Transformation and Change

The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge

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Edited by Mary Archer

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published November 2004, 305 pages, cloth

ISBN 0521828732

The University of Cambridge's 1702 chair of chemistry is the oldest continuously occupied chair of chemistry in Britain. This book's descriptions of the lives and work of the 1702 chairholders over the past three hundred years paint a vivid picture of chemistry being slowly transformed from alchemy into a major academic discipline. Containing personal memoirs and historical essays by acknowledged experts, this book will engage all readers interested in the pivotal role chemistry has played in the making of the modern world.

Contributors: Mary Archer, Kevin Knox, Simon Schaffer, Larry Stewart, Colin Russell, Christopher Haley, Peter Wothers, Melvyn Usselman, William Brock, John Shorter, Arnold Thackray, Mary-Ellen Bowden, James Baddiley, Daniel Brown, Bill Nolan, Robert Ramage, Dudley Williams, Alan Battersby, Steven Ley

Contents

1. The deplorable frenzy: the slow legitimisation of chemistry at Cambridge Kevin Knox
2. Vignani and after: chemical enterprise in Cambridge 1680-1780 Simon Schaffer and Larry Stewart
3. Richard Wason: 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 erratic 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. Alex Todd: a new direction in organic chemistry James Baddiley and Daniel Brown
10. Ralph Alexander Raphael: elegance, efficiency and the unexpected Bill Nolan, Robert Ramage and Dudley Williams
11. Alan Battersby: tracking nature's biosynthetic pathways Alan Battersby
12. Chemistry in a changing world: new tools for the modern molecule maker Steven Ley.