Category Archives: Chemistry

Touching and feeling: Henry Moyes redux

I have received several suggestions about what the natural philosopher Henry Moyes was holding in the portrait I showed in my last post. I posted some further thoughts on these, another image of Moyes and a fascinating account of his … Continue reading

Posted in Arts, Chemistry, History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

When did what end?

One of the advantages of this blog is that many of those who comment here are more intelligent, better read, better informed and better educated than the blog author, this means that in their comments they question, provoke and suggest … Continue reading

Posted in Astrology, astronomy, Chemistry, History | Leave a comment

Exploded systems: views of alchemy in the 19th century

As has been highlighted in previous posts, we historians of science are on our guard against being whiggish in our discussions of past science but, in the process, have a tendency to be just that in our treatment of historiography: we … Continue reading

Posted in Chemistry, History | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

David Willetts and the history of science

There has been an interesting discussion on Mersenne, the history of science listserv, prompted by James Sumner, who has kindly allowed me to post his email to the Mersenne subscribers. Dear Listmembers  Those of us keen, for whatever reason, to gauge … Continue reading

Posted in Chemistry, History | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Chymistry and Natural Philosophy Follow-Up

At my blog Ether Wave Propaganda, I posted in May on an ongoing dispute between Indiana historian Bill Newman and Flinders U. philosopher Alan Chalmers over the “chymistry” of Robert Boyle (1627-1691) and its relationship to his vision of experimental … Continue reading

Posted in Chemistry, History | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments