Chemical Collections

Christoph Meinel

Chemicalcollectionsdonotseemtoexist.ThisisinbriefwhatIamgoingtoargueinthischapter.Ofcourse,chemists–likemostordinarypeople–collectallkindsofitems,includingchemicals.Butifoneasksscientistsinachemistrylaboratoryfor the department’s chemical collection, they are likely to shrug their shoulders.Chemistry textbooks and dictionaries, ancient andmodern ones, speak of the toolsofchemical teachingor research,butnever refer to theuseofchemicalcollections.The iconographic tradition of chemistry abounds with pictures of laboratories andapparatus,butviewsofcollectionsarestrikinglyabsent.Therearenoreferencesinthemuseographicalliteratureofthepast,noraretheylistedinpresent-dayguidebookstomuseumsandcollections.EvenarandomGooglesearchleadstonothingbutacoupleofcompaniesspecialisedinthedisposalofhouseholdchemicalsandotherhazardoussubstances.

To prove absence is usually more difficult than to prove the contrary.Therefore,theobjectinquestionneedstobeclearlydefined.Thenotionofa‘chemicalcollection’caninfacthavevariousmeanings.Forthepurposeofthispaper,Iuseitinaratherspecificsense,viz.asacollectionofchemicalelementsorcompounds,properlyarrangedtorepresenttheinherentorderofnature,justasmineralogicalcollectionsorcollectionsofbutterfliesdo.Naturalhistorycollectionsareanobviouswaytodisplayorderwithinthediversityandvarietyofnaturalobjects.Theideaofrepresentinganexisting natural pattern by means of material exemplars is crucial for this type ofcollection.Theiruse inresearchandteachingispartofapracticeofcomparingandreferencing. In this manner mineralogists collect ‘typical’ specimens, and botanistskeepherbariaandpreservea‘typespecimen’wheneveranewspeciesisdescribedforthefirsttime.

Inthisnaturalhistorysense,Iargue,chemicalcollectionsdon’texistandhaveneverexisted.Atfirstglance,thisisasomewhatsurprisingclaim.For,throughmuch

from: Spaces and Collections in the History of Science, ed. by Marta C. Lourenço and Ana Carneiro (Lisbon: University, 2009), pp. 137–147.

brought to you by COREView metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

provided by University of Regensburg Publication Server

ofitshistory,chemistrywasanintegralpartofnaturalhistory,andmuchofitsteachingandmethodology followed that same approach.1Well into the nineteenth century itwasseenasoneoftheorganisingprinciplesofanychemicalsystemtoarrangeandre-arrangecompoundsaccordingtotheirelementalcomposition.‘Toputthingsinorder’isstillverymuchthewayJustusLiebigwouldhavedefinedthetaskofanorganicchemistinthe1840s,andtheperiodicsystemofthe1860sisstillpartofthisnaturalhistorytradition.Beautifulmahoganycabinets,however,andtheimpressivedisplaysthatweimmediately associatewith contemporary natural historymuseums,would not havebeenfoundinanineteenth-centurychemicallaboratory.Chemicalcollectionsdonotseemtohavenormallybeenpartofthepracticeofteachingandresearchofthatscience. This negative finding may be explained in the following ways: first, byexamining the status of chemical substances as natural objects;2 second, by lookingmorecloselyintothehierarchyofinstitutionalspaceswherechemicalknowledgewasproducedandcommunicated;andfinally,bylookingattopologicalrepresentationsofchemicalknowledgesimilarto,butatthesametimedifferentfrom,materialcollections.Inthischapter,thesethreeaspectswillbecombined.

Spaces of knowledge production

When dealing with spaces in chemistry, the obvious space to begin withisthelaboratory;andwhendealingwithlaboratories,theobviouspointofdepartureisAndreasLibavius’ De sceuastica artisof1606,3a110-page textbookofchemicalequipmentandinstruments,offurnacesandvesselsofallkinds,eachofwhichrefersto a specific type of operation. Published as an appendix to the second edition ofLibavius’famousAlchemia of1597,De sceuastica artis isanattemptatclassifyingandsystematisingthevariousoperationsperformedinthelaboratory.

Figure1.FloorplanofLibavius’idealisedchemicallaboratory(A.Libavius,De sceuastica artis,in:Alchymia Andreae Libavii recognita,Frankfurt,1606,95).

