Popularizing Chemistry in the Early Nineteenth-Century: Samuel Parkes and His Chemical Catechism (2015)
José Otavio Baldinato (Author)
Porto, Paulo Alves (Author)
Pages: 43-63
Publication date: 2015
Language: English
Samuel Parkes (1761-1825) was a self-taught British chemist, who authored a very popullU' bo k ()n chcmislry. His '/;em;cll/ Catechism (1806) went through 12 editions (Llong his life and was Lrallslated into everal languag s. The ptesem study aimed at walyzing the main features of lhe approach to popularize chemistry adopted by Parkes in his bo k. The texl consists £ shorr, direct questions and :lOswers, with footnotes rich in details in which the chemistry content is more thoroughly explained. According to Parkes, the main text was aimed at young students and the long footnotes at their tutors. Some features of the image of chemistry that Parkes intended to popularize are: 1) the chemicalltnowledge on natural and artificial bodies is built by means of decomposition and synthesis; 2) chemistry is a practical science, which may be applied solve problems that affect all social ranks; 3) chemistry reveals aspects of the divine wisdom by discovering natural laws and the excepti ns to them; and (4) the slrong sensory stimuli pwvoked by experiments and demonstrations atouS the intCtcst f th public in the study and practice of chemistry. uc an~ysis shows that CVell/jcol Ctl/~chisflJ is an in igbtful SOurce on early oineteenth-ccntury d velopments in chemistry and chemical thought.
...MoreBook Itala Maria Loffredo D'Ottaviano (2015) Crossing Oceans: Exchange of Products, Instruments, Procedures and Ideas in the History of Chemistry and Related Science.
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