Chairman: Prof J Nicholson, 52 Buckingham Road, Hampton Middx TW12 3JG, England. E-mail: jwnicholson01@gmail.com
Secretary: Dr P J T Morris, 5 Helford Way, Upminster, Essex RM14 1RJ, England. E-mail: doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com
Treasurer: Stanley Langer
Membership: Prof W P Griffith, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ, England, E-mail: w.griffith@ic.ac.uk]
Newsletter Editor: Dr Anna Simmons, Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL a.simmons@ucl.ac.uk
The Historical Group exists to encourage an interest in the history of chemistry and chemical industry among members of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and others. Membership is open to non-members of the RSC and embraces a wide range from those whose interest in the history of chemistry is a hobby to teachers of chemistry at all levels and professional historians.
The Group holds twice yearly meetings when academic papers are read and discussed. Summaries of papers read at these meetings are included in the Historical Group Newsletter along with reviews of recent books in the subject and news of other meetings and forthcoming events. The Newsletter is published twice yearly. Contributions of around 2,500 words on topics of current interest in the history of chemistry are invited for inclusion at the discretion of the Editor. The Editor is very happy to discuss possible contributions prior to submission. The contents of the last issue, Summer 2023, are given below with a link to the PDF (0.9 MB).
The next meeting will be on "The Development of the Chemist’s Notebook" at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BA [Click here for a map of the location of Burlington House and Royal Society of Chemistry.
For further information and booking details please visit:
or email Peter Morris Historical Group Secretary at doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com
10.30 am | Registration and coffee | |
10.50 am | Welcome | |
11.10 am | Michael Hunter (Birkbeck, University of London) | The Work diaries of Robert Boyle |
11.40 am | Matthew Eddy (University of Durham) | What was a Scientific Notebook? Amelie Kier, Chemistry and the Power of Annotation during the 1790s |
12.20 pm | lunch | |
1.40 pm | Sharon Ruston (Lancaster University) | Protean Poetics in Humphry Davy’s Notebooks |
2.20 pm | Frank James (University College London) | How Michael Faraday’s Laboratory Notebooks Developed into a Diary |
3.00 pm | tea | |
3.30 pm | Kostas Gavroglu (University of Athens) | Notebooks as Laboratories: The case of Linus Pauling |
4.10 pm | Samantha Pearman-Kanza (University of Southampton) | Electronic Lab Notebooks and Beyond |
4.50 pm | Closing remarks | |
5.00 pm | End of meeting |
If you are a member of the RSC you should contact the Membership Department (membership@rsc.org or ring 01223 432141) quoting your name and membership number. If you have any problems or queries, please contact the RSCHG Membership Secretary, Prof Bill Griffith, 48 Milton Road, London SW14 8JR; w.griffith@ic.ac.uk. All members of the Group can download the Newsletter as a PDF on www.rsc.org/historical or https://rschg.qmul.ac.uk/; no password is needed.
The Group maintains contact with colleagues in the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences.
The Library & Information Centre, Historical Chemistry Information Service.
The Chemical Heritage Foundation.
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry.
Details of Nobel Prize winners; portraits; and other details.
List of Nobel Prize winners for Chemistry.
The History of Chemical Engineering.
Historic samples and specimens from the Chemistry Department, Imperial College, London.
History of chemistry in Heidelberg
Science & Civilisation in China Project (Needham Research Institute).
There is a History of Chemistry Mail List or email chem-hist-request@mailman.uni-regensburg.de
To send messages email chem-hist@mailman.uni-regensburg.de
Short articles on the history of chemistry for the Newsletter are welcome and should be sent to the editor, Dr Anna Simmons, Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL a.simmons@ucl.ac.uk. Please consult the Instructions for Authors.
For a PDF copy of the Newsletter (0.9 MB) click here
Contents
From the Editor (Anna Simmons)
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL GROUP NEWS
Letter from the Chair (John Nicholson)
Secretary’s Report for 2023 (Peter Morris)
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL MEETINGS AND ONLINE LECTURES
The Development of the Chemist’s Notebook
Chemistry, History and Medicine
Online Lectures
INTRODUCING OUR NEW HISTORICAL GROUP COMMITTEE MEMBERS
NEWS FROM THE RSC LIBRARY
SHORT ESSAYS
Two Books that Markedly Influenced My Chemical Career (Henry Rzepa)
The Lives and Careers of the Sons of W. H. Perkin (John Nicholson)
Conquering the Captain of Death - Chemical Interventions Against Tuberculosis (Alan Dronsfield, Pete Ellis and (the late) Trevor Brown)
BOOK REVIEWS
Catherine M. Jackson, Molecular World: Making Modern Chemistry, 2023 (Peter Morris)
RSCHG MEETING REPORTS
British X-Ray Crystallographers
REPORTS OF RSCHG WEBINARS
RSC YouTube Channel
EVENTS, EXHIBITIONS AND OUTREACH
The Summer of Science Festival at Nantwich Museum (Helen Cooke)
CELEBRATIONS AT BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
A Tribute to Evelyn Hickmans (Anne Green)
MEMBERS’ PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
SOCIETY NEWS
Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
FUTURE WEBINARS, MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
PDFs of Newsletters (2010-2024)
PDFs of Occasional Papers 6-10
Biographies of Chemists including Confusing Names 1-3 from Newsletters 1998-9
Return to Royal Society of Chemistry home page.