Meinel

132

A rigorous concept of order was at the core of Libavius’ effort to turnchemistry intoa teachablescience–asopposed to the idiosyncrasiesofParacelsianmysticism.4ForLibavius,disciplineswerecreatedbydiscipliningwordsandpractices.Heinsistedthatthelogicofwordsmustcorrespondtotheproperlyarrangedtoolkitofprocedures,methodsandapparatus,andthisordermustinturncorrespondtothemoralconductofthechemist.Accordingly,Libaviusproposedtheblueprintofaprototypicallaboratory. In the idealisedgroundplan, the laboratorium or χυμειον (G inFigure 1)occupiesthecentralspace.Nexttoit,wefindthedormitoryoftheamanuenses(M),asmallcabinetformetallurgicalessaying(I),alargestorageroomforsolidmaterialsandsolutions(K,apotheca materiarum et essentiarum artis)andanotheroneformoveableapparatusandvessels(N,armarium et loculamenta vasorum chymicae mobilium).Theheavierequipment,andinparticularthefurnaces,remainedinthelaboratory.Noneofthesestorageroomsaredescribedasacollectionfordisplayorinstruction.Instead,theyweredumproomstostockthesupplyofmaterialsandtools,similarinfunctiontotheroomsforkeepingthefire-wood.Asthebuildingwasmeanttobeaprivatehomeandalaboratoryatonce,italsohadspaciousroomsforthechemist’sfamilyandalargewinecellar,but therewasno library–perhapsa subtle indicationofanaversion tothetraditionofspeculativeandbookishlearningasopposedtotheoperativeandsolidknowledgeofthepracticalchemist. The chemical laboratory was a space in which a kind of knowledgewasproduced thatwas impossible to acquire by listening, reading and observing alone.A sort of ‘thing knowledge’5 related to the tools and apparatus, and in addition aknowledgeofmaterialsandsubstancesacquiredbytheveryprocessofmakingthem.Asaconsequence,typicallaboratorychemicalswereproducedonthespot.Inthatregard,theyhavelittleincommonwiththeitemsinanaturalhistorycollection.Collectionscontainsamplesfromtheoutsideworld,exemplarstorepresenttheunderlyingorderofnature.Chemicallaboratorieswereworkshopsinwhichnaturewastransformedintonewnatures,guidedbyoperativeknowledge.Accordingly,chemicalskeptinthelaboratoryorinthestorageroomnexttoitdidnot‘represent’anythingbesidesbeingtheproductsofpurposefuloperations.The locus classicus for thisoperativeviewofchemistry isHermannBoerhaave’sElementa chemiaeof1732,atextbookthatstemmedfromhis1718lecturecourseattheUniversityofLeidenandservedasamodelfortheteachingofchemistryformorethanthreegenerations.6Init,Boerhaavepresentschemistryasabodyofoperationsandrecipes.Thefirstvolumeisentitled‘theoryoftheart’,butin factmore than 90%of it is devoted to the tools of the chemist (de instrumentis chemicorum): first of all the fire as the chief instrument of separation and fusion,followedbythesolvents,apparatus,furnacesandvessels.Thesecondvolume,entitledOperationes chemicae, presents 227 individual processes, each ofwhich is dividedinto‘preparation’(apparatus)and‘use’(usus).AccordingtoBoerhaave,chemistryisthepurposefulapplicationofprocedurestothemakingofproductsforaspecificuse,a‘technoscienceavantlalettre’.7Themodelforthispresentationwasthepharmacist’spharmacopoeia;itsunderlyingdidacticschemeisnottheorderofnature,buttheorderofusesandthesequenceofoperations.ThebestdepictionoftheoperationalnotionofchemistryisthefamousplateLaboratoire et table des Raports fromthegreatFrenchEncyclopédie.8

ChemicalCollections

133

Figure2.Laboratoire et table des Raports(Recueil des planches sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques,vol.2/2,Paris,1768,s.v.‘Chimie’).

