Chairman: Prof J Nicholson, 52 Buckingham Road, Hampton Middlesex TW12 3JG, England. E-mail: jwnicholson01@gmail.com
Secretary: Dr P J T Morris, 5 Helford Way, Upminster, Essex RM14 1RJ, England. E-mail: doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com
Treasurer: Stanley Langer, 31 Hallswelle Way, Temple Fortune, London NW11 0DH, England. E-mail; stanley1910@yahoo.co.uk
Membership: Dr Alice Halman. E-mail: alicehalman@yahoo.com
Newsletter Editor: Dr Anna Simmons, Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL a.simmons@ucl.ac.uk
The Historical Group exists to encourage an interest in the history of chemistry and chemical industry among members of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and others. Membership is open to non-members of the RSC and embraces a wide range from those whose interest in the history of chemistry is a hobby to teachers of chemistry at all levels and professional historians.
The Group holds twice yearly meetings when academic papers are read and discussed. Summaries of papers read at these meetings are included in the Historical Group Newsletter along with reviews of recent books in the subject and news of other meetings and forthcoming events. The Newsletter is published twice yearly. Contributions of around 2,500 words on topics of current interest in the history of chemistry are invited for inclusion at the discretion of the Editor. The Editor is very happy to discuss possible contributions prior to submission. The contents of the last issue, Summer 2023, are given below with a link to the PDF (0.9 MB).
The next meeting will be on "Chemistry, Medicine and History" at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BA [Click here for a map of the location of Burlington House and Royal Society of Chemistry.
For further information and booking details please visit:
or email Peter Morris Historical Group Secretary at doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com
| 10.15 am | Registration, tea and coffee | |
| Session One | (chair John Nicholson) | |
| 10.45 am | Welcome from John Nicholson, Chair of the Historical Group | |
| 10.50 am | Miranda Rosenthal | Diabetes: An Overview with a Glance at the Chemistry |
| 11.25 am | John Dungate | Diabetes: a History of the Monitoring of Blood and Urine for Glucose" |
| 12.00 pm | lunch (not provided) | |
| Session Two | (chair: Alan Dronsfield) | |
| 1.20 pm | Alistair McKenzie | Chloroform as an Anaesthetic: Some Historical Perspectives" |
| 1.55 pm | Anna Simmons | Medicine, Chemistry and the Royal Apothecaries: William Thomas Brande and John Nussey |
| 2.30 pm | tea and coffee | |
| Session Three | (chair: Anna Simmons) | |
| 2.55 pm | Tilli Tansey | Chemists in the Early Pharmaceutical Industry: A Case Study from Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. |
| 3.30 pm | Alan Dronsfield | A History of the Treatment of TB, Principally Using Drugs |
| 4.05 pm | Sir Simon Campbell | Science, Art and Drug Discovery: A Personal Perspective |
| 4.50 pm | Closing remarks by John Nicholson | |
| 5.00 pm | Meeting ends |
If you are a member of the RSC you should contact the Membership Department (membership@rsc.org or ring 01223 432141) quoting your name and membership number. If you have any problems or queries, please contact the RSCHG Membership Secretary, Prof Bill Griffith, 48 Milton Road, London SW14 8JR; w.griffith@ic.ac.uk. All members of the Group can download the Newsletter as a PDF on www.rsc.org/historical or https://rschg.qmul.ac.uk/; no password is needed.
The Group maintains contact with colleagues in the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences.
The Library & Information Centre, Historical Chemistry Information Service.
The Chemical Heritage Foundation.
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry.
Details of Nobel Prize winners; portraits; and other details.
List of Nobel Prize winners for Chemistry.
The History of Chemical Engineering.
Historic samples and specimens from the Chemistry Department, Imperial College, London.
History of chemistry in Heidelberg
Science & Civilisation in China Project (Needham Research Institute).
There is a History of Chemistry Mail List or email chem-hist-request@mailman.uni-regensburg.de
To send messages email chem-hist@mailman.uni-regensburg.de
Short articles on the history of chemistry for the Newsletter are welcome and should be sent to the editor, Dr Anna Simmons, Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL a.simmons@ucl.ac.uk. Please consult the Instructions for Authors.
For a PDF copy of the Newsletter (970 KB) click here
Contents
From the Editor (Anna Simmons)
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL GROUP NEWS
LinkedIn
From the Chair – Thank You to Bill Griffith (John Nicholson)
Introducing the Historical Group’s New Membership Secretary
RSC Library News Chemistry Historical Collectio
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL GROUP MEETINGS AND ONLINE LECTURES
Chemistry, Medicine and History
Online Lectures
TRIBUTES
Alwyn Davies (Michael Jewess and Anna Simmons)
Ned D. Heindel (Jeffrey L. Sturchio)
SHORT ESSAYS
Two Books that Markedly Influenced My Chemical Career (Nigel Jopson)
NAAFI Tea and the Bromide Myth (Alan Dronsfield)
Fickle Tyrian Purple is Sometimes Blue (Chris Cooksey)
How Crystallography Helped to Win the Nobel Prize for Vitamin C (Brian Beagley)
“Lives in Chemistry”—A New Series of Chemical Autobiographies (Peter Gölitz)
BOOK REVIEWS
Magdolna Hargittai. Meeting the Challenge: Top Women in Science (Helen Cooke)
Science: Has its Present Past a Future? Selected Essays by Arnold Thackray.
Edited by Jeffrey L. Sturchio and Bruce V. Lewenstein (Anna Simmons)
RSCHG MEETING REPORTS
The Development of the Chemist’s Notebook
REPORTS OF RSCHG WEBINARS
Who Really Invented the Haber Process?
Morton Sundour Fabrics: The Splendour of Unfadeable Dyes
Pharmacy in Britain: Division of Medicine or Branch of Chemistry?
The American Chemical Society and the Cult of Joseph Priestley
Making Molecular World: Building a Practice-Based Account of Modern Chemistry
Twelve Pioneering Women Chemists You Should Know About But Probably Don’t
The 250th Anniversary of Joseph Priestley’s Discovery of Oxygen
MEMBERS’ PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
SOCIETY NEWS
FUTURE CONFERENCES
PDFs of Newsletters (2010-2024)
PDFs of Occasional Papers 6-10
Biographies of Chemists including Confusing Names 1-3 from Newsletters 1998-9
Return to Royal Society of Chemistry home page.