A Chemical Passion: the Forgotten Story of Chemistry at British Independent Girls’ Schools, 1820S–1930S Appendices

A Chemical Passion: The forgotten story of chemistry at British independent girls’ schools, 1820s–1930s Appendices

Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

UCL Institute of Education Press First published in 2017 by UCL Institute of Education Press, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL www.ucl-ioe-press.com

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Note iv

Appendix 1: Some chemistry books used at independent girls’ schools, 1880s–1920s 1

Appendix 2: Lives of some women chemistry teachers 4

Appendix 3: Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students 32

Appendix 4: The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1896 51

Appendix 5: The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1902 56

Appendix 6: Sophie Bryant’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1911 62

Appendix 7: Rose Stern’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1921 66

Appendix 8: AWST proposed course of chemistry for girls, 1932 71

iii Note

This PDF (ISBN 978-1-78277-195-1), published by UCL IOE Press and made available as a free download, contains Appendices to the book A Chemical Passion: The forgotten story of chemistry at British independent girls’ schools, 1820s–1930s, by Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham (London: UCL IOE Press, 2017). Although the information contained here is self-sufficient, the Appendices are intended to be read in conjunction with the book, which is available in the following formats:

Paperback: ISBN 978-1-78277-188-3 PDF eBook: ISBN 978-1-78277-192-0 ePub eBook: ISBN 978-1-78277-193-7 Kindle eBook: ISBN 978-1-78277-194-4

iv Appendix 1 Some chemistry books used at independent girls’ schools, 1880s–1920s

If the students at independent girls’ schools were studying chemistry, what textbooks were they using? What reference works did their school libraries hold? We have four separate sources of information, together with the names of the books and their authors. In chapter 4 we describe how, in 1884, the Girls’ Public Day School Company (GPDSC) circulated a list of chemistry texts that each GPDSC school was required to purchase for their school library (Anon., 1884: 16):

The Chemistry of Common Life (J.F. Johnston) Chemistry for Schools (C. Haughton Gill) Science Primer: Chemistry (H.E. Roscoe) A Treatise on Chemistry. 5 vols (H.E. Roscoe and C. Schorlemmer) A Treatise on Practical Chemistry and Qualitative Inorganic Analysis Adapted for Use in the Laboratories of Colleges and Schools (F. Clowes) Exercises in Practical Chemistry (A.G. Vernon Harcourt and H.G. Madan) Elementary Chemistry (F.S. Barff)

For the chemistry examination at Manchester High School for Girls in 1885, the following two texts were required reading (Archives, MHSG School Reports, 1890: n.p.):

Elements of Chemistry: Organic chemistry (W.A. Miller) An Introduction to the Study of Chemical Philosophy: The principles of theoretical and systematic chemistry (W.A. Tilden)

Then in chapter 3 we have included a poem written by a student at North London Collegiate School in 1913 that cited two of the texts she used (Allen, 1913: 31):

1 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

A Textbook of Inorganic Chemistry (G.S. Newth) The Elements of Inorganic Chemistry for Use in Schools and Colleges (W.A. Shenstone)

Over the period 1913–28 the Roedean School science club regularly added chemistry books to their science library. Each newly acquired title was listed in the science club report in the next issue of the Roedean School Magazine. The titles and authors of the chemistry books are listed below, together with the issue date of the magazine in which that book is listed.

Radium and Other Radio-Active Elements: A popular account treated experimentally (L.A. Levy and H.G. Willis) [1913] A Text-Book of Inorganic Chemistry (G. Senter) [Michaelmas 1914] The Scientific Foundations of Analytical Chemistry, Treated in an Elementary Manner (W. Ostwald) [Summer 1916] Modern Inorganic Chemistry (J.W. Mellor) [Lent 1916] Systematic Inorganic Chemistry from the Standpoint of the Periodic Law: A text-book for advanced students (R.M. Caven and G.D. Lander) [Lent 1916] The Chemistry of the Radio-Elements (F. Soddy) [1916] The Complete School Chemistry (F.M. Oldham) [Autumn 1919] Everyman’s Chemistry: The chemist’s point of view and his recent work told for the layman (E. Hendrick) [Autumn 1919] An Introduction to Chemical German (E.V. Greenfield) [June 1920] Outlines of Theoretical Chemistry (Lothar Meyer) [February 1922] An Introduction to Organic Chemistry (D.L. Hammick) [October 1922] Chemistry in the Service of Man (A. Findlay) [June 1923] Fundamental Principles of Organic Chemistry (C. Moureu and W.T.K. Braunholtz) [February 1923] The Chemistry of Colloids and Some Technical Applications (W.W. Taylor) [June 1924] Quantitative Chemical Analysis: Adapted for use in the laboratories of colleges and schools (F. Clowes and J.B. Coleman) [November 1925] Introduction to Physical Chemistry (J. Walker) [November 1925] Benn’s Sixpenny Library: Chemistry (P.E. Spielmann) [November 1927] Historical Introduction to Chemistry (T.M. Lowry) [November 1927]

2 Some chemistry books used at independent girls’ schools, 1880s–1920s

Three Centuries of Chemistry: Phases in the growth of a science (I. Masson) [November 1927] Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants and Some Mathematical Functions (G.W.C. Kaye and T.H. Laby) [November 1928] The Experimental Basis of Chemistry: Suggestions for a series of experiments illustrative of the fundamental principles of chemistry (Ida Freund, edited by A. Hutchinson and M.B. Thomas) [June 1928]

References Allen, L.D. (1913) ‘In praise of The Searchlight’. The Searchlight: NLCS Science Club Magazine, 31–4. Anon. (1884) ‘List of books sanctioned for school libraries: Chemistry and physics’. Minutes of the Council and Committees, Reports of Examiners, &c. for 1884, Archives, Girls’ Public Day School Trust.

3 Appendix 2 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

In chapter 5 we discuss the lives of the chemistry teachers in general terms. Though generalizations are important it is the individual life- stories by which we can more fully appreciate the many challenges faced by the chemistry-focused young women. The information we gleaned was fragmentary. For many of the teachers, school staff records provided details of education and teaching appointments. In the case of Oxbridge-educated teachers, the college registers added further facts. In some cases the school student magazines fleshed out the personalities of the women teachers, usually at the date of the teacher’s departure from that school and/or in obituaries. These biographical details are listed below alphabetically, with the name followed by a list of the schools where they taught. If any reader tracks down additional information we would be most grateful to receive it and will update the relevant biography with an acknowledgement to the contributor.

Adamson, Mary M. Taught at: Princess Helena College; Bromley High School; Notting Hill High School; Portsmouth High School.

Born in 1864, the daughter of a builder, Adamson was educated at Notting Hill High School, obtaining a scholarship to Bedford College. She recalled:

When I entered Bedford College in 1882 on an Arnott Scholarship in Physics, founded in 1866, the students for a [London University] BA were numerous, and their way smooth, but the way of BSc students was still hard. They were only offering themselves in ones and twos, and classes to which they could get admission were few … By 1885 when I took my degree, the women BScs were still under a dozen, but their way too, soon became smooth, and in a few years Chemistry classes which had refused me had opened their doors to my pupils. (Adamson, 1932: 6–7)

4 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

Adamson graduated from Bedford College in 1885, accepting a position teaching chemistry and physics courses at Princess Helena College which was then located in Ealing. In 1889 Adamson obtained an appointment at Bromley High School and presumably her replacement at Princess Helena School was Professor Newth (see chapter 5). The teaching experience at Bromley High School came as quite a trauma: ‘For Miss Heppel acting on her principle that “anybody can teach anything if they take the trouble,” had given the chemistry to her classical mistress and given me a big block of middle school history and elementary German and Latin’ (Adamson, 1937: 45). Fortunately for Adamson a chance encounter in 1890 changed her life. At the time, all of the London-area Girls’ Public Day School Company (GPDSC) schools had a common prize-giving held at the Crystal Palace. This involved 2,000 students and staff and 12,000 parents, relatives, and assorted dignitaries:

All our mass prizegivings were similar: some singing under a well-known conductor, a few short speeches and a long line of girls making their cautious way to the royal prize-giver. But this one was memorable for me because it decided my whole future career. Sent to seek a truant secretary in a distant corridor, I found myself close to Miss Jones [headmistress at Notting Hill High School], at the tail end of 420 N.H.H.S. girls and walked back beside her. “You are at Bromley? Do you teach such and such and such?” I said “Yes” and afterwards had a horribly guilty conscience, realising that these were my subjects [chemistry and physics] during the four years of my first post [Princess Helena College] and not the “mixed bag” of the past term [at Bromley High School]. It proved that they were the exact subjects of her vacant Senior Science post. Two days later I was offered it … (ibid.: 45)

While teaching at Notting Hill High School Adamson organized the construction of a science room as was reported in the Notting Hill High School Magazine:

The proposed science room has been built and was ready for use at the opening of the autumn term. Miss Adamson and her pupils are to be congratulated on the additional convenience and facilities they have acquired for the study of their favourite

5 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

subject; and the school on having obtained so useful and timely an extension of its buildings. (Anon., 1899: 39)

Though the headmistress, Harriet Morant Jones, had been keen to recruit Adamson as a science teacher, Jones was not enthusiastic about science itself:

She was indifferent to, or even disliked science, and often told me so. Yet my scientific ardour was not lessened, nor my spirits damped. If an interest in science and interesting my students in it was my little best, well, it was my best, and therefore commendable. (Sayers, 1973: 104)

In 1900, Adamson was offered and accepted the headship at Portsmouth High School. Unfortunately, she had to resign as headmistress in 1905 due to ill health:

Girls who knew Miss Adamson as a Mistress at the school, will be glad to hear that we have received a much better report of her health, and that she has been able to go to Australia, where it is hoped a still further improvement will be affected. She carries with her our true sympathy and best wishes for the future. (Anon., 1906: 37)

Despite her illness Adamson survived until 1955 and died aged 91.

Aitken, Edith Taught at: Manchester High School for Girls; Nottingham Girls’ High School; Notting Hill High School; North London Collegiate School (see chapter 3).

Auld, H.P. Taught at: St Leonards School; Esdaile School (see chapter 10).

Beard, Miss Taught at: Park School, Glasgow (see chapter 10).

Benn, Ethel Taught at: St Leonards School.

Benn was educated at Manchester High School for Girls and at Victoria University (later the University of Manchester), where she received a BSc

6 Lives of some women chemistry teachers and an MSc. On completing her MSc in 1918, Benn was hired at St Leonards School, following the departure of H.P. Auld. She held the position as senior chemistry mistress for the next 30 years. On her retirement in 1946 one of the students commented:

When Miss Benn came to St Leonards in 1918, Science except for the few who were going up to the universities to read Science or Medicine, played a rather unobtrusive part in the general scheme of things. Since then it has come much more to the fore, and this is in no small measure due to Miss Benn’s work in organising and directing the work in the Laboratories. Although she often appeared a dragon to the Lower Fifths and Fifths, girls with any desire to study Science seriously appreciated the thoroughness of her training in all branches of physics and chemistry, and found, when they reached the universities, that they owed her a great debt of gratitude for her insistence on high standards of note book and bench technique. (Anon., 1946: 150)

Birt, Margaret Ethel Taught at: Brighton and Hove School; St Paul’s Girls’ School.

Born in 1883, Birt was a ward of her aunt, Alice Birt, an assistant mistress at Sydenham High School. In 1905 she entered Bedford College, graduating with a BSc in 1907 (Staff Records, Bedford College Archives). Birt obtained the position of science mistress at Brighton and Hove School in 1910. A former student recalled:

The Science Laboratory calls up memories of the mistresses who taught in it. Miss Birt – the first to use it – looking businesslike and imposing in her large overall as she demonstrated to the class – or, in lighter mood, with a specimen case slung from her shoulder leading one of those Sixth Form Botany Expeditions, which had an educational purpose but which were also delightful picnics. It was one of these expeditions to Lewes that ended in catastrophe for one girl who slipped off a plank when crossing a stream, and had to be rescued dripping and covered in mud. (Mills, 1953: 31)

Birt left her position at the School in 1917. In 1921 she was appointed head of chemistry at St Paul’s Girls’ School, Hammersmith, a position she held

7 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham until 1938. Appointed a fellow of the Chemical Society in 1928 she was very active with the Association of Women Science Teachers (see chapter 5). For nine years Birt was the honorary secretary:

Miss M.E. Birt of St Paul’s Girls’ School steered the Association through nine years of growth and expansion and its influence increased owing to her zeal and competence and her many contacts. During these years the membership grew from 390 to 760. (Anon., 1962: 7)

Broadhurst, Miss Taught at: Park School, Glasgow (see chapter 10).

Burdett, Miss Taught at: Park School, Glasgow (see chapter 10).

Cam, Marjory Thekla Taught at: Oxford High School; Bromley High School (see chapter 8).

Carter, Maude Sampson Taught at: County School for Girls, Pontypool (see chapter 9).

Coignou, Caroline Pauline Marie Taught at: Pendleton High School, Salford; Manchester High School for Girls.

Coignou was born in Manchester in 1865 and educated at Manchester High School, where she achieved first class in natural science in the Cambridge Local Examinations (Archives, Manchester High School). She entered Newnham College in 1886, completing the Tripos requirements in 1890 and, like so many ‘Cambridge’ women of her generation, she travelled to Trinity College, Dublin, as a ‘steamboat lady’ to receive an MA (see chapter 5). From 1890 to 1894, Coignou taught at Pendleton High School, Salford, then from 1894 to 1910 at Manchester High School. She left teaching to be a woman examiner of the West Riding Education Department (1910– 18), then Inspector of Secondary Schools (1918–27). Active in both the British Federation of University Women and the International Federation of University Women, Coignou died in 1932.

8 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

Collier, Kathleen Mary Taught at: Bedford High School.

Born in 1889, Collier, daughter of a mining engineer, was educated for one year at Streatham Hill High School (1905–6) and then at Sutton High School. It is not known what she did during the intervening years, but she graduated with a BSc (London) from Royal Holloway College in 1919. She was appointed to the science staff at Bedford High School in 1923 where she stayed until her retirement in 1956. Following her retirement, several of her former students reminisced in The Aquila: Magazine of the Bedford High School, one noted: ‘Many generations have been infected by Miss Collier’s enthusiasm and love of chemistry and acquired from her the true scientific spirit’ (‘J.N.’, 1956: 108). While another recalled Collier’s attributes in more detail:

I started chemistry under Miss Collier’s guidance in IVA, and I think almost the first impression we received of the subject was that it was one deserving our respect, a subject which it was a privilege, and should be a delight, to learn. I can still clearly remember my first chemistry lesson. Nothing so makes a beginner dislike a subject as not being able to understand it, but Miss Collier possessed the great art of making chemistry simple without debasing it.

Miss Collier’s pride in her subject made her set a very high standard and an “A” was a coveted distinction, rarely achieved. She believed, above all, in laying a firm and solid foundation, and this, combined with her intolerance of slipshod, careless work, led to a high standard in her pupils. While Miss Collier was sparing in her praise it must not be thought that she gave none. She knew when and where encouragement was needed and never failed to give it. Praise from Miss Collier was praise indeed. Trained by her we approached our examinations with diffidence and caution, to find in many cases that the papers were quite easy, and sometimes, when the results were announced, to discover with surprise and pleasure that our work was good. But I think we only appreciated Miss Collier as a teacher when, at the university we found that many of our friends did not know the basic facts. Miss Collier would have been shocked! (‘M.W.’, 1956: 108)

9 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Dalston, Daisy Florence Taught at: Sheffield High School; Streatham Hill High School.

Born in 1883, Dalston was educated at Clapham High School and then entered Royal Holloway College in 1903, completing an honours BSc degree in 1906. Dalston returned to Clapham High School in 1906, obtaining a Cambridge Teachers’ Training Certificate there in 1907 (Clapham High School was one of many schools to offer teacher training at that time). She was appointed science mistress at Sheffield High School in 1908, then accepted a position as senior science mistress at Streatham Hill High School, a post she held until her retirement in 1938. Dalston was another woman chemistry teacher to have a ‘long and lingering illness’, and died in 1960 (Mansfield, 1960: 30). Like so many of the other women chemistry teachers, she was devoted to her chosen field and to her acolytes, as former student Betty Boyd remembered in an obituary in the Streatham and Clapham High School Magazine:

From the moment we became LVI Science, our lives were divided into two separate worlds, one in which we were absorbed by the day-to-day business of the school, the other, the world of the “Chemi-Lab”, the world of Miss Dalston.