Thetoppartoftheengravingshowsalargeroomwithfivedifferentfurnaces,ahugehoodwithbellows,acoupleofwashingbasins,andabewilderingvarietyofflasks,vesselsandcruciblesforspecificpurposesexplained in the legend.Strangelyenough,chemicalsarenotmentionedatall,nordoweseeanyshelvesorcupboardswithreagents.Twofashionablydressedgentlemen,aphysicienandachimiste,areshownattheworkbenchconversingaboutthedissolution,whileanotherchimiste inthebackmonitorsadescendingdistillation,andthreegarçons de laboratoireperformancillaryservicessuchascleaningandgettingfreshcoalfromthebasement.ThelaboratoireoftheEncyclopédieisofcoursenotarealone.Itisanidealisedworkshop,andchemistryispresentedastheartofperformingoperationsbymeansofspecificapparatus,properlyarranged according to size, weight and use. The idea of order is conveyed by thetopologyoftoolsandoperations.Thisisanoperational,notanontologicalnotionoforder,alsosymbolisedbytheaffinitytableinthelowerpartoftheengraving,whichagainrepresentsoperationsandtypesofreactions.

Topology and order

Asanoperationalart, chemistrystands in starkcontrast tonaturalhistory.Mineralogistsarrangedtheircollectionsaccordingtoexternalqualities(iftheyadheredto the Wernerian system) or internal ones such as elemental composition (if theyadoptedthechemicalclassification).Inbothcases,thetopologyofthecollectionwasmeanttorepresenttheorderofnature;formineralsarenaturalobjectsandarecollectedasexemplarstorepresentnaturalgenera,classesandspecies.Typicalchemicals,ontheotherhand,areartificialobjects,purposefullypreparedinthelaboratory.Theyarenot

Meinel

134

normallymadetorepresentanythingoutsidethelaboratory,andtheyarebynomeansunique,as individualcrystalsorpiecesof rocksare.On thecontrary,chemicalscanbe reproducedad libitum,once theproceduresareestablishedand if themeansandapparatusareavailable.Asaconsequence, there is littlepoint inkeepingchemicalsthewaymineralsarecollected,exceptiftheyareneededasstartingmaterialsfornewpreparations.This accounts for the habitual lack of proper ‘collections’ in chemicallaboratories,unlessthestockofreagentsandsolventsonthelaboratoryshelvesorinadumproomnearbycanbecalleda‘collection’. In practice, the distinction between collections of the natural history typeandstoragesofchemicalswasnotalwaysmaintained.Particularlyininstitutionsthatprovidedacommonspaceformineralogyandchemistry,hybridformscanbefound.But to thebestofmyknowledge,attemptsatpresentingchemicals in the formofasystematic collection of a natural history type failed or remained restricted to veryspecificpurposes. In1815,AugustWilhelmLampadius,ProfessorofChemistryandMineralogyattheMiningAcademyofFreiberginSaxony,theleadingschoolofminesatthetime,drewupaplanforateachingmuseumattachedtotheamalgamationplantinthevillageofHalsbrückenearFreiberg.Forthismuseum,hedrafteda‘chemicalsystemaccordingtoclassesandgenera’,9obviouslymeanttoprovidetheprinciplesaccordingtowhichateachingcollectionshouldbebuiltup.Lampadius’introductoryremarksprovethatherealisedtheintrinsicambiguityofa‘naturalsystem’,thebuildingblocksofwhich,viz.thechemicalelementsandpuresubstances,donotoccurinnatureassuchbuthavetobeartificiallypreparedbythechemist.A‘chemicalcollection’,whichaccordingtoLampadius’plancomprisesbothnaturalsubstancesandartificialproducts, includingthose produced inmetallurgical and other industrial processes, would consequentlydisplay‘eitherformationsofnatureortheresultsofchemicaloperations.’10Whetheror not this plan was realised, we do not know. It is more likely that Lampadiusconfinedhimself topublishingarevisedversionofhisSystem in theformofa430-pagetextbook,11andcollectingmechanicalmodels,technicaldraftsandmetallurgicalspecimensintheHütten-MuseuminHalsbrücke. Anearlyexampleofareal‘chemicalcollection’waspublishedbyAdolphMartinPleischl,ProfessorofGeneralandPharmaceuticalChemistryattheUniversityofPrague,in1820.Inavolumeontheuniversity’schemicallaboratory,itsorganisationandtheresearchcarriedoutthere,Pleischlgaveanoverviewontheavailableapparatusfor mechanical and chemical (i.e. caloric, electrical and pneumatical) operations.Furthermore,headdedasystematicregisterof‘preparations’(Präparate)keptinthelaboratory.12Thislistisworthexaminingmoreclosely.TheclassificationcorrespondstotheFrenchsystem:itliststhechemicalelementsaccordingtonon-metalsandmetals,followedby‘primary’(i.e.binary)andsecondarycompounds,dividedintoinorganicandorganicones.Thisisneithernewnorremarkable.Theunusualfeatureofthis15-pagelististhefactthatitwasintendedasaninventoryofarealcollection,or,tobemoreprecise, of two collectionsdevoted to different purposes.Thefirst one, calledPräparate,wasacollectionforteachingdemonstrationsandexplicitlymeantnot,andundernocondition,tobeusedupinthelaboratory.Theexemplarsforthiscollectionwere selected according to purity, beauty and ideal crystallisation, and displayed inuniform show glasses: They were representations of a natural system of chemicalelementsandcompounds.Inthisregard,thePräparate collectionfollowsthepattern

