Representations of Applied Science: Academics and Chemical Industry in Late Nineteenth-century England

Abstract

The position adopted by mid-Victorian academic chemists on the industrial utility of their field is surveyed, and interpreted as a consequence of the need to defend the societal claims of independent academic research. The structuring of their approach by class, and other of its characteristics, are also related to these claims. The pressures on the academics' position and alternative representations are surveyed, particularly in terms of closer analyses of industrial personnel, claims for the independence of industrial knowledge, and exploration of the possibilities of more directly relevant curricula. These alternatives are identified as having their origins in industrial forums and experience. Reasons for the failures of attempts to establish generalized departments of chemical technology are suggested. The more complex public representations of the first decade of the twentieth century are related to the negotiation between emergent professionalized groups in the academic and industrial sectors.