Monthly Archives: November 2023

Upcoming SHAC on-line seminar: Some discontinuities in eighteenth-century instrumentation

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Reminder – Next SHAC on-line seminar, Thursday, 9 November 2023, 5pm GMT 

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Adrian Wilson (University of Leeds) who will present: 

Some discontinuities in eighteenth-century instrumentation 

The pneumatic trough and the Fahrenheit thermometer are well recognised as eighteenth-century inventions of lasting importance. They become even more interesting, I shall propose, if we attend to certain discontinuities in the processes by which they came into the world. In respect of the thermometer, this exploration will draw on recent papers by Powers (2014) and McCaskey (2020); the pneumatic trough seems still to await correspondingly close investigation, but there are ample indications that such investigation would be worthwhile. I shall conclude by raising the question as to why such discontinuities have tended to be overlooked. 

This will be live on Thursday, 9 November 2023, beginning at 5.00pm GMT (6.00pm CET, 12noon ET, 9.00am PT). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.  

As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following TicketSource link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-krqpqkx

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube:

at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BmDXfvdCCA

SHAC Autumn Meeting – ‘Alchemy and Chemistry in the Long Eighteenth Century’

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 One day in-person meeting to be held on Saturday 25 November 2023.  B.4.04, Cruciform Building, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT. 

Please register (fee £20) at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-dvpgxjr 

10.00 Registration and coffee   
10.30 Malika Basu  Alchemy to Chemistry in the Long Eighteenth Century – Incredible changes within the Indian Historical Tradition   
11.00 Hjalmar Fors (remote)   The alchemists children: Managing an alchemical heritage in the 18th Century 
11.30 Coffee   
12.00 Presentation of SHAC’s Oxford Part II Prize to Eleanor Smith and the Partington Prize to Armel Cornu   
12.10 Armel Cornu  Reintroducing the Senses in Narratives of Eighteenth-century Chemistry   
12.40 Mieke Adriaens and Pieter Beck  Replicating the Fontana-Ingenhousz eudiometer   
1.10 Lunch – please make your own arrangements, but a group will be going to the Wellcome café    
2.30 Anna Simmons  Inside the shop: Women, Apothecaries and Pharmacy in the Long 18th Century   
3.00 Nicholas Zumbulyadis (remote)  The Beginnings of Cobalt Chemistry in the early 18th Century (1700-1730)   
3.30 Matthew Eddy  The Inquiring Diarist:  Jane Ewbank and the Cultural Context of Experimental Philosophy in Late Georgian Yorkshire   
4.00 Tea   
4.30 John Christie   Past and Presence: Alchemy and Chemists in the European Long 18th-Century   
5.00 Hasok Chang   The forgotten history of contact electrochemistry   
5.30 A glass of wine   

Call for Papers: SHAC Postgraduate Workshop “Uncovering the Secrets of the Universe”

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13 January 2024, Online / St John’s College, University of Oxford 

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) invites proposals for the 2024 iteration of its annual postgraduate workshop, “Uncovering the Secrets of the Universe.” This conference explores the relationship between the (al)chemical sciences and the fundamental nature of our reality. From the mystical practitioners of Late Antique Egypt who used alchemy as a practice to understand salvation, to the archaic understanding of earth, air, wind, and fire as the four elements to explain the properties which we see in the world around us, without forgetting the chemists of today and their use of the periodic table to explain the makeup of the cosmos and the astrochemists who seek to understand interactions in worlds beyond our own, (al)chemists have always used their practice in an attempt to dig up and expose the mysteries of the universe. How have alchemy and chemistry been used throughout history to understand the very makeup of the cosmos? How have they been used as a framework to interpret the natural, as well as the supernatural? To what extent have (al)chemists throughout history perceived themselves as the discoverers and guardians of cosmic secrets, and with what consequences for their work?  

We welcome proposals for 15-20 minute talks by graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other scholars. If you are interested in presenting your work, please send an abstract of maximum 300 words and a short bio to SHAC Student Representative Josh Werrett, at studentrep@ambix.org. The deadline for submissions is 15th December 2023.