Historical Group NEWSLETTER and SUMMARY OF PAPERS No. 65 Winter 2014 Registered Charity No. 207890 COMMITTEE Chairman: Dr J A Hudson ! Dr C Ceci (RSC) Graythwaite, Loweswater, Cockermouth, ! Dr N G Coley (Open University) Cumbria, CA13 0SU ! Dr C J Cooksey (Watford, Hertfordshire) [e-mail [email protected]] ! Prof A T Dronsfield (Swanwick, Secretary: Prof. J. W. Nicholson ! Derbyshire) School of Sport, Health and Applied Science, ! Prof E Homburg (University of St Mary's University College, Waldegrave Road, ! Maastricht) Twickenham, Middlesex, TW1 4SX ! Prof F James (Royal Institution) [e-mail: [email protected]] ! Dr D Leaback (Biolink Technology) Membership Prof W P Griffith ! Mr P N Reed (Steensbridge, Secretary: Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, ! Herefordshire) London, SW7 2AZ [e-mail [email protected]] ! Dr V Quirke (Oxford Brookes University) Treasurer: Dr P J T Morris ! Prof. H. Rzepa (Imperial College) Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South ! Dr. A Sella (University College) Kensington, London, SW7 2DD [e-mail: [email protected]] Newsletter Dr A Simmons Editor Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL [e-mail [email protected]] Newsletter Dr G P Moss Production: School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS [e-mail [email protected]] http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/rschg/ http://www.rsc.org/membership/networking/interestgroups/historical/index.asp RSC Historical Group Newsletter No. 65 Winter 2014 Contents From the Editor 2 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL GROUP NEWS 3 From the incoming Chairman 3 Changes to the Committee 3 RSCHG Meetings: 2013-2014 3 Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Service 4 COMMENTS TO THE EDITOR 4 PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST 4 Members’ Publications 6 OBITUARY 6 NEWS AND UPDATES 6 Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 6 News from the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) 6 SHORT ESSAYS 6 Logwood Chips are History – Chris Cooksey 6 Edward Turner’s Examination Paper, 1829-1830 – Alwyn Davies 9 Thomas Andrews, MD, MRIA, Hon. FRSE, FRS, (1813-1885) – D. Thorburn Burns 11 Alexander Williamson and the Modernisation of Japan – Alwyn Davies 14 A Chance Encounter…. – Alan Dronsfield 19 Dedication of a New Monument to Professor and Mrs Alexander W. Williamson – Kemmyo Taira Sato 19 Thomas Graham Lecture – Yoshiyuki Kikuchi 20 BOOK REVIEWS 20 Alwyn Davies and Peter Garratt, UCL Chemistry Department 1828-1974 (Bill Griffith) 20 Prakash Kumar, Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India (Peter Reed) 21 Eric Scerri, A Tale of 7 Elements (Alan Dronsfield) 22 SHORT ESSAY REVIEW 22 Mauveine Again Chris Cooksey 22 RSC NATIONAL HISTORICAL CHEMICAL LANDMARKS 23 University of Southampton – Bill Griffith 23 The Discovery and Progress of the Drug Ibuprofen – Alan Dronsfield and Edwin Sylvester 24 MEETING AND CONFERENCE REPORTS 25 Chemistry Meets Medicine: Some Historical Perspectives 25 The 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Manchester 31 Sites of Twentieth Century Chemistry, Uppsala, 21 August 2013 33 9th International Conference on the History of Chemistry Uppsala, 22-25 August 2013 34 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS 34 CALLS FOR PAPERS 35 FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES 35 Stop Press 36 From the Editor Welcome to the winter 2014 RSCHG Newsletter. If you have received the newsletter by post and wish to look at the longer electronic version which contains more images. It can be found at: http://www.rsc.org/historical or http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/rschg/ The first RSCHG meeting in 2014, “A Revolution in Chemical Analysis and Instrumentation”, will be held at Burlington House on Wednesday 19 March. It is an afternoon meeting starting at 1.30 pm and full details can be found in the flyer enclosed with the hard copy version and also in the online version. This issue contains a wide variety of news items, articles, book reviews and reports. Partly by coincidence, many of them focus on chemistry at University College London. There are four short essays: the first by Chris Cooksey is entitled “Logwood Chips are History” and the second by Alwyn Davies is entitled “Edward Turner’s Examination Paper 1829-1830”. The third, written by Duncan Thorburn Burns discusses Thomas Andrews, who was recently remembered with a RSC Chemical Landmark Plaque at Queen’s University of Belfast. The final short essay is a compilation of reports on the year-long series of events at University College London, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Anglo-Japanese Scholarly Relations. The book reviews in this issue include Alwyn Davies and Peter Garratt, UCL Chemistry Department, 1828-1974; Prakash Kumar, Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India; and