Pub Date : 2023-06-12DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2222575
Marcin Krasnodębski
lasting. The first section is concluded by Peter Morris with a brief and well-written summary – in English – of the development of synthetic rubber in Germany (15 pp.). Morris argues convincingly that the market for natural rubber played a dominant role, and that Adolf Hitler promoted the synthetic rubber industry for reasons of national pride, despite poor economic prospects. The second section, “Substitutes for Basic Chemicals and Chemical Products,” opens with a lengthy chapter by Manfred Rasch (52 pp.) that summarises in a well-structured narrative his lifelong research on liquid fuels and lubricants from coal, produced by key technologies such as low-temperature coking, high-pressure hydrogenation (Bergius), and the Fischer-Tropsch process. Rasch argues that the attempts to solve the oil shortage produced new scarcities of energy and electricity in their turn – a kind of domino effect that is also addressed in the chapters by Maier and Zilt. The second contribution to this section, by Sandra Fehr, focuses on the scarcity of nitrogen products in Germany during the First World War. Fehr sheds new light on well-known facts by analysing the developments systematically in a strict chronological order, using Joseph Schumpeter’s analytical framework: invention – innovation – diffusion. She argues that all major inventions predated the war, that the nitrogen scarcity for the military was solved, but at the expense of agriculture, and that the HaberBosch process had a long-term impact on world food supply. The third section, “Substitutes for Fragrances, Flavorings, Food and Fodder,” starts with a chapter by Claus Priesner on the development of synthetic coffee flavours by first-rate organic chemists such as Reichstein and Staudinger. The production on an industrial scale of the substitute Coffarom took place after the war, between 1921 and 1931. As in the case of synthetic rubber, competition with the natural product played a large role. Nevertheless, Coffarom stayed on the market until the 1960s. The last chapter of the book, by Ulrike Thoms, deals with the production of fodder from waste materials and animal cadavers. It discusses in detail the great progress in the production of meat and bone meal by the rendering industry during the First World War. These technologies were further improved during the Second World War and had a lasting impact after 1945. Together with the extensive introduction, the seven cases studies represent a history of the German chemical industry in a nutshell, from the nineteenth century to the late 1950s, with a far greater attention than usual to the role played by politics and the military. With respect to the two central questions mentioned above, the answer to the first is that the external pressures of the two wars seldom led to really new inventions, but they scaled up existing technologies and their application. The answer to the second question is more ambiguous. In some cases innovations emerging during the wars
{"title":"Research between Science, Society and Politics: The History and Scientific Development of Green Chemistry","authors":"Marcin Krasnodębski","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2222575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2222575","url":null,"abstract":"lasting. The first section is concluded by Peter Morris with a brief and well-written summary – in English – of the development of synthetic rubber in Germany (15 pp.). Morris argues convincingly that the market for natural rubber played a dominant role, and that Adolf Hitler promoted the synthetic rubber industry for reasons of national pride, despite poor economic prospects. The second section, “Substitutes for Basic Chemicals and Chemical Products,” opens with a lengthy chapter by Manfred Rasch (52 pp.) that summarises in a well-structured narrative his lifelong research on liquid fuels and lubricants from coal, produced by key technologies such as low-temperature coking, high-pressure hydrogenation (Bergius), and the Fischer-Tropsch process. Rasch argues that the attempts to solve the oil shortage produced new scarcities of energy and electricity in their turn – a kind of domino effect that is also addressed in the chapters by Maier and Zilt. The second contribution to this section, by Sandra Fehr, focuses on the scarcity of nitrogen products in Germany during the First World War. Fehr sheds new light on well-known facts by analysing the developments systematically in a strict chronological order, using Joseph Schumpeter’s analytical framework: invention – innovation – diffusion. She argues that all major inventions predated the war, that the nitrogen scarcity for the military was solved, but at the expense of agriculture, and that the HaberBosch process had a long-term impact on world food supply. The third section, “Substitutes for Fragrances, Flavorings, Food and Fodder,” starts with a chapter by Claus Priesner on the development of synthetic coffee flavours by first-rate organic chemists such as Reichstein and Staudinger. The production on an industrial scale of the substitute Coffarom took place after the war, between 1921 and 1931. As in the case of synthetic rubber, competition with the natural product played a large role. Nevertheless, Coffarom stayed on the market until the 