The Matter Factory – A History of the Chemistry Laboratory - Hardcover

Morris, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780234422 ISBN 13: 9781780234427

Verlag: Reaktion Books, 2016

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Críticas:

'Peter Morris has written a fascinating and beautifully illustrated book that every chemist or science historian should read. Indeed, it should be a recommended text for those studying chemistry or the history of science ... Visionary and compelling, this is an authoritative book that I strongly encourage you to read.' - David Parker, FRS 'In recent years, much attention has been devoted to the protagonists of the history of chemistry, but the evolution of their workplace, the chemical laboratory, has remained until now almost completely unexplored territory. Peter Morris sets things right in this lively and well-documented history. The book is not only an intellectual but also a visual feast, packed as it is with an extraordinary number of striking illustrations - many of them new even to the specialist's eye.' - Alan J. Rocke, Distinguished University Professor, Case Western Reserve University, and author of Image and Reality: Kekule, Kopp, and the Scientific Imagination 'This lavishly illustrated portrait of the chemist's workplace provides a vividly written account of the evolution of the contemporary electronic-based laboratory from the workshops of early modern metallurgists, alchemists and pharmacists. Using key features such as furnaces, benches, cupboards, bottle racks and fume cupboards, as well as gas, electricity and water supplies, Morris shows how the changing character of chemical teaching and research influenced the building and fittings of laboratories in universities, industrial works and official government laboratories. Text and illustrations combine to make a fresh and exciting way of looking at the history of chemistry - the science that makes our world.' - W. H. Brock, University of Leicester "A revealing, illustrated tour of chemical laboratories, real ones, filled with real men and women, working especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and beyond to today. A fascinating history, as well as a highly enjoyable read."--Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, author of Prometheans in the Lab and The Theory That Would Not Die

Reseña del editor:

From white coats to Bunsen burners the laboratory is a controlled space of experimentation, research and invention. But how have the desired functions of the laboratory influenced the way that the laboratory was constructed, laid out, equipped and operated? And how have developments in chemical practice or theory changed the laboratory and the way it is used? The Matter Factory offers a novel approach to the history of chemistry, showing how the development of the laboratory also helped to shape modern scientific practice.As consumers of leading-edge technology, chemists have driven innovation in laboratory design and the provision of utilities and equipment. For example, the introduction of coal gas into Robert Bunsen's laboratory led to the eponymous burner, which in turn led to the development of atomic spectroscopy. Is the construction of new laboratories, and the provision of new utilities and equipment, an important element in the development of these novel areas of chemistry?This book tackles these questions by looking at a series of shifts in laboratory design, from eighteenth- to nineteenth-century furnace-centred, classical and industrial research laboratories to the creation of the modern laboratory at the end of the twentieth. Previous histories of chemistry laboratories have focused on the research carried out within them or the people who occupied them. This book examines the laboratory space itself and the way it is used, from the scientists who developed it to its architectural design, layout and the materials used in its construction. In addition to the development of well-known features, such as the fume cupboard and the bench, The Matter Factory explores the history of the chemical museum, which is now almost extinct. Fascinating and unique, this book will appeal to practising chemists, scientists and general readers alike. Published in association with the Science Museum, London.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Reaktion Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1780234422
• ISBN 13: 9781780234427
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352