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Industrial recruitment of chemistry students from English universities: a revaluation of its early importance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

James Donnelly
James Donnelly
Affiliation:
Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education, School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT.
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Extract

In England, institutionalized locations for science in academe and industry sprang up at approximately the same time, that is to say, during the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the First World War. By the latter date science was well established within most academic institutions and, more rudimentarily, in many industrial firms. Standardized forms of practice were to be found in both sectors, and there existed mechanisms for the transfer of personnel, knowledge and finance between the two. Both sites were of course surrounded and sustained by a network of other institutions and practices: scientific and technical societies and journals, patent and company law, government agencies and so on. Nevertheless, during the period just identified these two developed as the key occupational sites (outside schoolteaching) for men trained in science.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 3 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1991

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References

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26 The Registrar of the School of Mines told the Samuelson Committee that ‘chemists or manufacturers … generally enter specially for chemistry … they would only enter for one course of lectures perhaps’, SCSI Q1193.

27 The purpose of the survey was to study a cross-section of institutions and, within each, a representative sample of students. The institutions constitute: an ancient university; the leading provincial university college; the more active of the two private metropolitan colleges; the main state-funded institution; and the leading technological institution. The student sample is more problematic. The intention was to identify bodies of students with a definite involvement with chemistry, though not necessarily chemistry specialists. Thus students studying chemistry merely as part of a common foundation course have generally been excluded, where this was possible. The classes which were included are listed below. It needs to be recalled that much of the earliest activity would be classified nowadays as secondary, both because of the level of the chemistry and the age of the students. This is particularly true of Owens College and University College. Such activity can be excluded at the former but this is less true of the latter, because of the way in which students were registered. This may account for the generally low rate of subsequent identification of students at University College. The institutions themselves are very heterogeneous, and this means that the aggregation of figures, while it has been undertaken, must be treated with caution, and treated as referring merely to this particular ‘cross-section’ rather than having a national significance. The classes selected were:

Cambridge University: men examined in chemistry for the Natural Science Tripos, part I or II.

City and Guilds Central Institution: students attending chemistry classes, but excluding first-year engineering students for whom attendance was compulsory.

Owens College: students registered for the senior class in systematic chemistry, analytical chemistry or, later, 1st, 2nd and 3rd year honours students attending chemistry classes.

Royal College of Science: chemistry students or, later, candidates for the Associateship who studied chemistry as part of their course.

University College, London: students attending the chemistry, analytical chemistry or chemical technology classes or, later, 1st, 2nd and 3rd year B.Sc. students attending chemistry classes.

All names were taken from archival materials, not published registers. For further details about this sample readers are referred to the thesis mentioned in note 2. Since women were not recruited into scientific posts in industry at this time the sample contains only male students. This, however, has only a small effect.

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46 These data are taken from the relevant Calendars of the Victoria University of Manchester.

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