Chemistry and the Chemical Industry in the 19th Century The Henrys of Manchester and Other Studies

This volume opens with a series of articles making up a monographic study of the Henry family of Manchester, a dynasty that was active in science, medicine, education and industry from the 1760s to the 1830s. This work is important in studying the relations between science and industry, and not least because it emphasises just how much can be learnt from looking at ’second-rank’ figures in the provinces. The second group of papers pursues topics in the history of 19th-century chemistry and the development of the chemical industry, in particular that dealing with synthetic dyestuffs.

Contents: Introduction; Obituary of W.V. Farrar, D.S.L. Cardwell; The Henrys of Manchester: Thomas Henry (1734-1816); Thomas Henry’s sons: Thomas, Peter and William; William Henry and John Dalton; William Henry: hydrocarbons and the gas industry: minor chemical papers; William Henry: contagion and cholera; the textbook; William Charles Henry: the magnesia factory; Victorian pure and applied science: Sir B.C. Brodie and his calculus of chemical operations; 19th-century speculations on the complexity of the chemical elements; Richard Laming and the coal gas industry, with his views on the structure of matter; Some early ventures in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen; Andrew Ure, F.R.S., and the philosophy of manufactures; Robert Angus Smith, F.R.S., and ’sanitary science’; Synthetic dyes before 1860; Science and the German university system, 1790-1850; Edward Schunck F.R.S.: a pioneer of natural-product chemistry; Index.