ChemicalCollections

135

and fashionof collecting innaturalhistory–up to the inclusionof a fewmirabiliasuchasapieceofleadgiltbyastrongelectricaldischarge.ThesecondofPleischl’scollections,named‘reagents’ (Reagentien),servedacompletelydifferentpurpose. Itcontained thechemicals tobeused in the laboratory,waskept in supplyand,whennecessary,remadeinthequantitiesneeded.TheReagentienweremeanttobeusedupineverydaywork.Theywerenotmeantto‘represent’orto‘standfor’anysystem.Inthisregard,theReagentiencollectionismoreofawarehouseattachedtoaworkshop,andlessofamuseumcollection.AccordingtoPleischl, therewasaclearfunctionaldifferencebetweenthetwotypesof‘collections’.However,itisunclearwhetherornotthePräparatecollectionwasinfactusedinthewayitwasconceived.Althoughitwasdesignedtorepresentanaturalsystem,itwasneverdisplayedaccordingly.Forpracticalreasonsand‘inordertofindtheindividualitemsmorequickly’ontheshelves,bothcollectionswerekeptinalphabeticorder.Eventually,tograsptheunderlyingsystem,onehadtoturnfromthematerialspecimenstotheprintedlist.

Conflicting spaces of knowledge

During the nineteenth century, the number of known chemical substancesincreased at an unprecedented rate. From the 1840s onwards, the rise of chemicalsynthesisunderminedthe‘natural’or‘ontological’statusofchemicalsubstancesevenfurtherbyreducingthemtomereoutcomesofoperationsthatcouldbeproducedandreproducedad libitum.Therealmofchemistrywasnolongerconfinedtothetraditionalthree realmsof nature.Scientistswerebeginning to create a newworldout of newmaterials. Yet, from archives, descriptions of laboratories, textbooks and teachingmanuals,thereislittleevidencethatcollectingchemicalsplayedanysignificantroleintheirteachingandresearchpractice.

Figure3.Liebig’sAnalyticalLaboratoryinGiessen,1842;drawnbyF.TrautscholdandengravedbyH.v.Ritgen(J.P.Hofmann, Das chemische Laboratorium der Ludwigs-Universität Gießen,Heidelberg,1842).

Meinel

136

Liebig’s famous laboratory in Giessen (Figure 3) does not even seem tohavehadaspecialroomforstoringchemicalsubstances.TheveryideaofcollectingwouldhavebeenalientoLiebig.Inhisview,orderinchemistrywastheorderachievedby the arranging and re-arranging of the data obtained by elemental analysis. Hisnewapparatus supplied suchdata at an ever increasing speed. ‘In thisway,’Liebigwrotein1840,‘itispossiblemaketheboldestdiscoveriesinafactory-likemanner.’13

From his point of view, individual samplesweremeaningless unless theywere used as part of an argument. The more than 1,800 letters Liebig exchangedwithhisfriendandcolleagueFriedrichWöhlerinGöttingenwereonlyrarelyusedtosend new compounds back and forth for cross-examination. Instead, they discussedproceduresandtheanalyticaldataobtained.Theidentityofsubstanceswasestablishedonthebasisofelementalanalysisandbymatchingproceduresintheirpreparation.Itwasnotbeforethetwentiethcenturythatphysicaldata,suchasmeltingpoint,refractionorspectroscopicproperties,playedamoresignificantroleinchemistryastheyrequiredcomparisonwithknownsubstances.InthecaseofLiebigandWöhler,theexchangeofmaterialswasprimarilyintheformoflargequantitiesofcigarsandbarrelsofBavarianbeer. The space of knowledge created by the chemical laboratory operates onexactlytheoppositepremisetothespaceofknowledgecreatedbythenaturalhistorycollection.14 The latter represents knowledge by means of bodily exemplars in atopological grid. The laboratory creates knowledge by producing materials.Withinthe restricted spaceof agiven institution, the twomodels compete formaterial andmoralresources.Asaconsequenceofthetransitionoftheuniversity,earlierdevotedtoteaching,towardstheresearch-orienteduniversity,thiscompetitiongainedmomentum.Inthemid-nineteenthcentury,thebudgetofthechemicallaboratorywassometimesthelargestsingleexpenseinthetotalbudgetofauniversity,besidessalaries.Forobviousreasonsthisbecameaboneofcontentionbetweenthedisciplines.In1863,HermannKolbe,professorofchemistryinMarburg,wrotetotheSenateofhisuniversity:15