1960s. The last chapter of the book, by Ulrike Thoms, deals with the production of fodder from waste materials and animal cadavers. It discusses in detail the great progress in the production of meat and bone meal by the rendering industry during the First World War. These technologies were further improved during the Second World War and had a lasting impact after 1945. Together with the extensive introduction, the seven cases studies represent a history of the German chemical industry in a nutshell, from the nineteenth century to the late 1950s, with a far greater attention than usual to the role played by politics and the military. With respect to the two central questions mentioned above, the answer to the first is that the external pressures of the two wars seldom led to really new inventions, but they scaled up existing technologies and their application. The answer to the second question is more ambiguous. In some cases innovations emerging during the wars ","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43266400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2218689
E. Homburg
{"title":"Ersatzstoffe im Zeitalter der Weltkriege: Geschichte, Bedeutung, Perspektiven","authors":"E. Homburg","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2218689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2218689","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46723512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-09DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2205715
Teresa Sabol Spezio
{"title":"Long Hard Road: The Lithium-Ion Battery and the Electric Car","authors":"Teresa Sabol Spezio","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2205715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2205715","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49064481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2201744
Megan Piorko, Sarah Lang, Richard Bean
This article presents the decryption, historical analysis, and alchemical interpretation of an alchemical cipher found in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee (British Library MS Sloane 1902). The cipher is an early example of a Bellaso/Della Porta/Vigenère type, a strong encryption method which was historically deemed indecipherable. The essay explores the medical and alchemical context for the manuscript into which the cipher was copied and provides the transcription, plaintext solution (in Latin), and English translation of the encrypted text. Further, it interprets the enciphered text through the lens of alchemical practice and provides evidence for the dissemination of this cipher as part of a larger alchemical knowledge network.
本文介绍了约翰和亚瑟·迪伊(British Library MS Sloane 1902)共享笔记本中发现的炼金术密码的解密、历史分析和炼金术解释。该密码是Bellaso/Della Porta/ vigen类型的早期示例,这是一种强大的加密方法,在历史上被认为是无法破译的。本文探讨了医学和炼金术的背景下的手稿,其中密码被复制,并提供转录,明文解决方案(拉丁文),和英文翻译的加密文本。此外,它通过炼金术实践的镜头解释了加密文本,并为作为更大的炼金术知识网络的一部分传播这种密码提供了证据。
{"title":"Deciphering the <i>Hermeticae Philosophiae Medulla</i>: Textual Cultures of Alchemical Secrecy.","authors":"Megan Piorko, Sarah Lang, Richard Bean","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2201744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2201744","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article presents the decryption, historical analysis, and alchemical interpretation of an alchemical cipher found in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee (British Library MS Sloane 1902). The cipher is an early example of a Bellaso/Della Porta/Vigenère type, a strong encryption method which was historically deemed indecipherable. The essay explores the medical and alchemical context for the manuscript into which the cipher was copied and provides the transcription, plaintext solution (in Latin), and English translation of the encrypted text. Further, it interprets the enciphered text through the lens of alchemical practice and provides evidence for the dissemination of this cipher as part of a larger alchemical knowledge network.</p>","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9511297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2201743
Barry Sturman, David Garrioch
The categories of "amateur" and "professional" remain central in studies on the sociology of nineteenth-century science. This article joins a growing body of literature that points out the complicated and intersecting connections between these two groups and how blurred the boundaries could be. This study focuses on pyrotechny, the art of fireworks, a field of far more obvious importance in the nineteenth century than it is today. Firework displays were mounted by artisan firework makers, who by the end of the century had become industrialists, and by military specialists, usually artillerymen. They had also become a common amateur pursuit. Across the nineteenth century, the art was transformed by the introduction of new materials, and the key discoveries were the work of enthusiasts who did not seek to profit financially from their discoveries. In this sense, they too were amateurs, although some had a scientific education. This article asks how they were able to make such major contributions to the field, and it situates them within networks that often crossed the boundaries between those who made fireworks for a living, or who studied them in military contexts, and those who were simple enthusiasts.
