Abstract
This paper is concerned with the growth of a role for trained chemists in the British chemical industry during the late nineteenth century. Nearly forty years ago Donald Cardwell, in his book, The Organisation of Science in England, represented the origins of the applied scientist in industry as problematic, especially in the absence of an ‘industrial demand’ for ‘research scientists’ in Britain. More recent studies in this field (in the English language at least) have tended to focus on particular industries, notably dyestuffs. They have emphasized the technical and scientific detail of the work that was done and the influence of organizational arrangements within particular firms, particularly in Germany, where industrial archives appear rich. Excellent examples of this type of work are Travis’s technically sophisticated account of the European development of the dyestuff industry and Homburg’s recent reevaluation of Meyer-Thurow’s study of the origins of German industrial research in dyestuffs.1 Peter Lundgreen’s wide-scale quantitative accounts of Germany provide an alternative to this trend, though with minimal technical content.2 In the USA there has been a somewhat greater focus on individual firms, with the electrical industry perhaps better served than the chemical industry by studies with strong technical orientations.3
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References
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Though no attempt will be made here to discuss the technical and economic aspects of the alkali industry. Readers are referred to the standard histories: L.F. Haber, The Chemical Industry during the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1958); idem, The Chemical Industry 19001930. International Growth and Technical Change (Oxford, 1971); and K. Warren, Chemical Foundations. The Alkali Industry in Britain to 1926 (Oxford, 1980).
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For the empirical basis of these claims see J.F. Donnelly, ‘Consultants, managers, testing slaves: Changing roles for chemists in the British alkali industry, 1850–1920’, Technology and Culture, 35 (1994), 100–128, and, especially, Donnelly, op. cit. (5).
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They met with deep-rooted difficulties of curricular definition and industrial acceptance in Britain, and those established at Owens College, University College and the Andersonian in Glasgow struggled to survive.
Conditions were such that a Commission of Inquiry on the issue was established in 1893. Committee of Inquiry, ‘The conditions of labour in chemical works’, Parliamentary Papers, xvii (1893–4): A.E. Dingle, “The monster nuisance of it all.’ Landowners, alkali manufacturers and air pollution, 1828–64’, Economic History Review, 35 (1982), 529–548.
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The taxonomy of research and development is too complex an issue to be addressed here. Retrospective projections of twentieth century categories are likely in any case to he unhelpful: indeed the dynamism of the forms which `research’ took may be seen as a central issue.
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J.F. Donnelly, ‘Defining the industrial chemist in the United Kingdom, 1850–1921’, Journal of Social History, 29 (1996), 779–796.
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Donnelly, J. (1998). Structural Locations for Chemists in the British Alkali Industry, 1850–1910. In: Homburg, E., Travis, A.S., Schröter, H.G. (eds) The Chemical Industry in Europe, 1850–1914. Chemists and Chemistry, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3253-6_12
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