Did she come in the morning, or go at night? We never saw her do so – she was always there, as far as we knew. She was gentle, serene, usually smiling, and always she was immaculate. Even as a young child I marvelled at her dazzling overall, made of some magic material perhaps, that no acid could spoil!

None of our ploys were too trivial to be of interest to Miss Dalston. She would listen with quiet attention to our delights and frustrations, and out of the depth of her own integrity remind us gently that there was usually another point of view. We were always welcome in her “Chemi-Lab”, and could work in the Light Room or on the little balcony. Often we were given tea brewed in a beaker, and sometimes delicious home-made cocoanut ice. (Boyd, 1960: 30)

Davies, Dilys (Mrs Glynne Jones) Taught at: North London Collegiate School (see chapters 3 and 9).

10 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

Davis, Ivy Rosina Taught at: Pontypridd Intermediate Girls’ School, Treforest; Howell’s School, Llandaff; Howard Gardens Secondary School, Cardiff.

From 1918 until 1922, Davis had been an assistant chemistry mistress with Alice Winny at Howell’s School, Llandaff (Staff Records, Howell’s School Archives). Davis, born in 1894, was educated at Howard Gardens Municipal Secondary School from 1906 until 1913. That year she was accepted at the University of Wales, Cardiff, graduating in 1917. Her first position was for one year as assistant mistress, Pontypridd Intermediate Girls’ School. She was assistant chemistry mistress at Howell’s School, Llandaff, from 1918 until 1922, when she was appointed science mistress at Howard Gardens Secondary School, where she was educated.

Dove, Jane Frances Taught at: St Leonards School; Wycombe Abbey School (see chapter 10).

Dunbar, Mary Taught at: Edinburgh Ladies’ College; Chesterfield High School for Girls (see chapter 10).

Fortey, Isabel Comber Taught at: Park School, Glasgow; King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham; Newnham College, Cambridge; Sheffield High School; Cambridge Training College for Women; Private school, Greenock; St Hilda’s School, Ootacamund, India; Diocesan College, Calcutta.

Born in 1864, Fortey was the sister of the research chemist Emily Comber Fortey (Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, 2008: 203–4). Their father had been an inspector of schools in India. Fortey attended Newnham College from 1884 to 1888 where she completed the Natural Science Tripos (White, 1979: 82). She was yet another ‘steamboat lady’ to obtain an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In 1903, Fortey completed a Diploma in Education from Oxford University. She then held a series of teaching appointments: Park School, Glasgow (1888–9); King Edward VI High School for Girls (1889–93); Newnham College (1893–5); Sheffield High School (1897–1902); Cambridge Training College for Women (1904–7); Private school, Greenock (1907–16); St Hilda’s School, Ootacamund, India (1917); Diocesan College, Calcutta (1918). No information about her subsequent life could be found except that she died in 1954.

11 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Gibson, Florence Taught at: Cardiff High School for Girls (see chapter 9).

Grimes, Marguerite Muriel Taught at: Boys’ Grammar School, Hitchin; Acton County School for Boys; Brondesbury and Kilburn High School for Girls; Maria Grey Teachers’ Training College.

Grimes, born in 1894, had attended Camden School for Girls from 1901 until 1910, obtaining a scholarship to North London Collegiate for 1910– 12, her last two years of school. Then she completed a BSc (honours) in chemistry at Bedford College in 1915 and a London Teachers’ Diploma at the London Day Training College (later the Institute of Education, London University) in 1916. With the departure of male teachers for war duty, Grimes was appointed as science mistress at the Boys’ Grammar School, Hitchin (1916–18) and at Acton County School for Boys (1918–19). With the return of the male staff, she was hired part-time at Maria Grey College in September 1919, while also holding a position as chemistry teacher at Brondesbury and Kilburn High School for Girls (Staff Records, Maria Grey College Archives). Perhaps not coincidental with her hiring, there was a note in 1920 of: ‘The recognition by the Board of Education of an Advanced Course in Science in the school’ (Johnston, 1920: 2). Grimes left her positions in July 1926, no reason being given for her departure.

Harker, Katherine Nancie Helen Taught at: Leigh Girls’ Grammar School; North London Collegiate School.

Born in 1899, Harker was educated at Manchester High School for Girls and then obtained a BSc from Victoria University (later the University of Manchester) in 1920. She worked as an assistant research chemist, Air Pollution Committee, for the Manchester Corporation from 1920 until 1923. During that time, she received an MSc (Tech.) from Victoria University in 1921. Harker obtained a teaching position at Leigh Girls’ Grammar School in 1923, and then was appointed to North London Collegiate School (NLCS) in 1930. Harker’s arrival at NLCS was announced by the then-headmistress, Isabella Drummond, at Prize Day: ‘Miss Drummond offered a warm welcome to Miss Harker, MSc (Manchester), an old pupil of Miss Burstall …’ (Anon., 1930: 102). Sara Burstall, the headmistress at Manchester High School for Girls, had been a student of Buss’s at NLCS and hence there was a strong link between the two schools. Harker taught at NLCS until her retirement in 1959.

12 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

Heath, Annie Grace Taught at: North London Collegiate School (see chapter 3).

Heather, Lilian Frances Taught at: Downe House.

Like so many of the women chemistry teachers, Heather devoted her life to her mathematics and science teaching, particularly chemistry. In chapter 8 we included a prose contribution from one of her enthusiastic chemistry students, Madge Godfrey. Born in 1874, Heather’s father was a solicitor and she was the only daughter of six children (Archives, Wimbledon High School). Initially attending Notting Hill High School, her parents transferred her to Wimbledon High School in 1887. According to the obituary in the Downe House Magazine, she accepted a mathematical and science scholarship for Holloway College in 1892 and completed a London BSc in pure and mixed mathematics and chemistry in 1896 (Anon., 1943a: 2). After graduation she lived at home with her mother where she devised and patented a method of food preservation by means of an apparatus that replaced the air above the food with carbon dioxide (Anon., 1904). From its opening in 1907 Heather taught at Downe House, then located in the village of Downe, Kent (now part of Bromley). She used to drive to the School in her ‘dog-cart’ up from Green Street Green, where she lived with her mother, stabling the pony and then driving back down the hill each afternoon, until her mother died, after which she lived at the school. With the small initial enrolment, Heather taught part-time at Downe House and part-time at Westerham School (Ridler, 1967: 88). In addition, Heather worked in London as editorial assistant for the weekly chemistry publication Chemical News from 1882, though it is unclear when she ceased holding this position. The editor of the magazine was the famous chemist Sir William Crookes. Crookes’s biographer, Fournier d’Albe, quoted part of a letter Crookes had written in 1882 to Sir William Ramsay, who at the time was principal of University College, Bristol, for advice on hiring an assistant:

I think a woman would be if anything better than a man, always providing the qualifications are equal. A woman is more conscientious than a man in many things, and is not always trying to get another appointment to “better” herself. But on the other hand she goes and gets married, which is quite fatal! (D’Albe, 1923: 373)

13 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

It was Heather who organized the school science club in 1917 (Anon., 1917: 8). In chapter 7 we include reports of some of the many chemistry activities of this very first club at Downe House. The minute books of the science club have survived, and it is apparent that Heather made sure that her students were enthused by the latest discoveries in chemistry. For example, in the minute book for 1923 it was reported that: ‘Newspaper cuttings [glued into minute notes] on the element, hafnium, were read by Miss Heather, and the subject of using helium in airships instead of hydrogen was also discussed’ (Anon., 1923: n.pag.). While in 1924 the minutes noted: ‘Newspaper cutting [glued in] on “Selenium and its Uses” was read by Miss Heather’ (Anon., 1924: n.pag.). In later years Heather had to spend more and more of her time as the second-in-command at the school (and as companion of the headmistress) and less in her preferred role as teacher (Ridler, 1967: 95–6). Fortunately a young Oxford research chemist, Dorothy May Lyddon Rippon, was hired part-time to take her place. As was noted in Rippon’s obituary: ‘To Miss Heather, of course, the appointment of someone of this calibre gave particular satisfaction’ (de Villiers, 1965: 2). Heather was diagnosed with bone cancer, but continued working on school issues, including the following year’s school timetable, until her death in 1943 (Ridler, 1967: 161). She was buried in the grounds of the school. Heather’s anonymous obituarist reported on a comment by Heather:

“I am a lucky woman,” she said to me, “because my work is just what I should always choose to do if I ever had to decide. It is all so interesting and exciting and one never gets to the end of the possibilities.” (Anon., 1943a: 1)

Hunt, Annette Dora Taught at: Weymouth High School; Croydon High School; Sutton High School.

Annette Hunt was born in 1865 in County Waterford, Ireland (‘E.M.L.L.’, 1932: 18). When she was 16 years old, her father, a doctor, moved to the south of France, where she was educated at the École Normale in Pau. She taught at GPDSC schools throughout her career, beginning at Weymouth High School in 1886 when she was 21 years old (Staff Records, Sutton High School Archives). In 1891 she transferred to Croydon High School,

14 Lives of some women chemistry teachers and then in 1895 to Sutton High School, where she became Senior Science Mistress. Hunt taught at Sutton High School until her retirement in 1928. One of her former students recalled:

Many are the memories of Miss Hunt: “An enlightened teacher, ahead of her time.” “No text books were ever used in her lessons.” “She had me in sometimes with some of the lame dogs to pick up some post-prandial crumbs of knowledge; and she did actually teach me to know when a kettle was really boiling; tea was part of the fun.” “She would threaten, if one were caught touching her delicate balances with fingers, to hang one out of the window by the great toe, or drown one in boiling oil, and I remember being dragged round the room by my plait; but to anyone showing the slightest interest in her subject, she would give endless time and help.” The following sketch is characteristic: “On a never- to-be-forgotten occasion, as she was giving a science lecture while we took notes, she must have seen that our attention was wandering; so, gliding fluently into an obvious error which passed unchallenged, she stopped. ‘Parrots! Parrots! The Kindergarten are more alive than you. If I should tell them that I keep a rabbit in this cupboard, do you think they would believe it? They would demand to see it: and if I forbade them, by hook or by crook they would get there and open that door. But you – you would swallow any rubbish. When shall I teach you that the whole basis of science is to accept nothing without proof?” (Anon., 1964: 65)

Hunt died in 1932. An obituary in the Sutton High School Magazine described some of her personality and attributes:

At first she taught French and Botany, but as the years went on her interest in Science grew, until she abandoned her French teaching entirely in favour of Science … She was a brilliant teacher, and her originality of mind, her quick wit and Irish humour, her unfailing kindliness and unselfishness, will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege of working with her. She was interested in many branches of science, and her collections of fossils and minerals, no less than the lantern slides which she herself made to illustrate her lessons, are now cherished possessions of the School. (‘E.M.L.L.’, 1932: 18)

15 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

John, Margaret E. Taught at: King’s High School for Girls, Warwick; Cardiff High School for Girls (see chapter 9).

Leeds, Kathleen Mary Taught at: Portsmouth High School; Croydon High School.

Most of the women chemistry teachers survived to an old age, but others died young. One example of an early death was that of Grace Heath (see chapter 3) while another was Kathleen Mary Leeds. Leeds, like Heath, returned to her old school for much of her sadly shortened teaching career. Born in 1883, Leeds was educated at Croydon High School from 1894 to 1901 (Staff Register, Croydon High School Archives). She stayed on at the school as laboratory assistant from 1901 to 1903 and then entered the Royal College of Science (later Imperial College) in 1904 to study chemistry under a special studentship given to teachers in training (Tilden, 1921: 4). Upon graduation with a BSc in chemistry, Leeds was briefly an instructor at Goldsmiths College, New Cross, before being appointed science teacher at Portsmouth High School in 1909 (Staff Register, Portsmouth High School Archives). The headmistress at Portsmouth High School, Miss Cossey, recalled: ‘She threw herself whole-heartedly into all the school activities … Outside the school she worked for the local women’s suffrage society. She was always a firm supporter of the women’s cause’ (Cossey, 1921: 4). In 1911 Leeds had to return to Croydon to live with her aunt – though the precise reason was not given (ibid.: 4). Fortunately a vacancy arose for a chemistry teacher at Croydon High School and she was immediately hired. Like so many of these early chemistry teachers Leeds was charismatic. In an obituary one of her former students recalled: ‘Probably one of the things which we felt most strongly about her was her intense vitality … Instead of … doing an experiment merely mechanically, one wanted to do it, and do it well, just because she was so keen about it herself’ (‘By an Old Girl,’ 1921: 5). Perhaps she was still active in the suffrage movement as the obituarist added:’

But all the time we knew … that her form was only one of manifold interests … to outside things as well as school things. We were a little jealous of them at first and then angry with them, when she would come in to the form room at the end of the morning, looking thoroughly exhausted, and at once give all her

16 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

energies to settling of various bits of business of the form that came up … (ibid.: 5)

To add to Leeds’s workload, in 1917 she was promoted to second mistress, essentially deputy head. Leeds encouraged the idea of bright futures for the students, giving weekly inspirational talks. One of the students recalled:

I remember … in the Lower Sixth how we used to look forward to Miss Leeds’s talk at twenty to one on Wednesdays; and how disappointed we used to be if she were prevented from coming to us. It was when she talked to us about our future careers that she used to show us her own ideals. How awed we were at their height! Then she would tell us of some little thing of her own experience, something so human that we felt that her ideals were not merely dreams but that they were possible for us to reach them if we tried. (‘By One of the Present Sixth’, 1921: 6)

She died in 1921, no cause of death being given. In recognition of her influence, the Kathleen Mary Leeds Prize was instituted foran annual Award ‘to a girl in the Sixth Form for Science, especially in Chemistry’ (Anon., 1933: n.pag.). Unfortunately, the award no longer exists.

Lees, Edith Sarah Taught at: Clapham High School.

Lees had a conventional education at Clapham High School from 1881 until 1888, taking the London Intermediate Science Examination in 1897 (Staff Records, Clapham High School Archives). She was appointed to the staff of the school in 1889, but spent the 1890/1 year at University College, London. Lees continued teaching at Clapham High School for her entire career, and retired in 1926. At her retirement, it was reported in the Clapham High School Magazine: ‘She had from the beginning struggled for the teaching of science in girls’ schools, and thanks to her efforts and those of like mind the subject now stood were it did’ (Anon., 1927: 39). On her death in 1948 one of her former students recalled in the Clapham High School Old Girls’ Society News Sheet:

Others will write with more authority about her historic struggle and achievement in making the Sciences an essential subject in

17 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

the curriculum of Girls’ Schools. I write as one of her Physics pupils and one of her Sixth Form girls, and I chiefly remember, with deep affection, her unfailing kindness and understanding.

Her happy Sixth Form has, I think, influenced all of us, who were lucky enough to be in it, more than we can tell. She was always so approachable, and the remembrance of her little talks at the beginning of term, with their quiet wisdom and practical advice, will always bring her sweet personality vividly to mind.

… Another happy recollection is her enjoyment – which was always as great as ours – of the annual Children’s Lectures at the Royal Institution, to which she took a party of us each Christmas holidays, and her kindness in giving us tea afterwards. (Kingston, 1948: 1)

Lewis, Iva Gwendoline Taught at: Roedean School; Wimbledon High School (see chapter 8).

Leyshon, Eluned Taught at: Glanmor Girl’s Secondary School, Swansea (see chapter 9).

MacDonald, Evelyn Taught at: Wheelwright Grammar School, Dewsbury; Oxford High School.

