Edward Frankland
Chemistry, Controversy and Conspiracy in Victorian England

The first scientific biography of Edward Frankland, the most eminent chemist of nineteenth-century Britain.

Colin A. Russell (Author)

9780521545815, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 December 2003

556 pages, 52 b/w illus. 17 tables
24.6 x 18.9 x 2.9 cm, 0.98 kg

'… a splendid book … written in an imaginative and engaging style.' Maurice Crosland, Metascience

This is the first scientific biography of Edward Frankland, probably the most eminent chemist of nineteenth-century Britain. Frankland discovered the chemical bond and founded the science of organometallic chemistry. He was a leading reformer of chemistry teaching, and the government's close adviser on urban water purity. From an apprenticeship in a druggist's shop in Lancaster, he was to occupy the first chemical chair at Manchester, and become professor at what became Imperial College. He was knighted in 1897. Today an obscurity of reputation stems from the conspiracy of silence surrounding Frankland's origins as an illegitimate child. Recently, however, Professor Russell has gained access to a vast collection of his private papers. Russell's authoritative account discloses, amongst much else, this web of conspiracy in the scientific community, and will be of great interest to professional chemists, historians of science, and general readers concerned with the social fabric of Victorian England.

1. Lancastrian inheritance
2. The road to discovery
3. Queenwood
4. New worlds in Germany
5. Fundamental discoveries in chemistry
6. Frankland and the development of valency
7. Manchester: 'The educational and commercial utility of chemistry'
8. Return to the metropolis
9. Advances in organic chemistry
10. The communication of chemistry
11. The X-Club and beyond
12. Family: years of crisis
13. The analysis of water supply
14. 'The wildest parts of nature'
15. Power
16. Retirement years
17. The last journey.

Subject Areas: Chemistry [PN], Biography: historical, political & military [BGH]