{"title":"Amateur Science and Innovation in Fireworks in Nineteenth-Century Europe.","authors":"Barry Sturman, David Garrioch","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2201743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2201743","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The categories of \"amateur\" and \"professional\" remain central in studies on the sociology of nineteenth-century science. This article joins a growing body of literature that points out the complicated and intersecting connections between these two groups and how blurred the boundaries could be. This study focuses on pyrotechny, the art of fireworks, a field of far more obvious importance in the nineteenth century than it is today. Firework displays were mounted by artisan firework makers, who by the end of the century had become industrialists, and by military specialists, usually artillerymen. They had also become a common amateur pursuit. Across the nineteenth century, the art was transformed by the introduction of new materials, and the key discoveries were the work of enthusiasts who did not seek to profit financially from their discoveries. In this sense, they too were amateurs, although some had a scientific education. This article asks how they were able to make such major contributions to the field, and it situates them within networks that often crossed the boundaries between those who made fireworks for a living, or who studied them in military contexts, and those who were simple enthusiasts.</p>","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9511291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2197328
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2023 Partington Prize is Dr Armel Cornu of the Science History Institute for her entry “Senses and utility in the New Chemistry.” Armel Cornu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. She majored in chemistry and history before graduating with a masters degree in the history of science at Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. She obtained her doctorate at the University of Uppsala in 2022 with a dissertation centring on the market, regulation, and science of mineral waters in eighteenth-century France. Her research is characterised by a social and economic approach to the development of chemistry throughout the Enlightenment. She currently works on the uses of sensorial impressions in the practice and perception of eighteenth-century chemistry. The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry established the Partington Prize in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman. It is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize-winning article will appear in the Society’s journal, Ambix, in due course.
{"title":"The Partington Prize 2023.","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2197328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2197328","url":null,"abstract":"The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2023 Partington Prize is Dr Armel Cornu of the Science History Institute for her entry “Senses and utility in the New Chemistry.” Armel Cornu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. She majored in chemistry and history before graduating with a masters degree in the history of science at Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. She obtained her doctorate at the University of Uppsala in 2022 with a dissertation centring on the market, regulation, and science of mineral waters in eighteenth-century France. Her research is characterised by a social and economic approach to the development of chemistry throughout the Enlightenment. She currently works on the uses of sensorial impressions in the practice and perception of eighteenth-century chemistry. The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry established the Partington Prize in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman. It is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize-winning article will appear in the Society’s journal, Ambix, in due course.","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9872049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2201747
Peter Reed
This article explores George Davis's editing of the Chemical Trades Journal (CTJ) between 1887 and 1906, a period during which he was also working as a consultant chemist and consultant chemical engineer. Davis had worked from 1870 in various sectors of the chemical industry before becoming a sub-inspector in the Alkali Inspectorate between 1878 and 1884. It was during this period that the British chemical industry was facing severe economic pressure and to remain competitive was having to adapt to less wasteful and more efficient production. Drawing on this wide industrial experience, Davis developed a framework for chemical engineering with the broad aim of making chemical manufacture as economic as the latest science and technology would allow. Several important issues are raised by Davis's editorship of the weekly CTJ alongside his extensive consultancy work and other responsibilities: Davis's motivation given the likely impact on his consultancy work; the community the CTJ hoped to serve; competitive periodicals addressing the same market niche; the degree of focus on his chemical engineering framework; the changing content of the CTJ; and Davis's role as editor over a period of nearly twenty years.