One often hears it said that a university profitsmuchmore from thosedisciplineswhichbring togetherandmaintainbeautifulcollections, thanfrom a chemical laboratory the budget ofwhich goes up in smoke anddisappearsthroughthechimney.Yetuniversitiesarenotsupposedtohavenicecollectionsmeant topleasetheeye.For themineralogist,zoologist,botanist,anatomist,etc.,collectionsarebutmeanstoanend,i.e.toprovidescienceeducationtostudents.Thesameappliesforsulphuricacid,soda,spirit,etc.,forthechemists,eventhoughthesematerialsarebeingusedupanddon’tleavethingsbehindtopleasetheeye.[…]Theproductionofmoralcapitalintheformofscientificknowledgeistobevaluedmuchmorehighly than thematerial capital a university can accumulateby creatingbeautifulcollections.

Competing formoralandmaterial resources, thecollection lost statusandthe laboratory gained recognition. Laboratories became temples de l’avenir (LouisPasteur),collectionsbutshrinesofthepast.Representationalidealsofknowledgegavewaytoanideaofaknowledgethatcouldbeusedtotransformthenaturalworld.Withintheeconomyofspaceinbuildingsdevotedtochemistry,roomsreservedforthedisplayofcollectionswereconsequentlymarginalised.Duringthesecondhalfofthenineteenthcentury,laboratorydesignshowstworelatedtrends:(i)amarginalisationandeventual

ChemicalCollections

137

disappearance of museum-like collections in chemical institutes, and (ii) an everincreasing functional division of spaces according to special types of operations.16 The first generation of new chemical laboratories erected in Prussia inthe 1860swas a public demonstration of the increasing importance of science.Themuch-admiredprototypewasBonn’sChemicalInstitute,erectedforAugustWilhelmHofmannonhisreturnfromLondon.

Besides luxurious apartments for the director and his family, the palace-likebuildingevenboastedaballroom to satisfy the social ambitionsofachemistryprofessor.Within this framework of representation, the display of collections cametobeseenasappropriate: twogreathallson the front side,profusely lightedbysixwindows,wereprovidedby thearchitect tohousea ‘MineralogicalMuseum'anda‘ChemicalMuseum’ (VandW inFigure 4).Hofmann’s report, however, admits anintrinsicoppositionbetweenthecontemplativeatmosphereofamuseumandthebusyspaceofthelaboratory:‘experience[…]hastaughtthattheloveofresearchandzealfor discovery in young chemists, however praiseworthy in themselves, are at timesanything but conducive to the increase of scientific collections.’17 If and how thesemuseumswereactuallyused, isnotknown;theChemicalMuseumseemsat least tohavebeenequippedwithindustrialsamplesfromthe1867WorldExhibitioninParis. Subsequent laboratory buildings testify to an ever increasing degree ofspecialisedspacesanddivisionoflabour.TheChemicalInstituteoftheUniversityofBerlin,forinstance,in1869thelargestchemicalinstituteintheworld,haddozensofroomsforspecificpurposessuchasqualitativeanalysis,quantitativeanalysis,volumetricelementalanalysis,weightingandtitration,spectroscopyandphotometry,gasanalysis,operations with hydrogen sulphide, combustions, distillations, metallurgical andforensictasks,thehandlingofstrong-smellingorpoisonoussubstances,andsoon.Inaddition,therewerestorageroomsforcoal,dryandliquidreagents,glassandporcelainvessels,apparatusandinstruments.Thebuildingalsocontainedahallof60by25feet

Figure 4. Chemical Laboratory, University of Bonn,1866 (A.W. Hofmann, The Chemical Laboratories in the Course of Erection in the Universities of Bonn and Berlin,London,1866,16,34).