Born in 1869 at Waterford, Ireland, Evelyn MacDonald was educated at Queen’s School, Chester and then entered Girton College in 1888, completing the Tripos requirements in 1892. As a ‘steamboat lady’ she added an MA from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1905 (Butler and McMorran, 1948: 52). For two years (1892–4), MacDonald was the science mistress at Wheelwright Grammar School, Dewsbury. Then she was appointed science mistress at Oxford High School in 1894. In an obituary in the Oxford High School Magazine, the headmistress commented:

During the many years that Miss MacDonald was on the teaching Staff of the School there were few dull moments. As a Scientist she was a searcher for truth, and as a teacher she saw to it that her pupils, even in the immature, groping and inarticulate manner of youth, joined with her as co-searchers. All will have been influenced, though probably unaware of that influence, byher almost fierce integrity, by her understanding of the negligences

18 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

and ignorances of the young, and by her determination to help them to repair the negligences and to transform the ignorances. Also, in the words of one of her former pupils, ‘She was such fun’, and therein may lie much of the secret of happy co-operation between teacher and taught. (‘R.M.H-B’, 1953: 58)

Several reminiscences by former students provide an insight into her character. One of her students from the 1876 to 1902 period, Dorothy Counsell, remembered: ‘Miss McDonald was always humorous in her teaching, and we were allowed to speak quietly to one another when weighing and measuring; a most unusual concession in those days’ (Counsell, 1963: 61). A student from the 1910s, Marjorie Thekla Cam (see chapter 8), later MacDonald’s successor as chemistry teacher at Oxford High School, recalled that MacDonald employed the discovery [heuristic] method:

My enthusiasm for Science … was stimulated and increased by Miss McDonald. She was a delightful person, humorous and friendly. She always made us start our experiments with an open mind, instilled in us a love of discovery and eschewed any kind of text book in the elementary stages. At that time the prevailing attitude in teaching Science was that each pupil should write his own text book, which certainly nurtured a true scientific spirit but made the rate of progress somewhat slow. (Cam, 1963: 78)

McDonald encouraged some of her students, including Muriel Palmer (née King), to study extra science:

On reaching Form V, I was flattered to receive an invitation to do some extra science with “Smac”, as we always called Miss MacDonald. Four close-packed years followed, full of intense interest and wide teaching, such as was then available in very few girls’ schools. The one Mistress had to cope with the whole of the teaching of science in the school, and manage the laboratory and keep apparatus in order with no help … (Palmer, 1963: 73)

Sadly, a bicycle accident ended MacDonald’s career, as was commented in her obituary in 1953:

19 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

A cruel bicycle accident in 1920 deprived the School of the services of a constant friend and a valued teacher, and robbing Miss MacDonald herself of radiant health and physical ability, condemned her to many years of frustrated hope and power. It might have been expected that despair and depression would have held the day, but far from that being the case, the gallant and gay courage with which those crippled years were accepted ensured that she continued to teach, though the subject was changed and she was no longer at the School. (‘R.M.H-B.’, 1953: 58)

O’Flyne, Nora Dorothy Taught at: County School for Girls, Pontypool (see chapter 9).

Patterson, Dorothy Christina Taught at: Wheelwright Grammar School, Dewsbury; Perse School, Cambridge.

Born in 1889 in Wolverhampton, Patterson was educated at King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham, and then completed a BSc at the University of Glasgow in 1912. She spent the following year at Newnham College as a research student. In 1914, she was appointed assistant mistress at Wheelwright Grammar School, then in 1916 she accepted a position at Perse School, where she remained until she retired in 1940 (Mayne, 1943). Patterson was a great believer in taking the chemistry students of the school science club to industrial plants. In a 1923 issue of The Persean Magazine, a student, H. Chivers reported: ‘During the Spring Term eight members of the Science Club had the good fortune to be able to visit the Sulphuric Acid Works at Stowmarket, where they spent a very interesting and enjoyable afternoon’ (Chivers, 1923: 48). While in 1928, M. Skinner described another outing: ‘On Tuesday, March 27th, several members made a tour of the local Gas Works, which was most interesting and instructive. First, we saw the coal being shot into the retorts, and then we were shown how the gas was purified and the waste products collected’ (Skinner, 1928: 45). On her retirement in 1940 one student wrote in The Persean Magazine:

Miss Patterson isn’t at Perse any more. How odd that must sound to any girls who during a good many recent years worked

20 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

their way, painfully sometimes, pleasurably sometimes, but with great thoroughness always, through elementary and advanced chemistry. How many of us owe the best part of our School Certificate to her: how proud and pleased she was at our successes in Higher; how miraculously she pushed us through first, M.B.; what numbers of us she got even into Girton or Newnham when often we were not good material. (Anon., 1940: 10)

Patterson died in 1943 and in an obituary a former student recalled:

The older among the Old Perseans call so clearly to mind the original Science Room where this kindly and gracious person presided over one’s early investigations into the mysteries of Science. Looking back, one is amazed that so much was accomplished in that single small room which then housed all the Science work of the School. No wonder Miss Patterson was filled with joy and pride when her dream of a complete Science Block became a solid reality, and her work could have the accommodation which it had long deserved. And yet, for some, the “Science Room” stands out as her real setting.

But Miss Patterson was much more than Chemistry mistress. She treated us as people, not as machines for the assimilation of Inorganic Chemistry, and she gave to many of us the great gift of an unaffected and refreshing out of school friendship. (Anon., 1943b: 6–7)

Quartly, Lilian Ada Taught at: Miss Rice’s, Belsize Gardens; Clapham High School.

Quartly, born in 1881, had a very ‘nineteenth-century’ girl’s education at small private schools. From 1887 until 1895 she was a student at Channing House in Highgate; and then at Cecile House School, Crouch End from 1895 until 1899 (Staff Register, Clapham High School Archives). Quartly spent the period from 1899 until 1902 at the University Tutorial College before entering Northern Polytechnic in 1903, from which she graduated with a degree in chemistry and pure and applied mathematics in 1905. From 1907 until 1908, Quartly was visiting mistress in chemistry at Miss Rice’s School in Belsize Gardens. It was in 1915 that she took up an appointment as chemistry mistress at Clapham High School, following

21 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham the departure of Dorothy Marshall for war work (see chapter 5). Apart from the two years 1925–7 spent as a post-graduate student at University College, London, Quartly spent the remainder of her career at Clapham High School. Quartly died in 1960 and in an obituary in the Clapham High School Old Girls’ Society News Sheet, one of her former students, Marjorie Moller recalled:

We soon learnt that her own keen interest in Chemistry and her desire to share it with us were matched by a determination that we should work hard and thoroughly and accurately. Her own high standards of scholarship made her merciless to the slip-shod but she had the infinite patience of the great teacher with those who struggled to learn. (Moller, 1960: 1)

While in the same obituary, Elizabeth Adams provided a more detailed account of Quartly’s contributions:

It was only after I had left school that I realised not only how well Miss Quartly taught us the fundamentals of chemistry but how many “extras” she provided that other schools did not. Books appeared from Lewis’ Library, ranging from Maurice Traver’s “Discovery of the Rare Gases” to a translation of Lucretius’ “De Rerum Natura”, and one was even taken to evening lectures at the Royal Institution as well as being introduced to the Christmas Lectures there. Practical chemistry was a delight; it was much more exciting to estimate the silver in a threepenny piece than in a silver salt taken out of a bottle and the experiment brought home to us the use of what we had been taught. This greatly appealed to me and perhaps influenced my choice of a career in chemistry applied to food technology and not in pure chemistry. The Sixth Form privilege of working in the Lab. on our own (but never fewer than two together) on Friday afternoons was much valued, particularly after one of us discovered how to open the acid cupboard without the key! That we were always extra careful may have been due in part to fear of losing our privilege but was mainly the outcome of Miss Quartly’s excellent teaching. (Adams, 1960: 2)

22 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

Raymond, Yolande Gabrielle Taught at: Liverpool (Belvedere) High School; Sydenham High School; St Paul’s Girls’ School; Kidderminster High School (see chapter 5).

Ready, Gertrude Elizabeth Taught at: Rochester Grammar School for Girls; Nottingham Girls’ High School.

Born in 1872, Ready was educated at Bedford High School (1887–91), and then entered Royal Holloway College for Women from where she graduated with a BSc (London) in 1895. Ready taught at Rochester Grammar School for Girls from 1896 until 1901. That year she accepted a position at Nottingham Girls’ High School as senior science mistress. Ready taught at Nottingham until her retirement in 1932 (Staff Register, Nottingham Girls’ High School). Chapter 5 opens with a poem about Miss Ready’s departure. On her death in 1947 the Nottingham Girls’ High School Magazine carried an obituary that noted:

Many Old Girls will remember with pleasure their lessons with Miss Ready in the small room on the second floor of the main building, and in the little “inner Science room,” the only Science laboratories we possessed until 1923 when the Chemistry laboratory was built. It was she who planned the equipment of this new laboratory … (Anon., 1945–50: 33)

One of her former students, Mary Browning, recalled:

I remember her bustling about the Laboratory preparing for the lessons and keeping a watchful eye on the juniors while they were doing chemical experiments. Looking back, I feel that some of the practical work we attempted was really difficult; for instance, some 15 pupils in one of the Fifths made alcohol thermometers. (‘H.M.B.’, 1945–50: 33)

Rich, Mary Florence Taught at: Howell’s, Llandaff; Grantham Ladies’ College, Grantham; Roedean School (see chapter 9).

Rippon, Dorothy May Lyddon Taught at: Downe House.

23 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Rippon entered St Hugh’s College, Oxford University in 1922, obtaining a BA in 1925, an honours BSc in 1928, and an MA in 1930. She commenced chemistry research at Oxford in 1927, and was still an active researcher when she accepted a part-time position at Downe House. The first mention of Rippon in the Downe House Magazine was a comment in a science club report: ‘Miss Rippon (new science teacher) told us about her research work, and was most clear and instructive, although she dealt with such alarming substances as hexahydrocarbozylcyano- cyclopentane’ (‘S.L.’, 1932a: 22). In the following issue, Miss Rippon was mentioned again, this time for procuring liquid air, almost certainly from the Oxford University research laboratories: ‘Its success was largely due to the liquid air which Miss Rippon, with great difficulty, procured for us …’ (‘S.L.’, 1932b: 35). At a memorial service following Miss Rippon’s death in 1965, Lady de Villiers spoke eloquently of her former colleague at Downe House. The address was published in the Downe House Magazine:

Miss Rippon, then a young Oxford research chemist, was persuaded to come over from her home at Abingdon to do some part-time teaching for us. Even in those days good science teachers were at a premium and we thought ourselves fortunate to secure her help … But I suppose none of us then thought that the temporary part-time post would develop into a permanent full-time one and that Miss Rippon would, so to speak, take root at Downe and play so outstanding a part in building up the science side of the school. This was a task requiring great patience and devotion; for science was very much the Cinderella of all subjects at Downe at that time. One step forward was the completion of the Chemistry and Biology labs. in 1934 …

As a teacher Miss Rippon enjoyed from time to time the stimulus all of us who are teachers derive from the occasional brilliant student. But the more lasting reward in teaching is the unspectacular achievement of helping the less able to see the light; and in this she was always ready to give ungrudgingly of her time and patience. Only indifferent or careless work on the part of those intelligent enough to do better roused her indignation …

Her natural reserve was intensified in later years when she refused to allow the constant threat of illness to overshadow her own life or that of her friends. No one heard her complain of pain

24 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

or discomfort. This surely calls for sustained courage and self- discipline of a very high order.

We have just heard that she left us in her will a sum of money to provide a prize to be awarded for good work in science … The prize will bear her name and we are glad that in this way her memory will be kept alive. (de Villiers, 1965: 2–3)

Stern, Rose Taught at: Bangor County School for Girls; North London Collegiate School (see chapter 3).

Stopard, Winifred Mary Taught at: Glossop Grammar School; Central Secondary Girls’ School, Sheffield; Sheffield High School (see chapter 8).

Taylor, Clara Millicent Taught at: Clapham High School; St Paul’s Girls’ School; Northampton School for Girls; Redlands School for Girls.

A key figure in the Association of Women Science Teachers (AWST) was Clara Millicent Taylor (not to be confused with Millicent Taylor of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, see chapter 3). Clara Taylor was born in 1885 in New Zealand, attending New Zealand University from 1902 until 1909. She obtained first a BA and then an MA with honours in chemistry. A student of hers from Redlands High School recalled that Taylor told them how she came to England:

She [Taylor] told [us] a story of how, as a New Zealand Science graduate, determined to do post graduate work at Cambridge, she wrote to Newnham College saying she wished to take a certain course, and would arrive on a certain day! This was typical of Miss Taylor, who always required a strong sense of purpose from the girls. (Anon., 1953: 17)

Taylor attended Newnham College from 1911 to 1912, then obtained a position teaching part time at Clapham High School for the 1912/13 year. Her biographer Ian Rae commented: ‘At Clapham she worked under Edith Sarah Lees [see above], a stern leader who required of her junior staff that

25 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham they attend school on Saturday mornings to try out experiments for the week ahead’ (Rae, 1991: 146). Taylor was appointed as chief science mistress at St Paul’s Girls’ School in 1913, leaving there to become headmistress at Northampton School for Girls in 1921, then headmistress at Redlands School for Girls in 1926. At Redlands she continued teaching chemistry, as a former student recalled: ‘I remember the Chemistry lessons we had in the old Upper Lab., where, in spite of frequent interruptions for School business, we knew we were being taught by a scientist who loved her subject’ (Milton, 1940: 8–9). Taylor co-authored the text, Elementary Chemistry for Students of Hygiene and Housecraft (Taylor and Thomas, 1930). She died in 1940.

Taylor, Millicent Taught at: Cheltenham Ladies’ College (see chapter 3).

Thomson, Jean G. Taught at: St George’s School; Falkirk High School (see chapter 10).

Turner, Margaret Taught at: County School for Girls, Pontypool (see chapter 9).

Virgo, Muriel Elizabeth Taught at: Wakefield High School; Streatham Hill High School; Cheltenham Ladies College; Ipswich High School.

Virgo was born at Brixham in 1884 (Ipswich Staff Register; Newnham Register). She was educated at Clapham High School (1882–1904) and then proceeded to Newnham College, completing the Tripos in 1907. Virgo completed a BSc in chemistry and pure and applied mathematics at the University of London and then attended the London Day Teachers’ Training College during the 1908/9 year. Virgo held a brief appointment (January–July 1909) at King Edward VI High School for Girls, then as assistant mistress at Wakefield High School from September 1909 until December 1912. Next she held the position of senior science mistress at Streatham Hill High School from January 1913 until July 1919. After one year at Cheltenham Ladies’ College (1919 to 1920), Virgo was appointed senior science mistress at Ipswich High School for Girls in 1920, a position she held until her retirement in 1944. Apart from the mention in chapter 7 of her role in forming a science club at Ipswich High School, we could only find brief comments about her in the booklet on the history of the School (Anon., 1978). Peggy Carter

26 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

(Hope) recalled that she and her friends ‘at times climbed over the fence into the garden of Woodview, where Miss Virgo, teaching in the Chemistry Lab. at the end of the garden, often caught us playing in the pond and sent us back with a kindly rebuke’ (28). Vivian Spooner confessed: ‘I remember in a Chemistry lesson being dared to turn on the Kipp to see if it really gave off the smell of bad eggs. It did and the evacuation of the lab. was swift and sudden. I forget what my punishment was!’ (30), while Norah Moore (Hewitson) remembered: ‘As well as Physics I studied Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology for the Higher Certificate; Chemistry with Miss Virgo in the old lab. by the bicycle shed’ (40). Virgo died in 1971.

Walter, Lavinia Edna Taught at: Central Foundation School for Girls.

Walter was educated at NLCS and completed a BSc at London University. She became a research student of Henry Armstrong, following which she obtained a teaching position at the Central Foundation Girls’ School. Walter was a pioneer of Armstrong’s heuristic method, and her name was mentioned in his account of the method:

But the most systematic trial given to the method in a girls’ school has been that carried out at the Central Foundation School in Bishopsgate, London, by Miss Edna Walter, BSc. This lady has embodied her experiences in an interesting paper read at the Liverpool meeting of the British Association in 1896, which was afterwards printed in Education. (Armstrong, 1903: 245–6)

Walter was the driving force for chemistry at the school until her departure in 1901 as was reported in the Central Foundation School Magazine:

Miss Walter, BSc, to whom is due the credit of organizing the science work of the School, has been appointed an Inspector under the Board of Education (Science and Art Department), being the first woman to hold the position. It is with great regret that we bid her good-bye, after her six years of devoted work with us, but, at the same time, we must congratulate her on obtaining so important a post, and on opening up a new field of work to women. (Anon., 1901: 13)

27 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Walter continued to play an active role in chemistry education. For example, at Colston’s Girls’ School, Bristol, she was an advisor on teaching laboratory design:

In March 1902 Mr Gough was instructed to draw up plans for a new building adjoining the original building and taking up some of the playground. Later that month Miss E.L. Walter, BSc, a Board of Education inspector, was invited to School to give a preliminary course of lessons in physical science and Gough took the opportunity to consult her about current thinking on teaching laboratories … (Dunn, 1991: 46)

Watson, Mary Taught at: Cheltenham Ladies’ College (see chapter 3).

