Article
ID: CBB001550734

The “Wonderful Properties of Glass”: Liebig's Kaliapparat and the Practice of Chemistry in Glass (2015)

unapi
Development of science; change in science Chemistry Glass and glassmaking 19th century Germany Liebig, Justus von

Everybody knows that glass is and always has been an important presence in chemical laboratories. Yet the very self-evidence of this notion tends to obscure a supremely important change in chemical practice during the early decades of the nineteenth century. This essay uses manuals of specifically chemical glassblowing published between about 1825-1835 to show that early nineteenth-century chemists began using glass in distinctly new ways and that their appropriation of glassblowing skill had profoundly important effects on the emerging discipline of chemistry. The new practice of chemistry in glass---exemplified in this essay by Justus Liebig's introduction of a new item of chemical glassware for organic analysis, the Kaliapparat---transformed not merely the material culture of chemistry but also its geography, its pedagogy, and, ultimately, its institutions. Moving chemistry into glass---a change so important that it warrants the term “glassware revolution”---had far-reaching consequences.

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Authors & Contributors
Usselman, Melvyn C.
Jackson, Catherine M.
Brock, William H.
Thea Goldring
Marek Petrik
Werner, Petra
Journals
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Fachgruppe Geschichte der Chemie
Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie
Journal of the History of Biology
History of Science
Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
Publishers
Cuvillier Verlag
The MIT Press
Springer
Justus Liebig-Gesellschaft
GNT
Concepts
Chemistry
Organic chemistry
Science education and teaching
Biographies
Botany
Laboratory techniques and procedures
People
Liebig, Justus von
Hofmann, August Wilhelm von
Kastner, Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb
Will, Heinrich
Schleiden, Matthias Jakob
Wöhler, Friedrich
Time Periods
19th century
Places
Germany
France
Great Britain
Mecklenburg (Germany)
London (England)
Russia
Institutions
Heidelberg Universität
Justus Liebig-Universität Giessen
Universität Bonn
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