Meinel

138

withanarchedroofsupportedbyironcolumns,tohousethescientificcollectionsoftheInstitute.FromHofmann’sdescription,welearnthatthesecollectionsweredividedintothreeparts:minerals,rocksandmetallurgicalproductsinthefirstsection;chemicalsinthesecondandlargestone;andmodels,drawings,diagramsetc.inthethird.18However,this‘Museum’wasneitheraspacefordisplaynorwasitopentostudentsorthepublic.Primarilyitwasmeantasastorageroomfortheobjectsrequiredinteaching.Bymeansofawheeled tableof the sameheightas the lecture table, the respective specimenscouldbecarriedtothelaboratoryforthepreparationoflecturedemonstrationsandfromtheretotheadjacentlecturetheatre. The very idea of a traditional collection, viz. to display a system in itsentiretyandtorepresent,bytopologicalmeans,coherence,orderandrelationwithintheindividualspeciesofnature,hadthusbeenreplacedbyamerestoragespacefromwhichtherequireditemscouldbefetched.Withintheheterogeneousfarragoofteachingaidsrangingfrommineralsandmodelstowall-charts,thecollectionofchemicalsubstanceswasnotgivenanypeculiarstatus.Inchemistry,thecollectionwasnotseenasawayofrepresentingsystemandorder.Thistaskhadlongbeentakenoverbyanother,merelysymbolic,topology:thetableofchemicalelements.Inthesecondhalfofthenineteenthcentury,thistablewasusuallyplacedonthewallofthelecturetheatre–aspacelatertobeoccupiedbytheperiodicsystem.

Figure5.ChemistryLectureTheatre,UniversityofLeipzig,albuminephotographbyA.Stecher,1872,from Photographische Ansichten von Laboratorium der Universität Leipzig,Braunschweig,1872.The inscriptionquotesfromWisdom11:20:‘Godhasarrangedallthingsbymeasureandnumberandweight.’

Collectionsofchemicalsubstancesdidofcoursenotdisappearaltogether.19For instance, some of them were sample collections of industrial or commercialproducts.Amongthebetterknownexamplesofthiskindarethecollectionoffurnaces,technologicalmodels andminingproductsof theHarzmountains established in thechemicallaboratoryoftheUniversityofGöttingenin1791;20thePlayfairCollectionat theUniversity of Edinburgh built up as an ‘IndustrialMuseum’ for intermediatestages and final products in the 1850s;21 the Dyestuffs Collection of the TechnicalUniversityofDresden,begunin1852asacollectionofnaturaldyesandgrowntosome

ChemicalCollections

139

10,000samplestodate;22andthechemicalcollectionofETHZurichwhichholdsthecompletedyestuffscollectionoftheCIBACompany.Butallthesecollectionsbelongto a different tradition: that of collecting technological artefacts,models, tools, andcommercialproductsnotdealtwithinthispaper.

Conclusion

Collections,inthespecificsenseofcollectionsofchemicalspresentedinasystematicway to create order in the bewildering variety of natural substances, areratherexceptionaltoolsinchemistry.Theirstatusanduseisentirelydifferentfromthestatusanduseofcollectionsinotherbranchesofnaturalhistory–despitethefactthatchemistry,formuchofitshistory,wasconsideredapartofnaturalhistory.However,it is no exaggeration to say that in a natural history sense of the word, chemicalcollections have never existed. Chemical knowledge is operative knowledge. Fromtheverybeginning,chemistsrealisedthattypicalchemicalsubstancesareartificiallyproduced in the laboratory or in the factory. Since chemicals did not fall under thenotionofnaturalspecies,therewaslittlepointinpresentingtheminorderto‘represent’anything–exceptasresultsofpurposefuloperations. As a consequence, there is an intrinsic opposition between the collectionand the laboratoryascompetingspaces for theproductionofscientificknowledge. Inlaboratorydesign,thisresultedinaneverincreasingfunctionaldivisionofspacesdevotedtospecificoperationsontheonehand,andinamarginalisationofspacesreservedforcollectionsontheother. Collections of minerals, plants or insects represent the existing order ofnature.Theunderlyingorderofchemistry,however,ismoreadequatelypresentedintheorderandsequenceoflaboratoryoperations,inthesymbolictopologyofaffinitytables,orinthecombinatorialbuildingblocksarrangedinthelistofelementsortheperiodicsystem.