Willey, Emily Mary Taught at: Chelmsford County High School; Twickenham Girls’ High School; Girls’ High School, Stafford; Howell’s School, Llandaff.

Willey was educated at James Allen’s School in Dulwich from 1897 until 1904. That year, she entered Girton College, completing the Tripos requirements in 1907. She, too, travelled across to Dublin for a BA from Trinity College as a ‘steamboat lady’ before returning to Cambridge Teachers’ Training College to obtain a Cambridge Teachers’ Certificate in 1908. Willey held a series of appointments as assistant science mistress: Chelmsford County High School (1908–1914); Twickenham Girls’ High School (1914–21); and Girls’ High School, Stafford (1921–30); finally being appointed at Howell’s School, Llandaff, as senior science mistress in 1930. Willey retired in 1946 (Staff Records, Howell’s School Archives).

Winny, Alice Georgina Taught at: Howell’s School, Llandaff (see chapter 9).

Younie, Elinor M. Taught at: Park School, Glasgow; Central Secondary School for Girls, Sheffield; St George’s School, Edinburgh.

Younie graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and then from 1920 to 1921 attended St George’s (Teachers’) Training College, which was associated with the school. It was noted in the school magazine that in

28 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

1921 she was teaching at the Park School, Glasgow, but by 1927, she had transferred to the Central Secondary School for Girls, Sheffield. Younie was appointed at St George’s in 1928 (Anon., 1929: 13) and taught chemistry until 1954. This period included the years of the Second World War when the School buildings were occupied by the British army and the school was evacuated to three houses at Bonchester Bridge, a hamlet in the Scottish borders. When Younie departed in 1954 to marry and move to Australia, the St George’s Chronicle published reminiscences:

The happy reason for it forbids us to grieve over Miss Younie’s departure, but her going is a great loss to St George’s. For many years her skilful and scholarly exposition has revealed to many pupils even of limited attainments the wonder and beauty of scientific knowledge; while the long series of successes in Science and Medicine at the Universities of her former students bears witness to her power of inspiring interest, and teaching sound and careful habits of study in those of scientific bent …

At Bonchester Miss Boyd and she did wonders in an improvised laboratory they clearly fixed up in the butler’s pantry, and her life was complicated there by having to cycle several miles with a small group of girls every night and morning to and from sleeping quarters in a remote farm-house. (Anon., 1953–4: 4–5)

A staff member recalled: ‘… she used, particularly on winter Monday mornings, to emerge from the Labs. almost completely frozen, and mentioning dormice in low tones of envy’ (Batt, 1953–4: 35).

References Adams, E. (1960) ‘Miss Quartly’. Clapham High School Old Girls’ Society News Sheet, 13, 2. Adamson, M.M. (1932) ‘Reminiscences, 1882–1932’. Portsmouth High School Magazine, Jubilee Edition, 6–8. –– (1937) ‘My first and last visits to the Crystal Palace’.Notting Hill and Ealing School Magazine, March, 52, 44–5. Anon. (1899) ‘Changes in staff and old girls’. Notting Hill High School Magazine, March, 39. –– (1901) ‘The girls’ school, miscellanea’. Central Foundation School Magazine, 11–13. –– (1904) ‘No. 88, 784. Preservation of organic substances, by the Tarichos Syndicate, assignee of Lilian Frances Heather’. The Canadian Patent Office Record, August, 2031/2032.

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–– (1906) ‘Changes in staff and old girls’. Notting Hill High School Magazine, March, 37. –– (1917) ‘Downe House science club’. Downe House Magazine, Michaelmas, 24, 8. –– (1923) Minute Books, Downe House Science Club, 4 February. –– (1924) Minute Books, Downe House Science Club, 8 June. –– (1927) ‘Changes on the staff’. Clapham High School Magazine, 27, 39. –– (1929) ‘Changes in Staff’. St George’s Chronicle, January, 94, 13–14. –– (1930) ‘Prize Day’. N.L.C.S. Magazine, November, 101–6. –– (1933) ‘School notes’. Croydon High School Magazine, July, 44, 2–3. –– (1940) ‘Miss Patterson’. The Persean Magazine, 13 (28), 10. –– (1943a) ‘Lilian Frances Heather. February 15th, 1874–September 16th, 1943’. Downe House Magazine, Summer Term, 87, 1–3. –– (1943b) ‘Miss Patterson’. The Persean Magazine, June, 32, 6–8. –– (1945–50) ‘Miss G.E. Ready’. Nottingham Girls’ High School Magazine, 33. –– (1946) ‘Miss Benn’. St Leonards School Gazette, June, 15 (8), 150. –– (1953) ‘Redland Memories’. The Redland High School Magazine, Summer, 16–18. –– (1953–4) ‘Miss Younie’. St George’s Chronicle, 4–5. –– (1962) A Short History with a List of Members in January 1962. The Association of Women Science Teachers, Archives, Leeds University. –– (1964) A School Remembers: Sutton High School G.P.D.S.T, 1884–1964. Merton: Croker Brothers Ltd. –– (1978) Ipswich High School G.P.D.S.T. 1878–1978. N. pub. Held at: Institute of Education Archives GDS/23/2/8/1. Armstrong, H.E. (1903) The Teaching of Scientific Method and Other Papers on Education. London: Macmillan. Batt, C.C. (1953–4) ‘Miss Younie’. St George’s Chronicle, 35. Boyd, B. (1960) ‘Miss Dalston’. Streatham and Clapham High School Magazine, July, 63, 30. Butler, K.T. and McMorran, H.I. (eds) (1948) Girton College Register, 1869–1946. Cambridge: Girton College. ‘By an Old Girl’ (1921) ‘In memoriam: Kathleen Mary Leeds’. Croydon High School Magazine, 32, 5. ‘By One of the Present Sixth’ (1921) ‘In memoriam: Kathleen Mary Leeds’. Croydon High School Magazine, 32, 6. Cam, M. (1963) ‘Reminiscences, 1902–1932’. In Stack, V.E. (ed.) Oxford High School, 1875–1960. Abingdon: Abbey Press, 77–9. Chivers, H. (1923) ‘Science club notes’. The Persean Magazine, July, 1, 48. Cossey, A.F. (1921) ‘In memoriam: Kathleen Mary Leeds’. Croydon High School Magazine, 32, 4. Counsell, D. (1963) ‘Reminiscences, 1876–1902’. In Stack, V.E. (ed.) Oxford High School, 1875-1960. Abingdon: Abbey Press, 60–2. D’Albe, E.E.F. (1923) The Life of Sir William Crookes O.M., F.R.S. London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd. de Villiers, Lady (1965) ‘Miss Rippon’. Downe House Magazine, 2–3.

30 Lives of some women chemistry teachers

Dunn, S. (1991) Colston’s Girls’ School: The first hundred years. Bristol: Redcliffe Press. ‘E.M.L.L.’ (1932) ‘In memoriam: Miss A.D. Hunt’. Sutton High School Magazine, 68, 18. ‘H.M.B.’ (1945–50) ‘Miss G.E. Ready’. Nottingham Girls’ High School Magazine, 34. ‘J.N.’ (1956) ‘Miss Collier’. The Aquila: Magazine of Bedford High School, July, 7 (6), 108. Johnston, K.L. (1920) ‘Report of the Year 1919’. Maria Grey College Magazine, November, 2. Kingston, E. (1948) ‘Foreword’. Clapham High School Old Girls’ Society News Sheet, 1. Mansfield, R. (1960) ‘Miss Dalston’. Streatham and Clapham High School Magazine, July, 63, 30. Mayne, D. (1943) ‘Dorothy Christina Patterson (an appreciation)’. The Persean Magazine, June, 32, 5–9. Mills, M.G. (1953) Brighton and Hove High School, 1876–1952. Brighton: Brighton Herald Ltd. Milton, D. (1940) ‘In memory’. The Redland High School Magazine, April, 7–9. Moller, M. (1960) ‘Miss Quartly’. Clapham High School Old Girls’ Society News Sheet, 13, 1–2 ‘M.W.’ (1956) ‘Miss Collier’. The Aquila: Magazine of Bedford High School. July, 7 (6), 108. Palmer, M. (1963) ‘Reminiscences, 1902–1932’. In Stack, V.E. (ed.) Oxford High School, 1875-1960. Abingdon: Abbey Press, 71–3. Rae, I.D. (1991) ‘Clara Taylor (1885–1940)’. Chemistry in Britain, February, 145–8. Rayner-Canham, M.F. and Rayner-Canham, G.W. (2008) Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneering British women chemists, 1880–1949. London: Imperial College Press. Ridler, A.L. (1967) Olive Willis and Downe House: An adventure in education. London: John Murray. ‘R.M.H-B.’ (1953) ‘Evelyn MacDonald: Science Mistress, 1894–1921’. Oxford High School Magazine, June, 184, 58. Sayers, J.E. (1973) The Fountain Unsealed: A history of the Notting Hill and Ealing High School. Welwyn Garden City: Broadview Press Ltd. Skinner, M. (1928) ‘Natural science club notes’. The Persean Magazine, July, 4, 44–5. ‘S.L.’ (1932a) ‘D.H.S.C.’. Downe House Magazine, 66, 22. –– (1932b) ‘D.H.S.C.’. Downe House Magazine, Summer, 67, 35–6. Taylor, C.M. and Thomas, P.K. (1930) Elementary Chemistry for Students of Hygiene and Housecraft. London: John Murray. Tilden, W. (1921) ‘In memoriam: Kathleen Mary Leeds’. Croydon High School Magazine, July, 32, 4. White, A.B. (ed.) (1979) Newnham College Register 1871–1971 Vol. 1, 1871– 1923, Cambridge: Newnham College.

31 Appendix 3 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students

In chapter 11 we describe the discourse about careers for girls. We identified several employment avenues for young women with an interest in a chemistry-related career: industrial chemistry; pharmacy; biochemistry; medicine; and academic chemistry. Here we provide 11 alphabetically organized individual biographical accounts to illustrate the variety of career paths chosen.

Adams, Winifred Elizabeth – industrial chemist Educated at: Clapham High School.

In her study of women employed as industrial chemists, Sally Horrocks identified the food industry as the predominant employer (Horrocks, 2000). One of the many young women with a chemistry background from an independent girls’ school to follow this path was Winifred Elizabeth Adams (Richards, 1995). Adams, born in 1909, at Wandsworth, London, was the daughter of Herbert Edward Adams, a teacher at Dulwich College, and Winifred Rackham, a preparatory school mistress. She was educated at Clapham High School then studied at the Chelsea Polytechnic before entering Newnham College to study biochemistry in 1929. Graduating in 1933, Adams was hired by Horlicks Ltd. of Slough as an assistant chemist. She was the first woman to be appointed to their research staff and, according to her obituarist Ann Richards, ‘an object of some suspicion to her male colleagues in the early years’ (ibid.: 60). Adams was promoted to senior chemist in 1940 and then to chief chemist in 1948. She was forced to retire in 1964, the mandatory retirement age for women staff in those days being 55. Adams was an avid traveller, particularly to Canada and the Shetland Islands. After retirement she moved to Brighton and became active with conservation groups, and died in 1994, aged 84.

32 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students

Buchanan, Margaret Elizabeth – pharmacist Educated at: North London Collegiate School.

The most important pioneer of women in pharmacy, Buchanan, born in 1864, was educated at North London Collegiate School (NLCS) (Rayner- Canham and Rayner-Canham, 2008: 402–4). Her father was a medical doctor and she began her pharmaceutical training with him, qualifying in 1887. Buchanan first became a hospital pharmacist. Then, sometime between 1911 and 1914, she purchased a run-down chemists’ shop, the Deane pharmacy, to be a training facility for women, as most male pharmacists would not accept women apprentices. In 1924, Buchanan founded the Margaret Buchanan School of Pharmacy for Women at Gordon Hall, of which she was principal for many years. Her links with the Deane pharmacy, however, did not come to an end, ‘and it was arranged that her pupils, all of whom were women, should attend the Clapham establishment [the Deane pharmacy] – three in the morning and three in the afternoon – in order to gain practical experience’ (Hudson, 2004: 8). Buchanan also taught pharmacy to medical students at the London School of Medicine for Women. Buchanan died in January 1940. One of her first students, Elsie Hooper, was quoted in an obituary as saying:

She [Buchanan] was a pioneer of women’s work in pharmacy and has trained many of the best women pharmacists. No one who came in contact with her bright intelligent personality could fail to be affected by it. She was a wonderful and inspiring teacher, and laid the foundation of sound pharmaceutical knowledge. (Anon., 1940: 10)

Cornish, Elfreida V.C. – academic chemist Educated at: Colston’s Girls’ School.

Born in 1887, Cornish was a student at Colston’s Girls’ School from 1900 to 1904. After passing the London University matriculation examination, she attended Merchant Venturers’ Technical College from 1904 until 1909, then taught chemistry at Colston’s briefly while completing her BSc at the University of Bristol from 1909 to 1910. News of her degree success appeared in Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine: ‘We were very proud that one of our Old Girls, Freida Cornish, (Hons BSc) was the very first woman

33 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham graduate to be presented at the first “Degree Day” of our new University’ (Anon., 1910a: 54). On graduation Cornish was appointed lecturer in science at Fishponds Training College (Anon., 1910b: 30). Located at Fishponds, Bristol, and founded in 1853 as the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Training College for School Mistresses, the college graduated qualified teachers for the Church of England elementary schools. Cornish’s name again appeared in the Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine in 1912 when she was the first woman to obtain an MSc from the University of Bristol, which she must have worked on concurrently with her duties at Fishponds: ‘University Honours. We congratulate Elfreida Cornish, lecturer and secretary at Fishponds Training College, on being the first woman to gain the degree of MSc at the University of Bristol’ (Anon., 1912a: 7). And once more in 1913: ‘Elfreida Cornish has just been awarded a Board of Education Agricultural Scholarship, tenable at Reading. We congratulate Freida on this distinction, and wish her every success in her special work. She is going to devote most of her time to the wide subject of “Dairying”’ (Anon., 1913: 8). Like that of so many other women her career was temporarily suspended by the First World War: ‘Elfreida Cornish MSc who has been holding a Research Scholarship at University College, Reading, has been allowed to postpone her Scholarship work for a time in order that she may devote her time to work in the connection with the production of munitions’ (Anon., 1915a: 11). Sometime during the war, Cornish married, being noted as ‘Mrs. Venn’. One might conclude that Mr Venn died during the war, as the last mention of Cornish was in the 1929 issue of Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, where it was reported that: ‘Mrs Mattick (Elfreida Cornish) is very happy and busy doing work at Reading University’ (Anon., 1929: 41).

Culhane, Kathleen (Mrs Lathbury) – industrial chemist Educated at: Hastings and St Leonards Ladies’ College, Sussex.

Culhane’s efforts in trying to become an industrial chemist typified the experiences of a young woman planning that career path in the inter- war period. Born in 1900, Culhane was the daughter of J.W.S. Culhane, a medical doctor, who insisted on equal educational opportunities for his daughters and his sons (Bramley, 1991). Culhane attended Hastings and St Leonards Ladies’ College at St Leonards-on-Sea, where the only science at the time was botany. So she completed her physical science education at the Municipal School of Science and Technology in Hastings, before entering Royal Holloway College (RHC) in 1918. It was at RHC that she discovered

34 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students that chemistry was her real interest, and she graduated in 1922 with an honours degree in chemistry. Wanting to enter the chemical industry, Culhane was extremely frustrated that employers would not take an attractive young woman seriously for chemist positions. In fact she was only considered for interviews when she signed her applications as ‘K. Culhane’ rather than ‘Kathleen Culhane’. However, once her gender became apparent, she failed to obtain any of the positions. She finally found work as a school teacher and later as a private tutor. After two years of combining teaching with unpaid analytical work at the Hale Clinical Laboratory of The London Hospital, Culhane accepted a temporary industrial chemistry position with Neocellon, Wandsworth, a manufacturer of lacquers and enamels. However, her delight was diminished after being told by the company that the only reason for hiring her was that they could not afford the salary of a male chemist. Not long after the termination of that employment, Culhane accepted a position in the physiology department of the large chemical and pharmaceutical company, British Drug Houses (BDH). However, as time progressed, her initial enthusiasm waned:

I gradually discovered that it was not the intention to employ me as a chemist but as a woman chemist … I was expected to do all the boring, routine jobs … while anything interesting was handed to one of the men … The routine work increased enormously in quantity and I took pride in perfecting my technique … thinking that I must surely win promotion that way. This did not materialize so, by superhuman efforts and late work, I got some research done which was successful and I was allowed to publish it … The problems I worked on were always of my own finding ... I managed to avoid being disliked and was merely regarded as eccentric. (ibid.: 428)

In addition, the senior staff lunch room was male-only and Culhane recalled how she had to eat her lunch with the women cleaners and clerks. Culhane commenced a study of vitamins in 1933. As part of her diverse research, she gave a presentation on the need to standardize products containing added vitamins, arguing particularly for enhanced levels of vitamins in margarine. A British newspaper reported on the meeting, describing how an ‘abstruse lecture on vitamins’ had been delivered by ‘a pretty girl with blue eyes and bobbed hair’ (ibid.: 430).

