A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century

A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century
Author: Peter J. Ramberg
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2023-12-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350251542

A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century covers the period from 1815 to 1914 and the birth of modern chemistry. The elaboration of atomic theory - and new ideas of periodicity, structure, bonding, and equilibrium - emerged in tandem with new instruments and practices. The chemical industry expanded exponentially, fuelled by an increasing demand for steel, aluminium, dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. And the chemical laboratory became established in its two distinct modern settings of the university and industry. At the turn of the century, the discovery of radioactivity took hold of the public imagination, drawing chemistry closer to physics, even as it threatened to undermine the whole concept of atomism. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Chemistry presents the first comprehensive history from the Bronze Age to today, covering all forms and aspects of chemistry and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are theory and concepts; practice and experiment; laboratories and technology; culture and science; society and environment; trade and industry; learning and institutions; art and representation. Peter J. Ramberg is Professor of the History of Science at Truman State University, USA. Volume 5 in the Cultural History of Chemistry set. General Editors: Peter J. T. Morris, University College London, UK, and Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University, USA.

Experiments, Models, Paper Tools

Experiments, Models, Paper Tools
Author: Ursula Klein
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2003
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780804743594

In the early nineteenth century, chemistry emerged in Europe as a truly experimental discipline. What set this process in motion, and how did it evolve? Experimentalization in chemistry was driven by a seemingly innocuous tool: the sign system of chemical formulas invented by the Swedish chemist Jacob Berzelius. By tracing the history of this “paper tool,” the author reveals how chemistry quickly lost its orientation to natural history and became a major productive force in industrial society. These formulas were not merely a convenient shorthand, but productive tools for creating order amid the chaos of early nineteenth-century organic chemistry. With these formulas, chemists could create a multifaceted world on paper, which they then correlated with experiments and the traces produced in test tubes and flasks. The author’s semiotic approach to the formulas allows her to show in detail how their particular semantic and representational qualities made them especially useful as paper tools for productive application.

Early Nineteenth Century Chemistry and the Analysis of Urinary Stones

Early Nineteenth Century Chemistry and the Analysis of Urinary Stones
Author: E. Allen Driggers
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2023-08-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3031349733

This book tells the story of how chemists, physicians, and surgeons attempted to end the problem of urinary stones. From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, chemists wanted to understand why the body formed urinary, pancreatic, and other bodily stones. Chemical analysis was an exciting new means of understanding these stones and researchers hoped of possibly preventing their formation entirely. Physicians and surgeons also hoped that, with improved chemical analysis, they would eventually identify substances that would reduce the size of stones, leading to their easier removal from the body. Urinary stones and other stones of the body caused the boundaries of surgery, chemistry, and medicine to blur. The problem of the stone was transformational and spurred collaboration between chemistry and medicine. Some radical physicians in America and Britain combined this nascent medical advancement with older disciplines, like humoral theory. Chemists, surgeons, and physicians in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London focused on the stones of the body. Chemical societies and museums also involved themselves in the problem of the stone. Meanwhile, institutions in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London served as repositories of specimens for testing and study as previously disparate practitioners and disciplines worked toward the comprehensive knowledge that could, perhaps, end suffering from stones. The primary audience of this book is historically-minded chemists, surgeons, physicians, and museum professionals.

The Public Image of Chemistry

The Public Image of Chemistry
Author: Joachim Schummer
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2007
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9812775846

Popular associations with chemistry range from poisons, hazards, chemical warfare and environmental pollution to alchemical pseudoscience, sorcery and mad scientists, which gravely affect the public image of science in general. While chemists have merely complained about their public image, social and cultural studies of science have largely avoided anything related to chemistry.This book provides, for the first time, an in-depth understanding of the cultural and historical contexts in which the public image of chemistry has emerged. It argues that this image has been shaped through recurring and unlucky interactions between chemists in popularizing their discipline and nonchemists in expressing their expectations and fears of science. Written by leading scholars from the humanities, social sciences and chemistry in North America, Europe and Australia, this volume explores a blind spot in the science-society relationship and calls for a constructive dialog between scientists and their public.