A History of the Chemistry Laboratory
Author : Peter J. T. Morris
Pages : 352
Publishers: Reaktion Books
ISBN : 10-1780234422
As befits the place where chemistry is carried out, the chemical laboratory represents everyone’s idea of a proper lab space, people in white coats perform experiments, surrounded by racks of reagent bottles and mysterious bubbling flasks. For professional chemists too, it holds importance as the place where we trained and go on to spend the bulk of our careers. But, surprisingly, there has been no comprehensive history of the chemistry laboratory, an omission put right by the distinguished historian, Peter Morris.
In the book 'The Matter Factory: A History of the Chemistry Laboratory', Morris traces the development of the chemistry laboratory from its earliest origins in the 1590s to the present day. The first laboratories emerged from the era of alchemy and did not differ much from artisans’ workshops. They typically contained a furnace and a water bath, as well as a few of those distinctive distillation vessels called alembics.
From this simple beginning, Morris traces the development of the chemistry lab through some of the great names of chemistry, such as Lavoisier, Liebig and Bunsen. Morris does not solely focus his attention on academic laboratories however, and includes a chapter on the Government Chemist’s Laboratory in London. This was designed in the 1890s by the first ‘government chemist’, Thomas Thorpe, later knighted as Sir Edward Thorpe, who was strongly influenced by the design of academic laboratories.
Comparing laboratories across eras, from the furnace-centered labs that survived until the late eighteenth century to the cleanrooms of today, he shows how the overlooked aspects of science—the architectural design and innovative tools that have facilitated its practice—have had a profound impact on what science has been able to do and, ultimately, what we have been able to understand.
Morris brings us up to date by describing the introduction of the lab coat and modern instrumentation as the 20th century advanced. Finally, he brings us to contemporary developments. Using the Chemical Research Laboratory at Oxford University as his example, Morris describes the construction of a modern research lab where the emphasis is on flexibility, so that individual laboratory units can be allocated to different groups according to need.
The design of these units is unconventional too; with less open benches and more fume cupboard space than a traditional laboratory. The matter factory succeeds in describing the evolution of the chemistry laboratory. It is highly readable and well-illustrated, including numerous references. As such, it should be widely read by all who have had the privilege of studying and working in a chemistry laboratory.
Review Courtesy: http://www.rsc.org
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