35 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

That same year Culhane married Major G.P. Lathbury. Having mentioned her intention to marry to her supervisor, she was amazed that the company directors had to give special approval for the employment of a woman after marriage. The approval was granted in her case due to the importance of her work. She resigned her position as senior chemist in 1936 due to pregnancy. Her inexperienced male successor was given a significantly higher starting salary than what she had been earning at the time of her resignation (ibid.: 430). With the arrival of war in 1939 Culhane offered her services to the war effort, having sent her small daughter to the country. After badgering officials Culhane was able to obtain a position as manager of a statistical quality control department at a Royal Ordnance Factory. As a result of her statistical research, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1943. Because salaries determined travel status, earning less than half the salary paid to males in the same position had a secondary effect. This was that, on train journeys to London, her male colleagues travelled first class while she had to sit alone in a third class compartment. Culhane was not embittered by her experiences, instead regarding them as a source of amusement. After the war she retired from science and died in 1993, age 93.

Humphrey, Edith Ellen – industrial chemist Educated at: Camden School for Girls; North London Collegiate School.

By contrast with Culhane, Humphrey found employment as an industrial chemist with a ‘progressive’ company. In her career it had been in academia where the doors had closed for her (Bernal, 1999). Born in 1875, Humphrey attended Camden School for Girls then obtained a scholarship to NLCS, and it was there that she first took chemistry. Ruth Brandon interviewed her at the time of her hundredth birthday. Humphrey recalled: ‘I did chemistry because I liked it – that was where things were happening. At the North London [NLCS] … we did quite a bit of it. We had a good teacher who had no degree but was very good’ (Brandon, 1975: 593). The chemistry teacher was probably Dilys Davies (see chapter 3). Humphrey’s father encouraged all his children, even the girls, to obtain a good education, and Humphrey entered Bedford College in 1893. Following completion of her BSc degree in 1897, she applied for, and was accepted to do a PhD at the University of Zürich. Zürich first admitted women to graduate degrees in the mid-1860s, and it had become a haven for female students from all over Europe (Bridges, 1890). Humphrey wrote an essay on her life at Zürich, which was published in the Bedford College

36 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students

Magazine (Humphrey, 1900). For the four-year-long research, students had to provide their own apparatus and chemicals. It was Humphrey’s thesis work with the famous coordination chemist Alfred Werner (Kauffman, 1966), that was to enter her in the annals of the history of chemistry. As part of her research she synthesized a cobalt compound that could exist in a pair of mirror-image forms, though at the time the significance of her synthesis was overlooked (Bernal, 1999). Werner was so impressed with her work that, for her last year, he took her on as his personal assistant, the first woman to be chosen for this prestigious post. More important for the impoverished Humphrey, she at last had some income in very expensive Switzerland. When her PhD finished in 1901, it was recommended that Humphrey continue her studies in Germany. There was a problem, as Humphrey herself commented to Brandon: ‘But they wouldn’t have me in Germany. They said I could go to lectures but not practicals because the men wouldn’t do any work!’ (Brandon, 1975: 593). Thwarted in her plans, Humphrey returned to England, spending the rest of her working life as a research chemist with the company Arthur Sanderson and Sons that specialized in such products as fabrics and wallpapers. Humphrey died in 1977 at the age of 102. The mirror-image crystals, synthesized by Humphrey, are now on display in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, as they were donated in 1991 to the Royal Society of Chemistry on the occasion of its 150th anniversary by the Swiss Committee on Chemistry (Anon., 1991).

Maclean, Ida Smedley – biochemist Educated at: King Edward VI High School for Girls.

Maclean was one of the few biochemists who did not ‘follow the Cambridge route’ with Hopkins (see chapter 11). In addition to the importance of her biochemistry research, Smedley was a key individual in the early advancement of women in chemistry (Whiteley, 1946), being one of the two women, Martha Whiteley being the other, who fought for decades for the admission of women to the Chemical Society (Rayner-Canham and Rayner- Canham, 2011). Born in 1877 in Birmingham, Smedley was the second daughter of William T. Smedley, a chartered accountant, businessman, and philanthropist, and Annie E. Duckworth. Smedley had an idyllic upbringing, according to her life-long friend, Mary Phillp:

37 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Ida grew up in a home where the two gifted and far seeing parents devoted themselves to the interests of the children, and one may add, to those of their children’s friends. To some of us the house was a second home. Literature, theatricals, music and languages filled up the leisure hours. Independence of thought and action were encouraged, and the whole atmosphere of the home was decades ahead of its time. (‘M.E. de R.E.’, 1945: 50)

Smedley attended King Edward VI High School for Girls, and it was there that she met Beatrice Thomas (see chapter 5), the two forming a friendship that endured throughout their lives. Smedley spent three years at Newnham College, graduating in 1899. She then joined Henry Armstrong’s research group at the Central Technical College, London (later part of Imperial College), being awarded a DSc by the University of London for her research on benzylaniline sulfonic acids. In 1903, she briefly returned to Newnham as a demonstrator in chemistry, resigning in 1904 to take up full-time research at the Davy-Faraday Laboratory of the Royal Institution, London. Then in 1906 Smedley was the first woman appointed to the chemistry department at the University of Manchester, holding the rank of assistant lecturer. At Manchester Smedley was one of the ‘night owls’ continuing her research in organic chemistry long into the night, often until about 3 a.m. (Todd and Cornforth, 1976: 419). Smedley was active in the rights of women outside of chemistry. In particular she played the leading role in forming the British Federation of University Women (Sondheimer, 1958). One of the 17 women who met to consider its formation, Dr Merry Smith, recalled: ‘I remember quite clearly the talk there was among us about Ida Smedley’s difficulties about promotion at the university and funds for research because she was a woman’ (ibid.: 7). As a result of her negative experiences as a woman chemist at Manchester University, Smedley embarked on a career change in 1910 that was to gain her more recognition. Awarded a Beit Research Fellowship she returned to London to take up a position at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine where she remained for the rest of her working life. Her field of study was that of fat metabolism and fat synthesis, and she became an expert in the subject (Nunn, 1944). The value of her research was recognized in 1913, when she received the Ellen Richards Prize of the American Association of University Women for the woman making the most outstanding contribution of the year to scientific knowledge. The same year, Smedley married Hugh Maclean, who became a professor of medicine

38 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students at the University of London and at St Thomas’s Hospital, London; she had two children, a son and a daughter. During the First World War Smedley worked for the Ministry of Munitions and for the Admiralty, her major contribution being the development of the large-scale production of acetone from starch by fermentation. After the war she returned to her work on fats. Smedley, and her colleague, Margaret Hume, showed that stunted growth and dry scaly skin in young rats totally deprived of fat could be cured by either of the two unsaturated fatty acids – linoleic and linolenic acid. Then she isolated and identified arachidonic acid and showed this fatty acid to be as active biologically as linoleic acid (Chick et al., 1971: 165–6). In addition to more than 50 research papers on fats, she authored a monograph, The Metabolism of Fat (Smedley-Maclean, 1943). Smedley died in 1944, aged 67. In summing up the later years of Smedley’s life, Phillp observed:

Her marriage was a very happy one, and she showed as much skill in running her home, and bringing up her children, as she had done in other departments of her life. How she managed to hold three threads evenly in her hands, research, social work and home-life, was a constant wonder even to those who knew her best … During the last two years of her life her health was failing; but true to her courageous nature she accomplished what she had set out to do, and in 1943 her last work was published. (‘M.E. de R.E.’, 1945: 50–1)

Seward, Margaret (Mrs McKillop) – academic chemist Educated at: Blackburne House Girls’ School, Liverpool.

Seward was the earliest chemist on staff at the women’s department of King’s College (later called King’s College for Women), and was there from 1896 to 1915 (Pottle, 2004). Seward, daughter of James Seward, master at the (boys’) Liverpool Institute, was born in 1864 and educated at Blackburne House Girls’ School in Liverpool. Later named the Liverpool Institute High School for Girls, Blackburne House was the first academic girls’ school in Liverpool, established in 1844 (Tiffen, 1938). At Blackburne House, in 1880, Seward ‘placed first among all the girls in England in the Oxford senior local examinations which carried with it an exhibition at Somerville Hall, Oxford…’ (ibid.: 107–8). Entering Somerville College in 1881, Seward became the first Oxford woman student to be admitted to the honour school of mathematics. She

39 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham then changed her focus to chemistry and in 1885 was the earliest woman student to obtain first class honours in the school of natural science. Upon graduation she was immediately appointed natural sciences tutor at Somerville, in addition undertaking research with the Oxford chemist W.H. Pendlebury. In 1887 Seward accepted a position as lecturer in chemistry at Royal Holloway College (RHC). Martha Whiteley (see below), at that date a student at RHC, recalled that Seward was one of the six founding lecturers at the college:

Probably no one shouldered a heavier load than the Science Lecturer, Margaret Seward, for the College then possessed no science laboratories or equipment, and yet, during the four years during which she held that post, the first science building, comprising Chemistry, Physics, Botany and Zoology laboratories, was built and equipped under her direction; and, with occasional help in Physics and Zoology, she was responsible for all the science teaching in Chemistry, Physics and Zoology required to carry successfully the first group of science students through the Intermediate and Final BSc Examinations. (Whiteley, 1929: 51)

Resigning her position in 1891, Seward travelled to Singapore to marry John McKillop, a civil engineer. Seward, her husband, and son (Alasdair) returned to England in 1893, where she taught at the Girls’ Grammar School, Bradford, and then at Roedean School. Seward was appointed in 1896 to King’s College, Women’s Department, as it was then called, to teach elementary science and chemistry, the chemistry laboratory having opened in 1895. The feminist writer Christina Bremner reported on the chemistry component of the household science programme:

Students of chemistry must learn to perform simple analyses, to study hydrocarbons, alcohols, acids, and so forth, so that in the final year they may deal effectively with water analysis, constituents and relative values of different foods, the chemical changes of ferments, preservation and deterioration of food, purity of milk, and so forth. (Bremner, 1913: 73)

Seward was mentioned in an 1898 article on King’s College, Women’s Department, in The Girl’s Realm:

40 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students

As regards science, there are two laboratories; the larger is for chemistry, the smaller serves various scientific courses: zoology, biology, botany, geology, &c. In both the laboratories Princess Alice of Albany works, under the supervision of Mrs. McKillop, one of our foremost women science-lecturers, and lately lecturer on Chemistry at the Royal Holloway College. (Rawson, 1898: 1203)

The year of 1912 was the turning point for chemistry and for Seward herself. A report in the King’s College Magazine, Women’s Department, suggests that the King’s College administration wanted a male and/or a more research-oriented individual as lecturer in chemistry; as a result, Seward became marginalized:

Mr. H.L. Smith has been appointed full-time lecturer in Chemistry, and as at present there is a very definite majority of Home Science over BSc students in the Chemical Laboratory, he has taken charge of it, with Miss [Helen] Masters as Demonstrator. Mrs. McKillop has thus been set free to undertake in addition to her tutorial work, the organization of the Library, a business which has been pressing for a little time. (Anon., 1912b: 4)

The Home Science Committee terminated Seward’s position as of spring, 1914, perhaps in preparation for the transfer of the science programmes to the existing male-faculty departments of King’s College on the Strand. By 1915 Seward had returned to Bradford Girls’ Grammar School and was teaching economics and giving food lectures to old girls. She then worked in the Ministry of Food, being awarded an MBE in 1919 for her wartime studies on nutrition and human health, which included authoring a book: Food Values (McKillop, 1916). From 1920 until her sudden death in 1929, McKillop acted as librarian of the Sociological Society at its headquarters, Le Play House.

Stephenson, Marjory – biochemist Educated at: Berkhamsted High School for Girls.

The biochemical historian Robert Kohler has shown that the field of bacterial biochemistry was, in large part, defined by the work of Stephenson (Kohler, 1985). Born in 1885 at Burwell, a village near Cambridge, Stephenson was educated by a governess until the age of 12, at which point she received a scholarship to attend the Berkhamsted High School for Girls

41 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

(Robertson, 1949; Mason, 1996). It was her mother who insisted she obtain a university education, and that Newnham College was the appropriate place. Stephenson attended Newnham from 1903 until 1906, taking the part 1 Natural Science Tripos in chemistry, physiology, and zoology. After leaving Newnham, Stephenson would have liked to have studied medicine but lacking the financial resources she took teaching positions in domestic and household science for the next five years, including King’s College for Women, in Kensington. The King’s College Magazine, Women’s Department, reported:

The Cookery Side of the Domestic Science staff has a distinct acquisition in Miss Marjory Stevenson [sic] from the Gloucester School of Domestic Science. She has taken the Natural Science Tripos (chief subject chemistry), and also a first class Diploma in Cookery; a combination of certificates which seems at the moment to have been achieved only by herself. (Anon., 1910c: 5)

In 1911 Robert Plimmer, assistant professor in physiological chemistry at University College, London, invited Stephenson to teach advanced classes in the biochemistry of nutrition and to join his research group. As a result of her research on fat metabolism and on diabetes, Stephenson was awarded a Beit Memorial Fellowship in 1913; however, she relinquished the fellowship on the outbreak of war, instead running soup kitchens in France and then supervising a convalescent home in Salonika. For this war work, she was awarded an MBE. Stephenson took up her Beit Fellowship again in 1919, moving to Cambridge to work with F. Gowland Hopkins. Hopkins (see chapter 11) was to be the greatest influence on Stephenson’s career. It was he who encouraged Stephenson to develop her own interests, and she chose chemical microbiology. She explained the reasons for her choice in the preface of her book Bacterial Metabolism, first published in 1929:

Perhaps bacteria may tentatively be regarded as biochemical experimenters; owing to their relatively small size and rapid growth variations must arise very much more frequently than in more differentiated forms of life, and they can in addition afford to occupy more precarious positions in natural economy than larger organisms with more exacting requirements. (Stephenson, 1930: viii)

42 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students

Stephenson acknowledged the contribution of Hopkins: ‘Finally, and especially, my thanks are due to Professor Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, at whose suggestion the book was written and to whose influence alone I owe the incentive to think on biochemical matters’ (ibid.: ix). Among the many honours for her pioneering work in bacterial chemistry was election in 1945 as one of the first two woman fellows of the Royal Society. Stephenson died in 1948.

Tchaykovsky, Barbara ‘Ally’ – medical doctor Educated at: North London Collegiate School.

