Essays in Historical Chemistry.

handsome binding

Third edition, a handsomely bound copy awarded as a prize by the Shrewsbury School. The text comprises nineteen essays and talks on the history of chemistry, including pieces on Robert Boyle, Joseph Priestley, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Michael Faraday, and Dmitri Mendeleev, among others.

Imperial College and Inland Revenue chemist Edward Thorpe (1845-1925) did important work in several areas, most significantly public health, contributing to the detection of arsenic in beer and the removal of lead from ceramics, and eliminating the risk of jaw necrosis in match manufacturing. 'As well as being an original scientific thinker, Thorpe was also a talented writer. His many important scientific articles range widely in scope and importance... but he also wrote valuable textbooks, such as his Inorganic Chemistry (1873), and his well-known Dictionary of Applied Chemistry... He also wrote a History of Chemistry, which was reprinted many times' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Third edition; 8vo (21 x 13.5 cm); prize bookplate, contents fresh; contemporary green calf prize binding by the Oxford Bindery, red morocco label, spine elaborately gilt in compartments, floral roll and Shrewsbury School crest to boards gilt, marbled endpapers and edges, spine and edges of boards tanned, a few minor scuffs and marks to boards, excellent condition; 601pp.