The Chemical Industry in Europe, 1850-1914: Industrial Growth, Pollution, and Professionalization

摘要

The period from 1850 to 1914 was ex-tremely important in the development of the chemical industry and in the profes-sionalization of chemistry. Organic chemicals were being more widely used for pharmaceuticals, dyes, explosives, and fertilizers, and many of these materi-als were synthesized in the laboratory ra-ther than obtained from natural prod-ucts. Chemistry combined technology and science to become one of the most important industries in the period some-times called the Second Industrial Revo-lution. Despite this, there are surprising-ly few books that document these devel-opments. This is, of course, related to the more general observation that histo-rians seem to have been less interested in chemistry than some of the other scienc-es