Tchaykovsky was one of the many women chemistry students who found their life’s work in medicine, and in particular gained their medical training at the London School of Medicine for Women (Anon., 1956). Born in 1875 in New York, she was the eldest child of Nikolay Vasilievitch Tchaikovsky and Barbara Alexandrovna Tchaykovsky. Nikolay Tchaikovsky was a Russian university professor who had fled the Tsarist regime, and the family moved from New York to London shortly after her birth. Tchaykovsky was educated at NLCS and then completed a BSc in chemistry at Bedford College in 1897. The following year she was hired at Bedford College as an assistant lecturer in Chemistry. After teaching at Bedford College for two years Tchaykovsky was offered a Reid Fellowship that she used to study medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW), completing an MB and BSc (medicine) in 1906. In 1908 she obtained an MD from the University of London, being the recipient of the University Gold Medal in State Medicine (Anon., n.d.). During the First World War Tchaykovsky became active with the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) (Winslow, 1996: 77, 85). The ELFS were very active with the poor families in East London, and Tchaykovsky authored an appeal that was published in the London newspapers and reprinted in Our Magazine. She stated how the conflict was also leading to extreme deprivation for the impoverished families of the East End. She continued:

At all times the struggle for existence in the East End is acute, and with the ever-rising prices the weekly list of bare necessaries has now to be still further curtailed, and, as always, the mothers are the first to go short, and the babies, those delicate barometers of national welfare, are not likely to improve under

43 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

the adverse conditions created by shortage of food, warmth and breathing-space. (Anon., 1915b: 16)

Tchaykovsky then recounted some of the activities of the federation, including: cost-price restaurants; mother and child welfare centres with free milk; ‘babies’ home’ for working mothers; clothing stalls; a boot factory; a toy factory; and employment making garments (ibid.: 16). She also gave an impassioned lecture at Roedean on her efforts to found ‘baby clinics’ (‘B.K.W.’, 1916). For all of her working life, Tchaykovsky held a part-time position as school medical officer with the London County Council. To her obituary in the British Medical Journal, it was added by ‘C.J.T.’ that:

She steadily refused to accept a whole-time post with the London County Council, as she feared it would interfere with her activities for the great causes to which she was devoted. Her work with the L.C.C. consisted in the medical examination of pupils and students in the council’s secondary schools and training colleges. Outside her official work she devoted herself to the furtherance of child welfare, and with the late Miss Margaret McMillan she was a pioneer in the establishment of nursery schools and school clinics. (‘C.J.T.’, 1956: 524)

In addition, Tchaykovsky authored a monograph: Preventive Medicine as a Career for Women (Tchaykovsky, n.d.). She was forced to retire from the position of School Medical Officer at the age of 65, but kept active with her voluntary work until her death in Watford in 1956, aged 80.

Whiteley, Martha Annie – academic chemist Educated at: Kensington High School.

Of all the young women who entered an academic chemistry career, Whiteley attained the highest position: that of an assistant professor (reader) in a co- educational institution. Born in 1866 at Hammersmith, London, Whiteley was the second daughter of William Sedgwick Whiteley and Mary Bargh (Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, 2011; Nicholson and Nicholson, 2012). Whiteley was educated at Kensington High School, and then entered Royal Holloway College, graduating with a BSc in chemistry in 1890. Between 1891 and 1900, she was science mistress at Wimbledon Hill High

44 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students

School (later Wimbledon High School), and for the next two years science lecturer at St Gabriel’s [Teachers’] Training College, Camberwell. During the 1898–1902 period she was also undertaking research at the Royal College of Science and this work led to the award in 1902 of a DSc from the University of London. The following year, she was invited to join the staff of the Royal College of Science (part of Imperial College) as an assistant under William Tilden. Tilden was one of the male chemists who were very supportive of women in chemistry (Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, 2009). Whiteley was promoted to demonstrator in 1908 and, with the drafting of male scientists for war work in 1914, Whiteley was appointed to the rank of lecturer. In the First World War Whiteley performed research on lachrymatory war gases (Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham, 1999). She recounted some of her wartime experiences:

Those were very exciting days, for our laboratories were requisitioned by the Ministry of Munitions who kept us busy analysing and reporting on small samples collected from the battlefields or from bombed areas at home. These included flares, explosives and poison gases. It was my privilege to examine the first sample of a new gas, used to such effect on the front that our troops had to evacuate from Armentières as it was reputed to cause blisters; it was called Mustard Gas. I naturally tested this property by applying a tiny smear to my arm and for nearly three months suffered great discomfort from the widespread open wound it caused in the bend of the elbow, and of which I still carry the scar. Incidentally, when shortly afterwards we were carrying on a research for a method of manufacturing the gas, my arm was always in requisition for the final test. (Anon., 1953: 48–9)

In addition, Whiteley’s research group pioneered the university production of pharmaceuticals. In a letter to The Wimbledon High School Magazine, she recalled that aspect of her work: ‘In addition we undertook work under the Royal Society’s War Committee, and in that connection prepared large quantities of valuable synthetic drugs (Phenacetin, ß-eucaine, Novocaine, &c.)’ (Anon., 1923: 37). She was awarded an OBE for her contributions to the war effort. Retaining her position after the end of the First World War, in 1920 Whiteley was made an assistant professor (a senior post at Imperial, later designated as reader). Dorothy Ham, who followed in Whiteley’s footsteps

45 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham from Wimbledon Hill School to the Royal College of Science, sent an account of life at the college to The Wimbledon Hill School Magazine, noting that Ham’s first task was to visit Martha Whiteley in her private laboratory. Ham reminisced about the period when Whiteley had been a teacher at Wimbledon Hill School: ‘… and I recalled how we of the Fifth Form, inspired by her enthusiasm, thrilled at the prospect of doing practical chemistry or discussed eagerly the problems which she had set us to discover’ (Ham, 1920: 6). Whiteley maintained an active research programme, authoring or co- authoring at least 15 publications. Mary Creese has commented:

Although several British women from about Whiteley’s time were productive researcher workers, most of them made their contributions as assistants to male chemists … Whiteley, however, was probably the only one who found a place as an independent worker in an established area of chemistry and remained active in research, teaching, and technical writing throughout a long career at a major educational institution – a notable achievement for a woman chemist of her generation. (Creese, 1997: 44)

Whiteley’s other avenue of scholarship was her work on the Dictionary of Applied Chemistry. She had helped extensively in the preparation of the second edition of (Edward) Thorpe’s Dictionary of Applied Chemistry. Thus, when a third edition was contemplated, she was asked to co-edit it with Jocelyn Thorpe (another women-supportive male chemist). Whiteley retired in 1934, but continued to work on the volumes as editor-in-chief following the death of her co-editor. This task was a labour of love that continued until 1954, when the last volume of the fourth edition appeared (Thorpe and Whiteley, 1945–54). Whiteley was still editing and proofing other manuscripts until shortly before her death, just prior to her ninetieth birthday, in 1956.

Widdows, Sibyl Taite – academic chemist Educated at: Dulwich High School.

In chapter 6 we describe the role of Clare de Brereton Evans in promoting practical chemistry in girls’ schools. De Brereton Evans had been lecturer in chemistry at LSMW from 1904 until 1912. However, it was Sibyl Taite Widdows who was to dominate the chemistry department at LSMW for 40 years. Widdows, born in 1876, had been educated at Dulwich High School

46 Lives of some pioneering women chemistry students and then obtained a degree in chemistry at Royal Holloway College in 1900. In 1901 she was appointed as demonstrator in chemistry at LSMW. Over the years Widdows progressed to the rank of Lecturer, during which time she authored or co-authored at least 12 research papers, one of which was co-authored with Ida Smedley (see above). Widdows was placed in joint charge of the chemistry department in 1904, and became head in 1935 (Anon., 1960: 233). Life in the chemistry department at LSMW was described by her successor, Phyllis Sanderson:

Of miniature stature, alert and sprightly, Miss Widdows possessed such vitality and drive that it seemed a store of dynamite must be housed within her small frame. As with all who have a gift for it, she loved teaching and did so with untiring verve, never despairing even of the lowest of her flock … Practical classes, certainly no playtime, held an element of excitement (possibly mixed with terror) that kept everyone on their toes; for S.T.W. would systematically work her way down the laboratory, visiting student after student to ensure that each in turn was fully understanding what they were doing. Suddenly a loud scream of dismay would ring out and all would shudder, knowing full well that some unfortunate student had uttered an appalling chemical howler or had committed some dangerous crime such as heating an inflammable liquid with a naked flame. Near neighbours of the offender would immediately rush off to recharge their wash- bottles or busy themselves at the fume-cupboard hoping (in vain) to escape the deadly searching questions so soon to reach them. Just as frequently there were roars of laughter at the odd joke or cries of triumph as she found one of her flock had at last understood some basic chemical principle. (Sanderson, 1960: 21–2)

Widdows retired in 1942 and died in 1960. In the lengthy obituary, Sanderson, noted how Widdows had been ‘one of the last of the remarkable women who staffed the School during the first forty years of this century, an uphill and critical period in the history of this medical school’ (ibid.: 21). Sanderson added:

As so many of her contemporaries, she was an ardent feminist and willingly sacrificed her own career as a chemist for the cause most dear to her heart, the training of women doctors at Hunter

47 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Street, the only training ground in Medicine open to women in England at that time. (ibid.: 21)

References Anon. (1910a) ‘President’s notes’. Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, 9 (3), 54. –– (1910b) ‘Honours gained by old pupils at the school’. Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, 9 (3), 30. –– (1910c) ‘College notes’. King’s College Magazine, Women’s Department, 40, 5. –– (1912a) ‘News of old friends’. Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, 11 (3), 7. –– (1912b) ‘College notes’. King’s College Magazine, Women’s Department, 46, 4. –– (1913) ‘News of old friends’. Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, 12 (1), 8. –– (1915a) ‘News of old girls’. Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, Summer, 11. –– (1915b) ‘Appeal for help’. Our Magazine: North London Collegiate School for Girls, March, 16. –– (1923) ‘Reports from Old Wimbledonians’. The Wimbledon High School Magazine, 31, 37. –– (1929) ‘News of old girls’. Colston’s Girls’ School Magazine, 28 (2), 41. –– (1940) ‘Deaths: Buchanan’. Pharmaceutical Journal, 6 January, 144, 10. –– (1953) ‘Speech by Martha Whiteley at the Summer Luncheon of the Royal Holloway College Association’. Royal Holloway College Association, College Letter, 48–9. –– (1956) ‘Obituaries’. British Medical Journal, 3 March, 524. –– (1960) ‘Sibyl Taite Widdows’. Journal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, 84, 233. –– (1991) Congratulatory Address and Book of Isolation of Coordination Compound by Edith Humphrey from the Swiss Committee of Chemistry to the Royal Society of Chemistry on its Sesquicentenary. London: Royal Society of Chemistry. Bernal, I. (1999) ‘A sketch of the life of Edith Humphrey’. The Chemical Intelligencer, 5 (1), 28–31. ‘B.K.W.’ (1916) ‘Miss Tchaykovsky’s lecture’. Roedean School Magazine, Michaelmas, 21, n.pag. Bramley, R. (1991) ‘Kathleen Culhane Lathbury’. Chemistry in Britain, 27, 428–31. Brandon, R. (1975) ‘Going to meet Mendeleev’. New Scientist, 11 September, 593. Bremner, C.S. (1913) ‘King’s College for Women: The Department of Home Science and Economics’. Journal of Education, 35 new series, 72–4. Bridges, F. (1890) ‘Coeducation in Swiss universities’. Popular Science Monthly, 38, 524. Chick, H., Hume, M., and Macfarlane, M. (1971) War on Disease: A history of the Lister Institute. London: Andre Deutsch. ‘C.J.T.’ (1956) ‘Obituary: Dr. Barbara Tchaykovsky’. British Medical Journal, 3 March, 524. Creese, M.R.S. (1997) ‘Martha Annie Whiteley (1866–1956): Chemist and editor’. Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 20, 42–5.

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Ham, D. (1920) ‘Contributions from Old Wimbledonians: R.C.S.’. The Wimbledon Hill School Magazine, 28, 6–9. Horrocks, S.M. (2000) ‘A promising pioneer profession? Women in industrial chemistry in inter-war Britain’. British Journal for the History of Science, 33, 351–67. Hudson, B. (2004) ‘The “petticoat peril” on the pavement: Women’s pharmacy history in Lambeth’. Newsletter, National Association of Women Pharmacists, September, 8. Humphrey, E. (1900) ‘The University of Zurich’. Bedford College London Magazine, 42, 25. Kauffman, G.B. (1966) Alfred Werner: Founder of coordination chemistry. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Kohler, R.E. (1985) ‘Innovation in normal science: Bacterial physiology’. Isis, 76, 162–81. Mason, J. (1996) ‘Marjory Stephenson, 1885–1948’. In Shils, E. and Blacker, C. (eds) Cambridge Women: Twelve portraits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 113–35. McKillop, M. (1916) Food Values. New York: E.P. Dutton; expanded and re- published as: McKillop, M. (1922) Food Values: What they are, and how to calculate them. London: Routledge. ‘M.E. de R.E.’ [Mary Phillp (Mrs Epps)] (1945) ‘Ida Smedley Maclean’. Newnham College Roll Letter, January, 50–1. Nicholson, R.M. and Nicholson, J.W. (2012) ‘Martha Whiteley of Imperial College, London: A pioneering woman chemist’. Journal of Chemical Education, 89 (5), 598–601. Nunn, L.C.A. (1944) ‘Obituary: Dr. Ida Smedley-Maclean’. Nature, 22 July, 154, 110. Pottle, M. (2004) ‘McKillop [née Seward], Margaret (1864–1929)’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Online. www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51779 (requires subscription, accessed 22 December 2007). Rawson, S. (1898) ‘Where London girls may study: I. King’s College, Kensington Sq.’. The Girl’s Realm Annual, 1201–7. Rayner-Canham, M. and Rayner-Canham, G. (1999) ‘British women chemists and the First World War’. Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 23, 20–7. –– (2008) Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British women chemists, 1880–1949. London: Imperial College Press. –– (2009) ‘Fight for rights’. Chemistry World, 6 (3), 56–9. –– (2011) ‘Forgotten Pioneers’. Chemistry World, 8 (12), 41. Richards, A. (1995) ‘Elizabeth Adams, 1909–1994, N.C. 1929’. Newnham College Roll Letter, 60. Robertson, M. (1949) ‘Marjory Stephenson, 1885–1948’. Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 6, 563–77. Sanderson, P.M. (1960) ‘Obituary: Sibyl Widdows’. Royal Free Hospital Journal, April, 23, 21–2. Smedley-Maclean, I. (1943) The Metabolism of Fat. London: Methuen. Sondheimer, J.H. (1958) The History of the British Federation of University Women, 1907–1957. London: British Federation of University Women.

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Stephenson, M. (1930) Bacterial Metabolism: Monographs on biochemistry. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Tchaykovsky, B. (n.d.) Preventive Medicine as a Career for Women. London: Women’s Printing Society, Ltd. Thorpe, J.F. and Whiteley, M.A. (1954) Thorpe’s Dictionary of Applied Chemistry, 4th ed. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Tiffen, H.J. (1938) A History of the Liverpool Institute Schools, 1825 to 1935. Liverpool: The Liverpool Institute Old Boys Association. Todd, Lord and Cornforth, J.W. (1976) ‘Robert Robinson, 13 September 1886– 8 February 1975’. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 22, 415–527. Whiteley, M.A. (1929) ‘Margaret McKillop, MBE, MA, 1864–1929’. Royal Holloway College Association, College Letter, November, 51–2. –– (1946) ‘Ida Smedley Maclean, 1877–1944’. Journal of the Chemical Society, 65–7. Winslow, B. (1996) Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual politics and political activism. London: UCL Press.

50 Appendix 4 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1896

As described in chapter 4, to ensure a consistency of excellence in the teaching of chemistry in all Girls’ Public Day School Company schools (GPDSC), a ‘Conference on the teaching of science with especial reference to chemistry’ (Anon., 1896) was organized by the GPDSC Council at Notting Hill High School in 1896. Following from the conference, a detailed syllabus for the teaching of chemistry, including laboratory work, was produced by W.W. Fisher, Aldrichian Demonstrator of Chemistry at the University of Oxford (Fisher, 1896). The complete listing of topics to be covered was circulated to all GPDSC schools. These are listed below for both the junior and senior classes.

References Anon. (1896) ‘Conference on the teaching of science with especial reference to chemistry’. 11 June 1896. Archives, Institute of Education. Fisher, W.W. (1896) Schedule of Teaching in Chemistry. Girls’ Public Day School Company, October 1896, Archives, Institute of Education.

Juniors The Air and the phenomenon of combustion. Chemical action: elements and compounds. Changes produced by combustion, breathing, and decay. Effects of plant life.

Oxygen. Separation from air and from potassium chlorate: important characters [what we would now call ‘characteristics’] and properties. Products formed when sulphur, carbon, magnesium and iron are burnt in oxygen: increase in weight.

Water. Natural forms of water: ice and Steam. Distilled water. Solutions and Crystals. Filtration. Hard and Soft water. Solubility of Air and other gases in water. Production of water from its elements; and in ordinary combustion. Decomposition by electricity.

