author(s)

Anderson, Robert G. W.

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Keyword(s)

• Chemistry
• History
• Popular Audience
• Britain

Abstract

Chemical texts which are most studied by historians of chemistry are those written by those whose work has made the most impact on shaping the discipline. Books of this kind exist to inform fellow-minded chemists, those who aspire to the same intellectual level of understanding as the authors they study. However, there is a genre of published material which is intended for those curious about the subject and yet do not aspire to become professionals themselves. Their interest in the subject is serious, not simply recreational. Over the past two centuries, when chemistry was sought-after by new audiences, changing forms of literature have been written with them in mind. A fairly well-defined group of students were those who subscribed to night classes in mechanics’ institutes. They were from the poorer reaches of society and could not afford expensively produced volumes. A chance discovery has been made of a broadsheet produced by a Glasgow teacher which considers a wide sweep of the subject as it was known in the 1830s. This kind of evidence has built-in ephemerality and it is likely that other printed material of this type once existed. Later books, for a growing middle-class audience, range from a rigorous but simplified description of the science, to a discursive account of the social effects of chemistry. In the cases considered, the chemistry volumes come from a pedagogic series across a wide range of subjects. In the final text considered, one from the Very Short Introduction series, the author offers sympathy to the student because of the popular poor reputation of the subject! Necessarily, the examples chosen are highly selective. They are of a fairly balanced chronological span and hopefully can be considered as being reasonably representative. Finally, there are speculations about what the effect on the subject of the introduction of largely electronic forms of communication will be and hence on the writing of the history of chemistry in the future.

Publisher

Division of the History of Chemistry

ISSN

1053-4385

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

article

Language

eng

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128606

DOI

https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2022v047p005

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Division of the History of Chemistry

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