ABSTRACT
From the late 1820s, Thomas Graham, the German chemist Justus Liebig and Lyon Playfair were to exert a major influence on British science, both in advancing understanding and increasing the role of education, and in the application of science for the wider benefit of society. This was at a time when new chemical ideas emerging from the late eighteenth century were beginning to bring major economic benefits. Each man played his own individual role but also acted most effectively in concert, as with work on behalf of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS from now on) 1831. Graham, Liebig and Playfair were to influence many British scientists in the first half of the nineteenth century, and none more so than Angus Smith in many different ways: Graham’s lectures at Anderson’s University; Liebig’s chemistry course at Giessen and his promotion of science for the benefit of society as a whole; Playfair’s work in Manchester with the Royal Manchester Institution (RMI from now on), the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns and the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (MLPS from now on). For Angus Smith, their influence came at key times in his life, often when guidance and advice were to prove crucial.
