The Case of the Poisonous Socks

by Brock, William H.

• ISBN13: 9781849733243
• ISBN10: 1849733244
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-01
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

Summary

In 1868, The Times reported that poisons contained in dyes were affecting the public's health. A doctor informed a London magistrate that brilliantly coloured socks had caused severe "constitutional and local complaint" to several of his patients. In one case, a patient's foot had become so swollen that his boots had to be cut off. Respected chemist, William Crookes, offered to identify the poison if doctors would send him samples of the deadly socks. The story of how he solved the mystery gives this book its title and forms the basis of the first chapter. Written by a respected science historian and established author, this collection of essays contains 43 tales of chemists and their discoveries from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Other topics covered include: the quirky beliefs of American philanthropist, James Dewar; the development of the chemical laboratory since the 1830s, and the career of C.P. Snow before he became a novelist. Its broad coverage and modern approach makes it of interest to chemists, teachers, historians and laypeople with an interest in science. Written with a light style and presented in a series of unconnected vignettes the book is easy to dip into at leisure.

Table of Contents

Chemical Futures
The Case of the Poisonous Socks	p. 3
Taste, Smell and Flavour	p. 9
Tales of Hofmann	p. 16
Liebig on Toast	p. 20
The Future of Research at the Royal Institution (London) and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington)	p. 24
The Future of Chemistry in 1901	p. 40
The Alchemical Society, 1912-1915	p. 48
Organizing Chemistry
Putting the 'S' in the 'Three R's'	p. 57
The London Chemical Society, 1824	p. 67
The State of Chemistry in Britain in 1846	p. 74
The Laboratory Before and After Liebig	p. 85
The Chemical Origins of Practical Physics	p. 97
Chemical Algebra	p. 114
TheB-Club	p. 118
Chemistry by Discovery in a Phrase	p. 124
A Cluster of Chemists
Amedeo Avogadro	p. 131
Liebig and W?hler: Creating a Path through the Dark Province of Organic Nature	p. 138
August Kekul? (1829-1896): Theoretical Chemist	p. 147
The Don Quixote of Chemistry: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1817-1880)	p. 158
The Epistle of Henry the Chemist	p. 166
He Knew He Was Right?Fritz Haber	p. 176
J.R. Partington (1886-1965): Physical Chemistry in Deed and Word	p. 180
Henry Crookes, Founder of Crookes Laboratories	p. 192
A Life of Magic Chemistry	p. 202
Women Chemists
Women in Alchemy and Chemistry	p. 207
Teaching Chemistry to Women	p. 211
Musical Affinities	p. 214
Edith Hilda Usherwood (1898-1988) and the Ingold Partnership	p. 218
Chemical Books and Journals
The Fate of Eponymous Chemical Journals	p. 233
The Lamp of Learning: Richard Taylor and the Textbook	p. 237
"The Greatest Work which England has ever Produced": Henry Watts and the Dictionary of Chemistry	p. 244
Chemistry in the Aquarium	p. 248
Insurance Chemistry	p. 255
Math for Chemists	p. 262
The Chemistry of Pottery	p. 267
Baker's Dozens	p. 271
Lost to Chemistry
They Also Ran	p. 279
Who Was Crookes's Musician-Chemist?	p. 282
The Chemist from Hanwell Asylum	p. 286
George Du Maurier (1834-1896)	p. 290
Sir Stafford Cripps	p. 294
The Chemist as Novelist: The Case of C. P. Snow	p. 301
Further Reading	p. 314
Subject Index	p. 327
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