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Hydrogen. Commoner methods of preparation: chief characteristics of the gas. Union with oxygen: a constituent of coal gas.

Nitrogen. Separation from Air by removal of oxygen with phosphorus or copper: characters of the gas: relative proportion present in Air.

(Carbon dioxide Gas.) Effect of heat upon limestone: effect of acids upon chalk. Differences between chalk and lime: production by combustion and fermentation. Collection of gas by displacement: its chief properties.

Ammonia. Separation of the gas by lime from Sal ammoniac: its lightness, combustibility, and alkaline properties: produces nitric acid by oxidation.

Nitric Acid. Preparation from saltpetre: formation of saltpetre from acid and potash. Distinction between acids and alkalies. Neutralisation: use of test papers. Relative amounts of acid and alkali producing neutrality.

Hydrochloric acid. Production of the acid from common salt. Neutralisation with soda to form salt. Action with manganese dioxide.

Carbon. Diamond, Graphite, Charcoal, Coke, Soot. Burning of a candle: gas flame, Bunsen burner and blowpipe flame. Products of combustion: necessity for ventilation and chimneys. Danger of stoves without chimneys.

Sulphur. Effect of heat on the element. Crystals and plastic form. Production of sulphur dioxide by burning sulphur: also by action of copper with strong sulphuric acid.

General. Although it is not advisable to begin with theories, explanations should be given during the course and the laws of chemical combination in definite, multiple and reciprocal proportions illustrated. Early use should be made of symbols and equations as the simplest expression of chemical actions. Easy arithmetical exercises may also be introduced upon the subject matters of the lectures, and simple quantitative experiments should be performed in the laboratory, such, for example, as the absorption of oxygen in air; measurement of volume of hydrogen gas obtained by weighed amounts of zinc; of oxygen from weighed oxide of mercury; of carbonic acid from limestone by loss of weight; also experiments in neutralizing acids with alkalies.

Seniors: Part I General. Distinction between complex or compound bodies and simple or elementary bodies of which they are formed: compounds and mixtures:

52 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1896 physical and chemical change. Decomposition. Laws of chemical combination in definite, multiple and reciprocal proportions.

Oxygen. Discovery by Priestley, 1776: preparation from air: mercuric oxide: potassium chlorate. Examples of its power to support combustion: products of combustion heavier than original bodies. Ozone.

Hydrogen. How obtained from water by electricity and metals: from dilute acids and metallic zinc: Collection of gas: experiments showing lightness, inflammability; diffusibility; production of water by burning.

Water. Produced by combustion of hydrogen and its compounds: by action of hydrogen on heated metallic oxides, such as copper oxide. Composition by weight and volume. Important physical characters. Ice, water, steam; Distilled water; latent heat. Use of water as a solvent of gases and solids. Evaporation and crystallization. Hard and soft water.

Air. The chief constituents and their relative proportions. How to demonstrate their presence. The relation of oxygen and carbon dioxide to animal and plant life. Proof that air is a mixture.

Nitrogen. Obtained from atmospheric air by abstraction of oxygen by phosphorus and copper. Principle of the method for determination of proportion of oxygen and nitrogen by weight. General characters of element.

Carbon. Neutral and artificial forms; mode of production of varieties, their characters and uses. Carbon monoxide and dioxide. Coal gas. Structures of flames. Formation of carbonates and their decomposition by acid and by heat.

Sulphur. Crystalline and plastic forms. Sulphur dioxide and trioxide: hydrogen sulphide. Sulphuric Acid: its chief properties: formation of sulphates.

Nitric Acid. Production of nitrates in the soil. Preparation of nitric acid; its important characters, and uses.

Ammonia. Preparation of the gas; demonstration of its characters. Formation of crystallized ammonium salts with commoner acids.

Hydrochloric Acid. Production of acid from common salt. Solubility of hydrogen chloride. Action of the acid with peroxides.

53 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Chlorine. Characters of the element, combinations with hydrogen, phosphorus, tin and mercury. General characters of Bromine, Iodine and Fluorine and their relation to chlorine.

The Atomic Theory. Atoms: molecules. Avogadro’s hypothesis. relations between vapour density and molecular weight.

Acids and Alkalies. The phenomena of neutralization; preparation of nitrates, sulphates, chlorides by action of acids upon alkalies. Relative or equivalent quantities of each. Monobasic and dibasic acids.

Seniors: Part II Phosphorus. Sources. Production of element; allotropic forms. Chlorides. Phosphoric acid. Examples of the tribasic character of the acid.

Silicon. Its relation to Carbon. Silica; Silicon fluoride. Production of glass.

Classification of the Elements. Periodic Law. Distinction between metallic and non-metallic elements. Important physical characters of metals and alloys.

The following six metals may be studied as an introduction to a more extended and systematic course.

Copper. General physical characters of metal. Alloys-Brass and Bronze. Production of Oxides, Sulphides Chlorides: sulfate: nitrate. Behaviour of metal with hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric acids. Outline of extraction of metal from ore. Reduction of oxide by hydrogen.

Iron. General physical characteristics of iron, and steel. Solution in dilute acids. Rusting. Oxides and chlorides. Distinction between ferrous and ferric compounds. Extraction of iron by blast furnace. Cast iron, wrought iron and steel. Reduction of oxide in hydrogen.

Lead. Chief characters and uses of metal. Alloys, Pewter and Solder. Production of oxides by heating in air: action of nitric acid with red lead. Formation of nitrate: chloride: sulphate. Reduction of oxide (and chloride) in hydrogen. Reduction of oxide before blowpipe or by heating with potassium cyanide. Production of metal from galena, and extraction of silver from crude metal.

Zinc. Characters of metal: volatility, combustibility in air. Solution in dilute acids. Sulphate: chloride: carbonate and oxide. Relation to magnesium.

54 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1896

Calcium. Abundance in nature. Chief forms of carbonate and sulphate. Lime burning. Properties of calcium oxide and hydrate. Mortar and cement. Plaster of Paris. Calcium chloride: sulphate and carbonate. Causes of temporary and permanent hardness in water. Methods of softening waters. Relation of Calcium to Strontium and Barium.

Sodium. Sources in nature. Preparation of sulphate and carbonate from common salt. Sodium hydrate; carbonate and bicarbonate. Extraction of metal: relation of sodium and potassium.

Laboratory Work. Besides preparing gases, the pupils should obtain specimens of metallic salts, such as zinc, iron, copper and sulphates, etc. They should also perform simple exercises in weighing and measuring the products of chemical operations: e.g. the weight of metal obtained by reduction of oxide: the volume of gas from weighed material, etc.

55 Appendix 5 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1902

In chapter 4 we mention the standard chemistry syllabi produced for the schools of the Girls’ Public Day School Company (GPDSC). Appendix 4 contained the syllabi issued in 1896 while this Appendix lists the course content requirements as of 1902. The 1902 requirements followed from the ‘Conference on the teaching of science’ held at Kensington High School (Anon., 1900). The author of the 1902 Report (Anon., 1902a) was Wyndham Dunstan, professor of chemistry at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and previously lecturer in chemistry at the University of Oxford. Whereas the 1896 document of W.W. Fisher seemed well organized, that of Dunstan in 1902 seems to have been almost a ‘stream-of- consciousness’. The structure seems to be lacking, and particularly towards the end, the sections on carbon, then sodium chloride, then iron pyrites and gypsum, and finally, bone ash, appear to be hasty additions. The fact that the document was reprinted ten years after being devised would seem to indicate that the GPDSC considered it to be the required chemistry framework over a long period. Despite its structural shortcomings it is laudable for its emphasis on student experimentation and the use of lecture demonstrations.

References Anon. (1900) ‘Conference on the teaching of science’. 5 March 1900. Archives, Institute of Education. –– (1902a) Syllabus and Examination Schedule, Based on a Course of Instruction and Laboratory Work in Elementary Chemistry and Physics; Together with Suggestions for Teachers. Girls’ Public Day School Trust Limited, July 1902, reprinted January 1912. Archives, Institute of Education.

Dunstan’s suggestions to teachers It is intended that this Syllabus shall be taken after a two or three years’ course … in General Elementary Science, taught as an introduction to scientific method and almost entirely by means of practical work. In the

56 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1902 present course, whilst the attitude of the teacher and pupil should be the same as before, much of the teaching at this stage should be given by means of lecture-demonstrations, typical experiments, chiefly consisting of quantitative work and preparation, being carried out by the pupils themselves. The lecture-demonstrations should last about forty-five minutes, but the practical work by the pupils might extend to rather more than an hour. The idea of constant composition and chemical combination in definite proportions should be led up to through simple experiments made by the pupils themselves after experiments have been shown as demonstrations by the teacher, and ultimately a general idea given of the meaning of chemical symbols and formulae. The course would occupy about two years ... Each teacher should map out for herself the scheme of teaching which seems to her the best adapted for the pupils under her charge.

Dunstan’s introductory Explanation of the primary object of Chemistry, as the study of the homogeneous substances of which all the objects of the universe are composed; the transformation of these substances into each other, and the phenomena which accompany such transformations. Simple explanation of the difference between homogeneous and non-homogeneous matter, making the pupils inspect and describe a series of common examples of the two classes, e.g., metals sugar, marble, &c., &c., on the one hand, and substances such as granite, gunpowder, iron filings and sulphur, milk, &c., on the other.

Water; its natural relations and physical and chemical properties Study of a common, easily purified homogeneous substance – water. The physical state of water, its presence in the atmosphere as vapour, in the liquid state in rivers, &c., in plants and animals, snow, and ice. Natural waters and their constituents. Different natural waters should be evaporated, and the presence and amount of dissolved solids ascertained. The presence of gaseous impurities should also be demonstrated and the volume of dissolved air determined.

Purification of Water. – The process of distillation.

Study of the physical properties of water.

Density. – The variation of density with temperature should be ascertained by the student, and the importance of this in the economy of nature explained.

57 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Specific Heat. – The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water should be examined and compared in this respect with other substances. The importance of the high specific heat of water should also be explained.

Change from liquid to solid Form. – The temperature of freezing, the latent heat of ice, and the density of ice compared with water should be determined, and the importance of these properties in the economy of nature explained.

Change into Steam. – The boiling point of water should be determined, also the latent heat of evaporation, or experiments to illustrate the high latent heat. The large volume of steam compared with the water. The importance of these special properties in ordinary life.

Solution – soluble and insoluble solids.

Solubility of gases.

Experiments to illustrate the different solubilities of various substances (e.g., Epsom salt and Potassium Chloride). The determination of the solubility of a simple salt.

Effect of Heat on Solubility.

Solids, e.g., nitre and common salt.

Gases, e.g., ammonia

Temperature changes resulting from solution.

Effect of the dissolved substances on the boiling point and density.

Separation of the Dissolved Substances from Solution. – Experiments on crystallization.

Examples of substances which crystallize combined with water and those which do not. Water of crystallization. Chemical combination with water.

Crystals of Sodium Carbonate. – Loss of weight on exposure to dry air. Compare efflorescence and ordinary evaporation. Loss of weight on heating. Re-conversion of the white powder so produced into ordinary sodium carbonate.

Crystals of Calcium Sulphate. – The water of crystallization should be determined by heating in an air bath to about 150°. The effect of water on the dried substance may then be investigated.

58 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1902

Crystals of Copper Sulphate. – The loss in weight may be determined by heating at 100°, and the further loss at 250° in an air bath. The original crystals may be again prepared by crystallizing the white salt from water.

Examples of more stable combinations of water with other substances. The effect of water on quicklime may be studied – the heat given out, the quantity of water retained after drying at 100°, the reproduction of the original quicklime at a high temperature. The effect of water on strong sulphuric acid and on glacial phosphoric acid may be also tried.

The teacher should point out in the course of the work how the subjects studied illustrate the laws of definite and multiple proportions, and should point out some of the characteristics of chemical action, such as the heat evolved, &c., and the broad distinction between mixtures and compounds.

Chemical decomposition, in which one physically homogeneous substance is decomposed giving new substances.

The Electrolysis of Acidified Water. – Study of the gases so produced.

Hydrogen. – Decomposition of water by chemical means (e.g., by sodium). Reactions of exchange. The behaviour of the solution so produced to litmus should be examined and explained. Production of hydrogen by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on zinc, iron, &c. The pupil should evaporate the residual liquid and obtain crystals of the sulphate.

Hydrogen Chemical Properties. – The burning of hydrogen in air. Proof that water is produced. Characters of the change, heat evolved, &c. Explosion of oxygen and hydrogen.

Experiments on Reduction. – Red lead heated in the gas. Proof that water is produced and lead formed. Copper oxide and ferric oxide might also be tried. It should be proved experimentally that these substances contain oxygen.

A description might be given here of the methods of determining the composition of water both gravimetrically and volumetrically. The teacher should clearly point out that water is a definite stable compound and compare it with detonating gas, and point out how, in the latter, the properties of both constituents are preserved, and that either one or the other gas may be added to it without destroying its homogeneity, whilst in water the specific properties of oxygen and hydrogen are not to be observed, and neither gas can be directly combined with it. Attention should also be

59 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham drawn to the accompanying heat phenomena. Elementary notions as to the use of symbols might be introduced here.

Air and its constituents Study of Oxygen and Air. – The burning of various substances in air and the conclusions to be drawn therefrom. Change when lead is heated in air. These experiments should be quantitative. Production of red lead. Effect of strong heat on red lead. Gas given off differing from ordinary air. Effect of heating mercury in air and the further effect of heat on the oxide formed. Lavoisier’s experiment might be shown in the demonstrative class. Burning of phosphorus and rusting of iron and the separation of nitrogen. Volumetric composition of air.

Preparation of oxygen from potassium chlorate. Study of its physical properties. Chemical properties. Chiefly connected with burning. Burn sulphur, phosphorus, sodium, and magnesium. Test the results by adding water and litmus. General classification of the oxides.

Study of the nitrogen obtained from air. Experiments on its physical and chemical properties. Production of nitrogen from sal ammoniac and potassium nitrite. Uses of oxygen and nitrogen in the air. Presence of moisture in the air. The importance in the economy of nature. The presence and effects of dust in the air.

Sal ammoniac and ammonia Study of sal ammoniac. – Its appearance, solubility in water, &c. The effect of heating it with lime. Study of ammonia. Production from animal substances, coal, &c. Experiments illustrating its chief physical and chemical properties. Its alkaline property and combination with acids. Preparation of sal ammoniac from ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Explanation of the action of lime on sal ammoniac.

Nitric Acid Production of nitric acid and nitrates in nature. Effect of sulphuric acid on nitre. Experiments in illustration of the physical properties of nitric acid.

Chemical Properties. – Decomposition. Effect of heat. Oxidizing properties (action on heated carbon, sugar, and tin). Action on common metals. Its properties as an acid. Neutralization of basic oxides in producing salts. Preparation of lead nitrate and of potassium nitrate. The oxidizing properties of potassium nitrate. Gunpowder. Conversion of nitric acid into ammonia.

60 The Girls’ Public Day School Company chemistry syllabus, 1902

Oxides of nitrogen: their production from nitric acid and chief properties of nitrous and nitric oxides.

Carbon – Carbon dioxide, carbonates; chalk, sodium carbonate.

Sodium chloride – Hydrochloric acid and chlorine. Chlorides. Experiments with hydrochloric acid, its action on metals in quantitative experiments, such as the measurement of the volume of the hydrogen produced, &c.

Iron Pyrites and Gypsum Sulphur, sulphuric acid, and sulphates.

Bone Ash and its elements. Phosphoric acid.

Revision – Study of basic oxides (of the metals mentioned), the acid-forming oxides, neutralization and the preparation of salts. Use of equations and elementary ideas on the atomic theory.

61 Appendix 6 Sophie Bryant’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1911

In chapter 4 we describe how Dr Sophie Bryant, Headmistress of North London Collegiate School for Girls, working with her chemistry teachers, Rose Stern and Isabella Drummond, devised three versions of a chemistry programme for independent girls’ schools. These three versions are given in this Appendix.

