ABSTRACT

The very first three issues of Chemical News laid down three urban problems that Crookes was to campaign about for the next 40 years: water purity, food adulteration and sewage disposal. Related to each of these issues was the question of the qualifications of analytical chemists and their professional status, and the long-term future of agricultural production in the British Isles. Other subjects publicized by Crookes included the problem of discriminating scientific evidence in courts of law,1 the confusion likely to arise if the British pharmacopoeia changed from standard (troy) grains to avoirdupois grains (it did not),2 and methods of preserving stone – a subject rendered acute by the visible disintegration of Barry’s Houses of Parliament, which had been erected only in the 1830s and which were still incomplete. Crookes examined all of the processes that had been suggested and sent his advice to a parliamentary committee in May 1861. He supported the idea of coating the stone with a hydrated silicate solution that would fill the pores of the stone and bond in a process of silification.3 He also agreed with a correspondent’s suggestion about the organization of a chemical specimen exchange system modelled on that used by contemporary naturalists.4 Crookes offered to manage the exchanges from the Chemical News offices at Stationers’ Hall Court at no charge other than the cost of postage. It seems fortunate that the altruistic suggestion did not take off, for Crookes could easily have been overwhelmed by the tasks of storage, labelling, advertising and posting. In another innovation, in imitation of The Lancet, which listed medical courses, in September 1863 he introduced an annual ‘Student Number’ listing chemical training courses throughout the British Isles. This was accompanied by an annual editorial homily advising students about the pitfalls and pleasures of study. Crookes managed the feat of writing something fresh and relevant for nearly 40 years, the last such number appearing in September 1900.5

A good example of his original writing in Chemical News is well shown by a thoughtful essay on the enormous potential power available if the tidal force of

the sea was harnessed by mankind – a reflection arising from Crookes’ visit to the seaside in July 1862:

The essay demonstrates the power of his imagination and the depth of his ignorance. Crookes was clearly unaware that tide mills had been a feature of coastal waters since the Middle Ages. Other Woolwich and former RCC graduates were also ‘stirred up’ to write for the weekly.7 John Spiller, for example, initially supplied abstracts of patents for Chemical News and later wrote reports of meetings of the Chemical Society that Crookes could not attend personally. The fact that Crookes did not join the Chemical Society until 1858, despite being a ‘graduate’ of the RCC, confirms that he had not originally intended to practise as a chemist.