Reed, Peter (Author)
Robert Angus Smith (1817-1884) was a Scottish chemist and a leading investigator into what came to be known as 'acid rain'. This study of his working life, contextualized through discussion of his childhood, education, beliefs, family, interests and influences sheds light on the evolving understanding of sanitary science during the nineteenth century. Born in Glasgow and initially trained for a career in the Church of Scotland, Smith instead went on to study chemistry in Germany under Justus von Liebig. On his return to Manchester in the 1840s, Smith's strong Calvinist faith lead him to develop a strong concern for the insanitary environmental conditions in Manchester and other industrial towns in Britain. His appointment as Inspector of the Alkali Administration in 1863 enabled him to marry his social concerns and his work as an analytical chemist, and this book explores his role as Inspector of the Administration from its inception through battles with chemical manufacturers in the courts, to the struggle to widen and tighten the regulatory framework as other harmful chemical nuisances became known. This study of Smith's life and work provides an important background to the way that 'chemical' came to have such negative connotations in the century before publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. It also offers a fascinating insight into the changing landscape of British politics as regulation and enforcement of the chemical industries came to be seen as necessary, and is essential reading for historians of science, technology and industry in the nineteenth century, as well as environmental historians seeking background context to the twentieth-century environmental movements.
...MoreReview Bill Luckin (2016) Review of "Acid Rain and the Rise of the Environmental Chemist in Nineteenth-Century Britain". American Historical Review (pp. 651-652).
Review Jankovic, Vladimir (2015) Review of "Acid Rain and the Rise of the Environmental Chemist in Nineteenth-Century Britain". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 468-469).
Essay Review Guillem-Llobat, Ximo (2015) Science and the Regulation of Toxicants in Historical Perspective. Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 287-291).
Article
Reed, Peter;
(2012)
The Alkali Inspectorate, 1874--1906: Pressure for Wider and Tighter Pollution Regulation
(/isis/citation/CBB001210097/)
Thesis
Rachel Emma Rothschild;
(2015)
A Poisonous Sky: Scientific Research and International Diplomacy on Acid Rain
(/isis/citation/CBB367307908/)
Chapter
Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste;
Le Roux, Thomas;
(2011)
Protecting Industry and Commodifying the Environment: The Great Transformation of French Pollution Regulation, 1700--1840
(/isis/citation/CBB001214647/)
Book
François Jarrige;
Thomas Le Roux;
(2021)
The Contamination of the Earth: A History of Pollutions in the Industrial Age
(/isis/citation/CBB416267621/)
Article
Doyle, Barry;
(2010)
Managing and Contesting Industrial Pollution in Middlesbrough, 1880--1940
(/isis/citation/CBB001030787/)
Book
Rachel Emma Rothschild;
(2019)
Poisonous Skies: Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution
(/isis/citation/CBB725120545/)
Book
Wilkening, Kenneth E.;
(2004)
Acid Rain Science and Politics in Japan: A History of Knowledge and Action toward Sustainability
(/isis/citation/CBB000470074/)
Book
Russell, Colin A.;
(2000)
Chemistry, Society and Environment: A New History of the British Chemical Industry
(/isis/citation/CBB000110645/)
Article
J. F. M. Clark;
(2017)
Pesticides, Pollution and the UK's Silent Spring, 1963–1964: Poison in the Garden of England
(/isis/citation/CBB150498415/)
Article
Reed, Peter;
(2008)
Acid Towers and the Control of Chemical Pollution, 1823--1876
(/isis/citation/CBB000831735/)
Thesis
Payne, Sarah R.;
(2010)
Cleaning Up after Sex: An Environmental History of Contraceptives in the United States, 1873--2010
(/isis/citation/CBB001562749/)
Article
Steere-Williams, Jacob;
(2014)
A Conflict of Analysis: Analytical Chemistry and Milk Adulteration in Victorian Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB001451133/)
Article
Frank A. J. L. James;
(2021)
A Chemical Satire on the 1809 Change of Government in Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB841615191/)
Article
Sheail, John;
(2013)
Pesticides and the British Environment: An Agricultural Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB001213132/)
Book
Roy, Parama;
(2010)
Alimentary Tracts: Appetites, Aversions, and the Postcolonial
(/isis/citation/CBB001201388/)
Article
Hamblin, Jacob Darwin;
(2006)
Hallowed Lords of the Sea: Scientific Authority and Radioactive Waste in the United States, Britain, and France
(/isis/citation/CBB000670752/)
Chapter
Rothschild, Rachel;
(2014)
Burning Rain: The Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution Project
(/isis/citation/CBB001553209/)
Book
Campkin, Ben;
Cox, Rosie;
(2007)
Dirt: New Geographies of Cleanliness and Contamination
(/isis/citation/CBB001031281/)
Book
Toshihiro Higuchi;
(2020)
Political Fallout: Nuclear Weapons Testing and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB212919708/)
Book
Ernst Homburg;
Elisabeth Vaupel;
(2019)
Hazardous Chemicals: Agents of Risk and Change, 1800-2000
(/isis/citation/CBB746037618/)
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