{"title":"George E. Davis: Editing the <i>Chemical Trade Journal</i>, 1887-1906.","authors":"Peter Reed","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2201747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2201747","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article explores George Davis's editing of the <i>Chemical Trades Journal</i> (<i>CTJ</i>) between 1887 and 1906, a period during which he was also working as a consultant chemist and consultant chemical engineer. Davis had worked from 1870 in various sectors of the chemical industry before becoming a sub-inspector in the Alkali Inspectorate between 1878 and 1884. It was during this period that the British chemical industry was facing severe economic pressure and to remain competitive was having to adapt to less wasteful and more efficient production. Drawing on this wide industrial experience, Davis developed a framework for chemical engineering with the broad aim of making chemical manufacture as economic as the latest science and technology would allow. Several important issues are raised by Davis's editorship of the weekly <i>CTJ</i> alongside his extensive consultancy work and other responsibilities: Davis's motivation given the likely impact on his consultancy work; the community the <i>CTJ</i> hoped to serve; competitive periodicals addressing the same market niche; the degree of focus on his chemical engineering framework; the changing content of the <i>CTJ</i>; and Davis's role as editor over a period of nearly twenty years.</p>","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9506957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-24DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2023.2205214
Vaibhav Pathak
women who dipped into natural philosophy. Findlen also probes Erculiani’s decision to publish her book in Krakow, discussing the intellectual connections between Padua and Poland and suggesting that Erculiani might have been trying to avoid running afoul of the Inquisition (unsuccessfully, if so). Letters on Natural Philosophy provides an exciting addition to early modern women’s medico-scientific works available to an English-speaking audience. Hannah Marcus’s skilful and highly readable translations make the difficult Italian and Latin texts accessible to English readers, and the book should be suitable for university students of all levels. While the introductory materials rightly situate Erculiani in her Italian context, her case also provokes questions about gender and female authorship in early modern Europe more broadly. For example, there are many parallels with the story of Oliva Sabuco, the daughter of a Spanish physician under whose name two philosophical works on medicine appeared in 1587 and who also ran into trouble with the Inquisition. This confluence raises complex questions about women’s eagerness to make an intellectual contribution in early modern Europe and the power of religious authorities to silence them. The sixteenth-century fate of Letters on Natural Philosophy is hardly uplifting. Investigated by the Inquisition, Erculiani was forced to defend her book against suspicions of heresy. Although she does not appear to have been formally charged, she also did not publish again. Her book was never placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Condemned Books, but, as Caranci points out, this was likely because it was not viewed as influential enough to pose a threat. Nevertheless, the fact that Erculiani felt empowered to publish her Letters demonstrates the great energy among educated Italian women at the end of the Renaissance. Women writers who followed Erculiani, such as Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Manella, echoed her views on women’s intellect with more success. Although Erculiani was prevented from making a broader impact with her book, her work deserves to be known, and the combined efforts of Carinci, Findlen, and Marcus bring her story to modern English readers in magnificent detail.
{"title":"Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe","authors":"Vaibhav Pathak","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2205214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2205214","url":null,"abstract":"women who dipped into natural philosophy. Findlen also probes Erculiani’s decision to publish her book in Krakow, discussing the intellectual connections between Padua and Poland and suggesting that Erculiani might have been trying to avoid running afoul of the Inquisition (unsuccessfully, if so). Letters on Natural Philosophy provides an exciting addition to early modern women’s medico-scientific works available to an English-speaking audience. Hannah Marcus’s skilful and highly readable translations make the difficult Italian and Latin texts accessible to English readers, and the book should be suitable for university students of all levels. While the introductory materials rightly situate Erculiani in her Italian context, her case also provokes questions about gender and female authorship in early modern Europe more broadly. For example, there are many parallels with the story of Oliva Sabuco, the daughter of a Spanish physician under whose name two philosophical works on medicine appeared in 1587 and who also ran into trouble with the Inquisition. This confluence raises complex questions about women’s eagerness to make an intellectual contribution in early modern Europe and the power of religious authorities to silence them. The sixteenth-century fate of Letters on Natural Philosophy is hardly uplifting. Investigated by the Inquisition, Erculiani was forced to defend her book against suspicions of heresy. Although she does not appear to have been formally charged, she also did not publish again. Her book was never placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Condemned Books, but, as Caranci points out, this was likely because it was not viewed as influential enough to pose a threat. Nevertheless, the fact that Erculiani felt empowered to publish her Letters demonstrates the great energy among educated Italian women at the end of the Renaissance. Women writers who followed Erculiani, such as Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Manella, echoed her views on women’s intellect with more success. Although Erculiani was prevented from making a broader impact with her book, her work deserves to be known, and the combined efforts of Carinci, Findlen, and Marcus bring her story to modern English readers in magnificent detail.","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46046132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Cultural History of Chemistry","authors":"Tillmann Taape","doi":"10.5040/9781474203746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474203746","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45207429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}