The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge
Transformation and Change

A history of the 1702 chair in chemistry at the University of Cambridge.

Mary D. Archer (Edited by), Christopher D. Haley (Edited by)

9780521030854, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 January 2007

344 pages, 92 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.485 kg

'… being both useful and interesting within its remit, it is a welcome addition to the literature about the history of science at Cambridge.' Ambix

The University of Cambridge's 1702 chair of chemistry is the oldest continuously occupied chair of chemistry in Britain. The lives and work of the 1702 chairholders over the past three hundred years, described here, paint a vivid picture of chemistry as it slowly transformed from the handmaiden of alchemists and adjunct of medical men into a major academic discipline in its own right. The book has twelve chapters, covering all fifteen chairholders, from Giovanni Francesco Vigani, a contemporary and friend of Isaac Newton, through Smithson Tennant, discoverer of osmium and iridium, and Alexander Robertus Todd, Nobel Laureate and elucidator of the structure of key components of the double helix, to the current chairholder, master molecule maker Steven Victor Ley. Containing personal memoirs and historical essays by acknowledged experts, this book will engage all who are interested in the pivotal role chemistry has played in the making of the modern world.

List of contributors
Preface
Holders of the 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge
Illustration acknowledgements
1. 'The deplorable frenzy': the slow legitimisation of chemical practice at Cambridge University Kevin Knox
2. Vigani and after: chemical enterprise in Cambridge 1680–1780 Simon Schaffer and Larry Stewart
3. Richard Watson: gaiters and gunpowder Colin Russell
4. Lavoisier's chemistry comes to Cambridge Christopher Haley and Peter Wothers
5. Smithson Tennant: the innovative and eccentric eighth professor of chemistry Melvyn Usselman
6. Coming and going: the fitful career of James Cumming William Brock
7. Chemistry at Cambridge under George Downing Liveing John Shorter
8. The rise and fall of the 'Papal State' Arnold Thackray and Mary Ellen Bowden
9. Alexander Todd: a new direction in organic chemistry James Baddiley and Daniel M. Brown
10. Ralph Alexander Raphael: organic synthesis - elegance, efficiency and the unexpected Bill Nolan, Dudley Williams and Robert Ramage
11. Discovering the wonders of how nature builds its molecules Alan Battersby
12. Chemistry in a changing world: new tools for the modern molecule maker Steven Ley
Index.

Subject Areas: Local history [WQH], Chemistry [PN], History of science [PDX]