Bryant’s Type I course of chemistry for girls 1911 1. The course starts from the action of heat on common substances, e.g. soda, salt, sugar, chalk, coal. During the investigation of coal, iron pyrites is noticed, and it is found that, by heating, in air, this can be changed into a substance called green vitriol, from which, by the further action of heat, sulphuric acid is obtained. In studying the properties of this acid, its action on common substances, e.g. salt, sugar, saltpetre, is naturally tried, and so other substances are prepared and examined. All these substances are found to have the same action on litmus paper as well-known acids, such as lemon juice and vinegar; they are therefore classed together under the name of Acids. 2. Soda and lime form the foundation for the preparation of the caustic alkalies, the common properties of which with ammonia give rise to the classification asAlkalies . 3. Next follows the reaction of the acids on the alkalies and the formation of Salts. Since the neutralization is carried out quantitatively as well as qualitatively, the learners find the equivalent proportions of the acids and alkalies, and so the foundation is laid for the understanding of the law of chemical combination by definite proportions. 4. The common metals are next heated in air and, among other substances, red lead is prepared; by the action of this on hydrochloric acid Chlorine is liberated; by the action of chlorine on caustic potash potassium chlorate is prepared, and on heating this substance Oxygen is obtained. This leads to experiments as to the action of oxygen on various substances and to the discovery that heating in air usually results in oxidation. The constituents of air are thus discovered, and on further investigation

62 Sophie Bryant’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1911

of the metallic oxides the traditional methods of preparing oxygen are discovered, and on further investigation of the metallic oxides the traditional methods of preparing oxygen are discovered and the work of Priestley and Lavoisier discussed. The action of oxygen on heated carbon leads to the preparation of both oxides of carbon, and thus the learners become acquainted with an example of the combination of two elements in different proportions. 5. The action of acids on metals, and the action of acids on the oxides of metals, result in the preparation of hydrogen, sulphur dioxide, and the oxides of nitrogen, as well as the metallic salts. Hydrogen on burning forms water. This discovery leads to a series of experiments as to the action of water on metals and also to the knowledge of the composition of water. The oxides of nitrogen are analyzed and from the results obtained by the learners the law of multiple proportion is suggested.

Bryant’s Type II course of chemistry for girls 1911 Combustion being the chief source of heat known to the learners, a chemistry course which follows immediately upon the study of heat [the last topic in the junior science course] may naturally begin with the problem, What is burning?

1. Various substances that burn, e.g. wood, paper, candle, magnesium, etc., are examined simply to observe the process. 2. Discovery of increase in weight of magnesium leads to the first conception of chemical change, and the question follows, From whence does the increase come? As air is the only substance in contact with the metal an experiment is tried to show decrease in volume of the air. 3. The fact that magnesium uses up only one-fifth of the air suggests that air may be composed of more than one gas. This is confirmed, but not proved, by testing the properties of air after burning magnesium in it and contrasting them with the properties of ordinary air. 4. The similarity of appearance between tarnished magnesium and the calx of the metal leads to an investigation of the effect of heat on other metals, showing theta here too the changes are due to the influence of the air. 5. Then follows a study of the substances obtained by the action of air on metals; and the formation of oxygen by the action of heat on red oxide of mercury gives further evidence as to the composition of air. (Here the history of Priestley’s and Lavoisier’s experiments is given in confirmation of the learner’s own.)

63 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

6. Application of knowledge already gained is now made to the burning of non-metallic substances. Amongst others, carbon is burned, and the formation of the gaseous product and its properties are discovered by a comparison between the properties of ordinary air and that in which carbon has been burnt. This is followed by a full study of the burning of a candle. Does it use air? What are the products of combustion? As water is formed, is it an oxide? Since heat will not liberate oxygen-(as was the case with red calx)-the action of magnesium on heated steam is tried. Hydrogen is thus obtained, and the presence of carbon and hydrogen in the candle is argued form the composition of the products of combustion. 7. The history of the theory of burning from early times is told at this stage, with extracts read from the work of Jean Rey and his opponents, in order that the learners may realize the slowness of the historical development and get hints of the causes which help and hinder investigation. Burning leads thus to a study of oxides, hence to acids, alkalies, and salts.

Bryant’s Type III course of chemistry for girls 1911 In the first year the learners are made familiar with simple chemical processes such as solution and crystallization, and are led from these to a study of the properties of certain substances, a knowledge of which will be specially useful to them later. Even at this stage the practical application of their knowledge is kept well to the fore. Thus air is studied in connexion with the processes of combustion, respiration, and ventilation.

The presence of carbon dioxide in the air leads to a study of chalk, limestone, etc., and these to the causes of hardness in water and methods of softening.

The composition of water is discovered by burning the hydrogen obtained by the action of acids on metals, and the knowledge of this is used in a further study of the burning of coal gas and its effects on the atmosphere.

In the next two years the choice of substances for study is determined by their use in the household for cleaning and for food. Washing soda and baking soda are first selected, the action of washing soda on fats being used to explain its use for cleansing greasy dishes, while the discovery in the laboratory of the evolution of carbon dioxide on the heating of baking soda is used in the kitchen in the making of gingerbread. The use of the more complicated baking powder can only be understood in

64 Sophie Bryant’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1911

connexion with a rather fuller study of the action of acids and alkalies on each other and on salts, and all these are therefore studied at this stage.

In a somewhat similar manner sugar, flour, and starch are studied, the latter with reference to laundry work as well as cooking.

During a course of study on fats and oils, frying, combustion (oil lamps), and soap-making are all practically dealt with.

Investigations into the composition and properties of proteins lead up to practical studies in various methods of cooking meat and their special values.

At the end of the course foods are considered in their relation to the human body and digestion, and dietaries are dealt with.

The above is an example of a course in which the selection of material depends throughout on its applicability to domestic work. In many cases such specially applied work is done for some definite period only, and thus a working compromise is effected between the aims of the various courses sketched above. It is obvious that this solution of the problem applies specially to schools where the leaving age is early. In schools where most girls do not leave until eighteen or nineteen it is obviously possible, and it is generally regarded as advantageous, that the chemistry course should develop freely as pure chemistry first (after the manner of either the first or second methods indicated above), and receive its practical applications when a firm grasp of chemical principles has been already acquired. In such cases there is apt to be a bifurcation after about two years of the chemical course have been completed, some girls following a course of pure chemistry to matriculation standard, while others study applied chemistry in direct connexion with practical domestic work.

65 Appendix 7 Rose Stern’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1921

In chapter 5 we describe how Rose Stern, chemistry teacher at North London Collegiate School for Girls, had presented two alternative chemistry syllabi to the Association of Women Science Teachers. These two sets of course descriptions are given below.

Stern’s 1921 traditional chemistry course for middle school girls We start with the examination of building material-sand, lime, slate, bricks, etc. In the making of bricks, clay was wanted, and during the change from clay to bricks water was obtained, and its distillation and properties studied. In examining its solvent action on common substances, such as saltpetre, etc., the solubility curves of these solids can be drawn and crystals obtained. The percentage of water of crystallization can also be determined and the change of appearance of substances when the water has been drawn off can be noted. The next thing in view is to prepare the alkalies, and a suggestion for the starting point of these substances is to heat a beetroot until the white ash is obtained; when this is boiled with water and the filtrate allowed to stand, crystals of potassium carbonate are produced. These can be tested with the petals of mauve flowers, which act in a similar way to litmus, and form an introduction to the use of indicators [noted later in the account, ‘… this experiment always gave great impetus to the girls, and when the potashes really crystallised it caused joy’]. Soda and ammonia are well known alkalies, and lemon juice and vinegar can be used as their first examples of acids. Then the effect of heat on various substances can be tried. When coal is examined and the small pieces of iron pyrites separated, these can be heated in air and ferrous sulphate produced. When this substance is distilled and the acid liquid tested they will have prepared one of the chief mineral acids from common material. The history of the discovery of this acid can

66 Rose Stern’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1921 now be told to the class, and they can do many experiments to determine the properties of both dilute and concentrated sulphuric acid. The preparation of hydrochloric acid or nitric acid follows as a matter of course, and the examination of the various gases produced by their action on common substances. Carbon dioxide can be studied in detail and its acid action compared with that of the strong mineral acids. The next section deals with the effect of alkalies on known substances; ammonia is prepared by heating together lime and sal ammoniac, [while] caustic soda, and caustic potash [is prepared] by the action of lime water on sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate respectively. The class are now acquainted with all the common acids and alkalies, and a valuable piece of work can be done by neutralizing the acids with various alkalies and studying the properties of the salts produced. Quantitative experiments can be carried out at this stage and the neutralizing power of the various acids compared. The weight and volume of carbon dioxide given off by the action of acids on the carbonates can be estimated and its density determined. The action of heat on metals in the presence of air and the examination of oxides leads to the study of oxygen and the composition of air. The result of treating red lead with hydrochloric acid causes the evolution of chlorine, and when this is passed into a boiling solution of caustic potash crystals of potassium chlorate are obtained; this gives not only a second method for preparing oxygen, but a method of proving that it is a constituent of caustic potash. When oxygen is passed over heated carbon, carbon dioxide is produced, and when this in its turn is passed over the same substance, heated very strongly, carbon monoxide is obtained. Thus two compounds are formed consisting of the same elements in different proportions. Hydrogen has been prepared by the action of hydrochloric acid on the metals and it can now be used for the synthesis of water. Nitric acid on the metals will give rise to the preparation of the oxides of nitrogen, which can be utilized as a further illustration of the law of multiple proportion. When the oxides of the metals are treated with the acids, the salts of the metals can be allowed to crystallize out and the action of heat tried on these salts. Copper nitrate can be used to arrive at the constitution of nitric acid, and the nitrates of the heavy metals can be compared with those of the alkali metals. The composition of hydrochloric acid is found by passing dry hydrochloric acid gas over a metallic oxide and examining the products obtained. By means of many carefully thought out experiments a number of chemical facts are accumulated and the class is in a position to attack the

67 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham atomic theory and the more difficult problems in chemistry. This is the stage reached just before the end of the second year.

Stern’s 1921 history-themed chemistry course for middle school girls I start with the work of Geber and the early chemists, and so introduce the ideas of distillation, sublimation, crystallization, and filtration. The class is given a mixture, say, of water, sand, and salt, and has to obtain some of each substance in a pure condition from this mixture; the distillation of water can be followed by the distillation of solids, and so the sublimation of ammonium chloride is met with and sulphuric acid is prepared from crystals of alum and of green vitriol. Valentine prepared green vitriol from iron and dilute sulphuric acid, and Geber, while examining the properties of sulphuric acid, came across both nitric and hydrochloric acids. His work on the acids was continued by Glauber, who, during the preparation of hydrochloric acid, made the famous salts that go by his name; he also prepared nitric and acetic acids. The experiments on the acids can be accompanied by the reading of the lives of the alchemists and iatro chemists, and when the properties of the acids have been thoroughly investigated the class should be able to recognize some of the common gases. The next section is on combustion, and this is suitably introduced by the work of Boyle on the Spring of the Air. Many experiments, quantitative as well as qualitative, on the action of heat on metals in the presence of air will lead to the suggestion by the pupils of various theories as to the cause for the changes observed; after their own theories have been discussed the philogiston theory will give great stimulus and they will see the necessity of experimental evidence before a theory can be established. Next we come to the works of Priestley and Lavoisier and the discovery of oxygen. I find that Black’s work comes in more conveniently after this, although as regards to actual dates he preceded Priestley. The study of the carbonates leads to many useful experiments, not only in qualitative, but also in quantitative work – e.g., the weight and volume of carbon dioxide liberated from them by the action of heat and acids can be found. Boyle’s law can be applied for the correction of the volume, and hence the density of the gas determined. A useful series of experiments illustrating the difference between the mild and caustic alkalies can also be carried out, and the class ought even to be able to read and appreciate some of Black’s own accounts which are given in the alembic reprints.

68 Rose Stern’s courses of chemistry for girls, 1921

Cavendish, with his personal peculiarities and his work on water, introduces a detailed study of Hydrogen, and when Scheele’s work has been studied the class will have become acquainted with two of the oxides of nitrogen and of chlorine. The discovery of the latter will lead to the comparison of oxides and peroxides, and they will have examples which will come in very useful for illustrating the law of multiple proportions. Next comes the study of equivalent weights; they should know already at least two ways of preparing oxides, and also have done experiments for finding the weight or volume of hydrogen liberated from an acid by a metal, so a revision of these experiments with a few new ones will give sufficient examples for not only working out the equivalent weight of various elements, but for illustrating the law of constant proportion. Here they make acquaintance with Proust, Dalton, and Gay Lussac. The story of Dalton’s life and his work on air before he formulated his atomic theory is of great interest, and several lessons can be spent in reading accounts of experiments done about this time and discussing the inferences drawn from them. It is useful at this stage to discuss the older ideas on the structure of matter and also the more modern ones. I always find my girls thrilled with the new ideas that tumbled over one another just about the time when Dalton was advancing his atomic theory. Chemists and physicists were as busy then as they are now in trying to come to a satisfactory solution as to the constitution of matter, and so much experimental quantitative work was being carried out that the subject teams with examples which illustrate what careful reasoning can produce.

The mistake of Dalton in assuming that water was HO and not H2O can show them how one little error can lead to many others, and that the result of the error becomes more and more widespread. Avogadro’s work, of course, must be mentioned, and Gay Lussac’s law of volumes illustrated, if possible, by experiments. The class is keenly interested in tracing out the various symbols and formulae of substances used and comparing them with those of the present day, and they slowly realize the difficulty of writing the formulae of substances and of remembering the valencies of the elements. This is always a difficult part to teach, but I am quite sure that the difficulties are reduced to a minimum by making the class picture to themselves working in their own laboratories to arrive at results, and by making them know the human part of the subject as well as the scientific part. This is usually the stage I get to at the end of my second year, as in the first year the girls do hygiene one of the three terms.

69 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

In the third year, which is the year in which they do General Schools I do not keep strictly to historical development, but when the work of Davy and Faraday is studied, I give them an account of their lives which are most interesting.

70 Appendix 8 AWST proposed course of chemistry for girls, 1932

As described in chapter 5, in 1932 the north-west branch of the Association of Women Science Teachers developed a secondary school curriculum for science, to be used between the ages of 11 and 15. The section on the chemistry scheme for post-primary schools is listed below.

Chemistry course proposal Physical and Chemical Change: Discuss a far as possible changes met in everyday life: souring of milk, withering of leaves, weathering of rocks, etc.

Elements, Mixtures, Compounds: Consider the universe as made up of a definite and comparatively small number of kinds of building material.

Indestructibility of Matter: Perhaps best introduced by candle experiments: – candle burning on balance pan, loss in weight, burning with quicklime and caustic potash tower overhead – gain, in closed jar – constant.

Burning: Necessity of air. Discuss everyday application – use of bellows, electric light bulb filled with inactive gas, etc.

Approximate Composition of Air by Volume: Burning of excess phosphorus over water under bell-jar or some such experiment to show the one-fifth active, and four-fifths inactive parts of the air.

Oxidation: Might discuss ease with which substances burn. Idea of ignition point might be introduced and “flashing point” of paraffin oil. Matches might be discussed here. Depend on use of some material which begins to burn at temperature produced by friction on rough surface.

Water: Electrolysis. Uses of hydrogen might be mentioned here – airships, margarine and soap making. Leave natural waters, etc., until carbon dioxide has been studied.

Acids: Characteristics. Names and uses of some of the commoner – acetic, boric, carbolic, citric, lactic, oxalic, etc. Vinegar might be studied in a little more detail.

71 Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoff Rayner-Canham

Alkalis: Characteristics of Caustic and Mild. Might contrast action of two types on vegetable oil (getting idea of soap-making) and flannel. Lime and ammonia might also be discussed here – their large scale preparation and uses.

Salts: Discuss several of the commonest: – chalk, alum, salt, soda, nitre, borax, Epsom, Glauber.

Carbon: Occurrence and uses of some of the varieties. Destructive distillation of wood and coal might be done, and value of products discussed.

Carbon dioxide: Produced by the burning of fuel, breathing of animals. Discuss fuel and value of fuels. Solubility of limestone in carbon dioxide in rainwater – characterisation of limestone regions. Natural waters generally. Hardness of water and its removal.

Sulphur: Sulfur dioxide and bleaching.

Chlorine: Sufficient only to do bleaching powder and bleaching.

Metals: Some general characteristics. Properties and uses of a few of the commonest metals and alloys.

Food: Main constituents of an ordinary mixed diet and part played by each. Enzyme action and digestion. Moulds, yeasts and bacteria in relation to food. Preservation of food. Effects of cooking and choice of diet.