Eric Scerri, A Tale of 7 Elements. There is also a short review of the BBC2 television programme Science Britannica which featured the discovery of mauveine. There are reports on the RSC Chemical Landmark Plaques for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy at the University of Southampton and for ibuprofen in Nottingham. An article appears on the RSCHG meeting entitled “Chemistry and Medicine” held last October. There are also reports covering the 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Manchester and the Sites of 20th Century Chemistry Meeting and the 9th International Conference on the History of Chemistry, both held in Uppsala. On a personal note I would like to thank the RSCHG’s out-going Chairman, Alan Dronsfield, for all the help and support he has given me as Editor and to say how I am looking forward to working again with the group’s new Chairman, John Hudson. Finally I would like to thank everyone who has sent material for this newsletter, with particular thanks to the newsletter production team of Bill Griffith and Gerry Moss. If you would like to contribute items such as news, articles, book reviews and reports to the newsletter please do contact me. The guidelines for contributors can be found in the summer 2012 edition or online at: http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/rschg/Guidelines.html The deadline for the summer 2014 issue will be Friday 13 June 2014. Please send your contributions to [email protected] as an attachment in Word. All contributions must be in electronic form. Anna Simmons University College, London ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL GROUP NEWS From the incoming Chairman At the AGM, I was elected to serve as Chair of the Historical Group in succession to Alan Dronsfield. My immediate thought is that Alan is going to be a hard act to follow. He has led the Group at a difficult time, when we faced uncertainties resulting from the RSC’s new policy for membership of Groups. During this period, not only did our membership more than double to over 600, but even more significantly, our numbers have subsequently held steady at this higher level. Another achievement is that Alan has undoubtedly raised the profile of the Group within the RSC. Furthermore, he has campaigned on important issues connected with the history of science by writing to national newspapers. As I said, he will be a hard act to follow. I will of course ensure that our principal activities, namely organising meetings on aspects of the history of chemistry and publishing an interesting and informative Newsletter, continue as before. But I wish to encourage some new developments. I would like to see us organising more meetings outside London. These have been infrequent in the past, although we held a very successful meeting at Catalyst in Widnes last spring. The ideal I think would be one meeting per year away from London. But such meetings would need local organisers, so if you have an idea for a meeting, and/or know of possible speakers who could contribute, please get in touch via [email protected] and we will discuss the idea at Committee. I would also like to see more of our members doing historical research on their own account. There could be numerous possibilities. To cite two examples, it could be that the history of your own company has not been fully researched, or maybe a well-known chemist had a connection with your area which could be followed up. It would be great if such work resulted in an article in the Newsletter or a presentation at a meeting, but the principal reason for doing work like this is the interest and enjoyment it brings. Finally, I would like members to feel that the Committee is responsive to their ideas and suggestions, so if there is anything else you think we could be doing, please get in touch. John Hudson Changes to the Committee Professor Jack Betteridge is standing down as a Committee member. We are extremely grateful to Jack for his service over many years, which included six years as Chairman. We have co-opted on to the Committee as an observer RSC staff member Dr Chiara Ceci. Her role within the RSC is that of Communications Executive. We shall enjoy working with her. John Hudson RSCHG Meetings: 2013-2014 As in former Winter RSCHG Newsletters here is a brief summary of what we did in 2013 and what is planned for 2014. 2013 Meetings There were four, all well-attended and well-received by their audiences. The History of the Chemical Industry in the Runcorn-Widnes Area. Held on Saturday 2 March 2013 at the Catalyst Science Discovery Centre, Widnes. Reported in the Summer 2013 Newsletter, pp. 45-52. The History and Chemistry of Fluorine. Held on Thursday 21 March 2013 at the Council Chamber, Burlington House, organised by Alan Dronsfield and Bill Griffith. Reported in the Summer 2013 Newsletter, pp. 52-57. Robert Woodward – Chemist Extraordinary.