Abstract
From Popular Chemistry to Chemical Technology: Popularization of Chemistry during the Nineteenth Century The eighteenth century was a flourishing-time for the popularization of science, but chemistry was not included. It lasted until the 1780s - more than fiftv' years after the fir.st popular books on physics and
... read more
natural history had appeared - before the first English and German chemistry books for women, children and the working class were published, and it took another twenty-five years before Dutch books of this type saw the light. In 1809 the Utrecht pharmacist Pieter van Werkhoven published a translation of F. Wurzer's Handbuch der populären Chemie and in 1810 a translation of the French edition of J. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry appeared. From then on the 'popular book on chemistry' was bound to stay with the Dutch people until today. During the nineteenth century some 57 popular chemistry books (reprints, second editions, etc. included) appeared in the Netherlands: 1800-1815 nine; 1816-1829 none; 1830-1844 eight; 1845-1864 thirty; 1865-1899 about ten. The article analyses the distinct phases in the production of popular Dutch chemistry books in terms of the (intended) audiences, the prices of the books, and the character of the texts. While the first generation of popular chemistry books (1809-1815) - directed to women, youngsters and common people - contained several moralistic and natural theological contemplations, natural theology was completely absent in the books intended to diffuse 'useful knowledge' among the working classes, that appeared between 1830 and 1844. For several reasons the period that followed (1845-1864) was a hey-day, and at the same time a last deathly agony, of the old approved moralistic. Enlightenment style of popularization of chemistry. Developments in book printing resulted in low prices, even for illustrated books, which now made possible that a really large audience could be served. But when new educational legislation made science a school subject in 1857 and 1863, school books filled the space that was occupied by the popular chemistry book before. At the same time both modern and orthodox theology came to the conclusion that the domain of science and domain of Christ should be separated completely, which meant a death blow to the conventional natural theological approach to science teaching followed until then by most educators. Even more important for the changing character of chemistry popularization was the professionalization of chemistry that took place in those years, which meant a complete revolution of the relations between the scientist and his public. This is illustrated by the lives of two important Dutch popularizers of chemistry: Gerrit Jan Mulder (1802-1880) and Jan Willem Gunning (1827-1900). While Mulder's aim was to become a 'man of useful knowledge' who spread his wisdom among the people of his Fatherland, Gunning in his later years strongly defended the autonomy of chemical science, and put forward that it should be the primary goal of the scientist to pass his knowledge to a new generation of scientists, not to the public at large. As a result of these influences, numbers of popular chemistry books dropped considerably during the last decades of the nineteenth century, and the character of this type of book changed completely. It appeared that only a market for beautifully illustrated popular books survived, with the consequence that in case of chemistry nearly all attention went to the 'miracles of (chemical) technology, which were easier, and nicer to visualize than test tubes and molecules. In the field of the popularization of chemistry, the miracles of the Creator gave way for ever to the miracles of human endeavour.
show less