Notes

1.U.Klein,‘Shiftingontologies,changingclassifications:plantmaterialsfrom1700to1830’,Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (2005), 36, 261-329; U. Klein andW. Lefèvre,Materials in Eighteenth-Century Science: A Historical Ontology,MIT-Press,Cambridge/Mass., 2007;M.Beretta,The Enlightenment of Matter: The Definition of Chemistry from Agricola to Lavoisier,ScienceHistoryPublications,Canton/Mass.,1993.2.Cf.thecontributionsbyB.Bensaude-VincentandU.Kleintothisvolume. 3.A.Libavius,De sceuastica artis,inAlchymia Andreae Libavii recognita,Frankfurt,1606,95;cf.B.Meitzner,Die Gerätschaft der chymischen Kunst: Der Traktat ‘De sceuastica artis’ des Andreas Libavius von 1606,Steiner,Stuttgart,1995.4.O.Hannaway,‘LaboratoryDesignandtheAimofScience:AndreasLibaviusversusTychoBrahe’,Isis(1986),77,585-610.5.D.Baird,Thing Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instrument, Univ.ofCaliforniaPress,Berkeley,2004.6.H.Boerhaave,Elementa Chemiae, quae anniversario labore docuit in publicis, privatisque scholis,2vols,Leyden,1732.Therewasanearlierpiratededition(Paris,1724)andanumberoftranslations.7.U.Klein,‘Technoscienceavantlalettre’,Perspectives on Science(2005),13,226-266.

Meinel

140

8.‘LaboratoireettabledesRaports’,inRecueil des planches sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques,vol.2/2,Paris,1768(Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, Planches,vol.3(ReprintStuttgart-BadCannstadt,1967,vol.24),s.v.‘Chimie’.9. W.A.Lampadius,‘ChemischesSystemnachKlassenundOrdnungenentworfen…fürdasMuseuman der Halsbrücke’ (pres. 15 August 1815), manuscript, 19 fols., Universitätsbibliothek der TUBergakademieFreiberg,sig.07.9184.10. ‘entwederGebildederNaturoderResultatechemischerArbeiten’.Ibid.11.W.A.Lampadius,Grundriss des Systems der Chemie, oder klassische Aufstellung der einfachen und gemischten Körper,Freiberg,1822.12.A.M.Pleischl,Das chemische Laboratorium an der k.k. Universität zu Prag,Prague,1820.13. ‘MitihrerHilfelassensichdiekühnstenEntdeckungenfabrikmäßigmachen’,LiebigtoWöhler,12July1840,BayerischeStaatsbibliothekMunich,Liebigiana.14.C.Meinel,‘ChemischeLaboratorien:FunktionundDisposition’, Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte(2000),23,287-302.15H.KolbetotheSenateoftheUniversityofMarburg(8October1863),seeC.Meinel,Die Chemie an der Universität Marburg: Ein Beitrag zu ihrer Entwicklung als Hochschulfach,Elwert,Marburg,1978,85-86.16. Twoofficialsurveysonchemical laboratorieswerepublishedforGermany:A.Wurtz, Les hautes études pratiques dans les universités allemandes,Paris,1870;G.Roster,Delle scienze sperimentali e in particolare della chimica in Germania,Milano,1872.17. A.W.Hofmann,The Chemical Laboratories in the Course of Erection in the Universities of Bonn and Berlin,London,1866,23.18.Ibid.,pp.58-59.19. E.g. the ‘Chemical Museum’ at the University of Leeds consists of roughly 3000 samples instandardisedglass-stopperedjars.ItwasfoundedasateachingcollectionforYorkshireCollegein1874.20.F.C.G.Hirsching,ed., Nachrichten von sehenswürdigen Gemälde-und Kupfersichsammlungen,vol.6,Erlangen,1792,167-168.21. R.G.W.Anderson,The Playfair Collection and the Teaching of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, 1713-1858,RoyalScottishMuseum,Edinburgh,1978.22. B.Werner, ‘Wie dieWelt farbiger wurde: Ein Rundgang durch die Farbstoffsammlung der TUDresden’,Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Technischen Universität Dresden(2000),49,4/5,35-40.

ChemicalCollections

141

142