The winter 2024 issue of Chemical Intelligence, edited by Karoliina Pukkinen, is now available online for members to enjoy:
SHAC 2024 Spring Meeting – Call for Papers
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites abstract submissions for its Annual Spring Meeting, to be held at the University of Oxford (Maison Francaise d’Oxford) on 28 May 2024. The meeting will be hybrid, although we strongly encourage in person attendance.
The keynote speaker is Prof. Jennifer M. Rampling (Princeton).
The theme is ‘From Late Antique to Early Modern Alchemy: New Approaches, New Horizons’. Under this broad remit, we encourage submissions that explore:
- New methodologies and approaches to the study of alchemy / chymistry
- Interdisciplinary perspectives setting alchemy / chymistry in dialogue with other fields of learned or craft knowledge
- Case studies of individuals, groups, or institutions pursuing alchemy / chymistry in conjunction with other fields of knowledge
- The material, visual, and experimental cultures of alchemy / chymistry
- Diverse sites of alchemical / chymical practice
The submissions can be individual presentations, panels with 3 speakers or roundtable proposals. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length.
Please submit your abstract, together with a CV or a paragraph detailing your background, to: georgiana.hedesan [AT] history.ox.ac.uk by 1 March 2024.
Please address any queries to the same address.
Upcoming Post Graduate Conference (Saturday, 13th January 2024)
Here’s somewhat short notice about the upcoming Post Graduate Conference and, by the way the next SHAC on line seminar will be on Thursday 18th January 2024, not in 2025 as recently advised!
The SHAC PG Conference, Uncovering the Secrets of the Universe, will be held this Saturday (13th January 2024) coming from St John’s College, Oxford.
It can be accessed via Zoom.
Programme:
Welcome and Introduction: 11.00 – 11.15
Session 1: 11.15 – 12.30
- Josh Werrett, University of Oxford
imitatio Christi and the Aesthetics of Martyrdom in The Visions of Zosimos of Panopolis
- Yusuf Tayara, University of Oxford
Towards a Literary Heresiology: Esotericism, Language, and Reason in the Work of al-Safadi
- Diego Gorini, University of Salento / University of Cologne
“Rotam Rotare”: The Wheel as an Instrument of the Scientific Investigation of Nature in the Pseudo-Lullian Alchemical Works.
Lunch: 12.30 – 13.30
Session 2: 13.30 – 14.45
- Sergei Zotov, University of Warwick
Toads, Feathers, Horseshoes, and The Seven-Footed King: Recent Developments in the Study of The Ripley Scrolls
- Ellen Hausner, University of Oxford
Angels, Magic, and the Philosophers’ Stone: The Manuscripts of a Sixteenth-Century Physician
- Maddie Reynolds, University of Edinburgh
‘Heavenly alchemy’: Material Culture and the Divine Cosmos in John Dee’s Apocalyptic World
Break: 14.45 – 15.00
Session 3: 15.00 – 16.00
- Elena Morgana, University of Oxford
William Yworth’s Alkahest: Alchemical Philosophy in the 18th Century
- Leonardo Anatrini, University of Florence
From Ether to God (and Everything in Between): On the Alchemical Philosophy and Laboratory Practice of François Jollivet-Castelot
Break: 16.00 – 16.15
Keynote Lecture: 16.15 – 16.45
- Frank James, University College London
Bringing the Universe Together: The Field Theory of Michael Faraday
Closing Remarks: 16.45 – 17.00 SHAC Conference
2024 Morris Award: Call for Nominations
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry solicits nominations for the 2024 John and Martha Morris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Modern Chemistry or the History of the Chemical Industry. This award honours the memory of John and Martha Morris, the late parents of Peter Morris, the former editor of Ambix, who has contributed the endowment for this award. The recipient chosen to receive the Morris Award will be expected to deliver a lecture at a meeting of SHAC, where the awardee will be presented with an appropriate framed photograph, picture or document and the sum of £300. The award is international in scope, and nominations are invited from anywhere in the world. Past winners of the Award include Ernst Homburg, Yasu Furukawa, Anthony S. Travis, Mary Jo Nye and Raymond Stokes.
A complete nomination consists of
• a complete curriculum vitae for the nominee, including biographical data, educational background, awards, honours, list of publications, and other service to the profession;
• a letter of nomination summarising the nominee’s outstanding scholarly achievement in either the history of the chemical industry or in the history of recent chemistry (post -1945) and the unique contributions that merit this award; and
• names of two or three individuals for the panel to contact for further information if needed.
Only complete nominations will be considered for the award and the nomination documents must be submitted in electronic form. The Award will be judged by the selection panel on the basis of scholarly publication. All nomination materials should be submitted by e-mail to Peter Morris at doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com and a separate email which indicates that the material has been submitted should be sent to the same address (a precaution in case of incomplete transmission of documents) for arrival no later than 1 May 2024.
Upcoming Online Seminar: The Davy Notebook Project
The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Professor Sharon Ruston (Lancaster University) who will present:
The Davy Notebook Project
This will be live on Thursday, 18 January 2024, 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 Ticket Source link:
The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/0CuHR7jqovI?feature=share
Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry
The Davy Notebook Project
Sharon Ruston
Coming to the end of a four-year project crowdsourcing transcription of Sir Humphry Davy’s notebooks, Professor Sharon Ruston will reflect on the discoveries that have been made and the joys and pitfalls encountered. Nearly 3500 people around the world have been transcribing Davy’s surviving notebooks funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK using the platform Zooniverse. They will be published via Lancaster Digital Collections. Details of the project can be found here: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/
Best wishes
Frank James
Chairman, SHAC
Upcoming SHAC on-line seminar: Some discontinuities in eighteenth-century instrumentation
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:
SHAC Autumn Meeting – ‘Alchemy and Chemistry in the Long Eighteenth Century’
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 |