Ernst Homburg

The emergence of research laboratories in the dyestuffs industry, 1870–1900

The focus of this paper is the emergence of the research laboratory as an organizational entity within the company structure of industrial firms. The thesis defended is that, after some groundwork by British and French firms, the managements of several of the larger German dye companies set up their own research organizations between the years 1877 and 1883. The analysis of the emergence of the industrial research laboratory in the dyestuffs industry presented here makes clear that both the older study on the subject by John J. Beer and a later paper by Georg Mseyer-Thurow contain some serious defects. Beer, like so many other authors of the 1950s who studied the ‘marriage’ between science and industry during the ‘Second Industrial Revolution’, incorrectly correlates the engagement of university-educated chemists with the rise of industrial research. The appointment of academic chemists by BASF and Hoechst at the end of the 1860s, for instance, was described as ‘the…acquisition of a research staff’. This reveals a misunderstanding of the roles of chemists within the nineteenth-century chemical industry. University-trained personnel were, in fact, working in industry as early as the start of the nineteenth century. However, they were employed as managers, works chemists and analysts, and only exceptionally in research.

Comparing evolutionary dynamics across different national settings: the case of the synthetic dye industry, 1857-1914

Current models of industry evolution suggest that development patterns should be the same across different levels of analysis. In comparing the evolution of the synthetic dye industry at the global level and in the five major producer countries before World War I (Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland and the United States), it is shown that patterns of industry evolution differed significantly across national contexts. Based on a quantitative and qualitative database of all firms and plants in the industry, the paper analyzes how German firms came to dominate the industry and identifies factors such as availabilities of crucial skills, economies of scale and scope, and positive feedback mechanisms between firms and national institutions that likely produced these national differences. The empirical analysis calls for formal models of evolution that incorporate differences in institutional environments.

Thermodynamics of the metathesis of propene into ethene and 2-butene

Abstract The thermodynamic equilibrium of the catalytic metathesis of propene into ethene and 2-butene ( cis and trans ) was studied over the temperature range 305 to 575 K. The experimental equilibrium composition appeared to deviate considerably from the composition calculated from thermochemical tables. Inaccurate values of the standard enthalpy of formation for cis - and trans -2-butene cause these discrepancies. Accurate new values of the thermodynamic functions for this metathesis reaction are presented, calculated from the temperature dependence of the experimental equilibrium constant.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: On Expedition – Travels into the Unknown

The Jesuit collection of the University Library in Maastricht houses a collection of over 260,000 volumes, including several hundreds of often lavishly illustrated travel books. The international mind-set of the Jesuits seems to be suitable for the international student population in Maastricht today. To explore the Jesuits’ travel treasures, the authors of this chapter initiated the On Expedition project in 2013 within the framework of the Maastricht Research-Based Learning (MaRBLe) programme and the Honours programme – in close cooperation with the University Library. The aim of this research-based learning project was to link research and teaching in such a way that undergraduate students would be stimulated to do research themselves, preferably as independently as possible. The On Expedition project was strongly student centred. The students had to conduct the research themselves, not only because of didactical principles but, in this particular case, also because initially the two authors did not have very extensive knowledge about this field of research. Therefore, the On Expedition project was a challenging adventure for both students and staff members, as it allowed them to work together in a community of inquiry. This chapter presents an evaluation of the On Expedition project with respect to student-centred learning, the creation of an academic community and societal valorisation.

Automatic Coding of Printed Materials

The paper presents a complete method for using automatic techniques to code printed text pages. It involves three automatic steps and one or two steps of manual corrections to obtain fully accurate results. We discovered that present-day consumer digital cameras are much better than high-end scanners to obtain pictures of printed pages quickly and without the wear and tear associated with scanners. We also found that high-end (

Shifting centres and emerging peripheries : Global patterns in twentieth-century chemistry

370) OCR software is much more cost-effective to achieve accurate text recognition and to process large amounts of data. We also describe how researchers can write a computer program for classifying automatically non-uniform data. We provide detailed instructions for each step in the automatic coding method so that other researchers can readily copy it.

Pollution and the Dutch Chemical Industry

After a “prehistory” in economic geography, the study of centre-periphery relationships became fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1961, the American sociologist Edward Shils (1910–95) was one of the first, if not the first, to apply the distinction between centre and periphery to the world-wide scientific community. Shortly thereafter, a growing number of studies on development and underdevelopment put the centre-periphery dichotomy firmly on the intellectual map, at least in left-wing circles. Especially influential were the “dependence theory” of Andre Gunder Frank (1929–2005), and the “word-system approach” of his fellow Neo-Marxist Immanuel Wallerstein (born 1930). These penetrating analyses of interdependences on a global scale were written long before “globalisation” became a fashionable term. When in the 1980s Neo-Marxism lost much of its intellectual attraction, the centreperiphery dichotomy developed into a more neutral distinction, often, but not always, devoid of an anti-capitalist message. In the meantime the concepts centre and periphery had hesitatingly entered the history of science. In 1973 Rainald von Gizycki used the terms in a paper in Shils’ journal Minerva, followed more than a decade later by Gabor Pallo and Svante Lindqvist. Nonetheless, inspection of reviews on “science and developing

The chemical industry in Europe, 1850-1914 : industrial growth, pollution, and professionalization

Chemical activity and environmental pollution have been inextricably bound up with each other ever since branches of what was later known as the chemical industry first came into existence. Yet, there were times in which the image of the chemical industry was much less negative than today. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the concept ‘chemical industry’ dates from no earlier than the first half of the nineteenth century. Before that time, companies such as litmus factories, boneblack distilleries and sulphuric acid factories were regarded as industries in their own rights, and not as branches of a single ‘umbrella industry’. Secondly, dangers and diseases were not associated with specific chemical compounds, but with miasma and with the quality of ‘airs, waters and places’. Thirdly, chemical manufactures before the nineteenth century took place on such a small scale that the total environmental pollution was not very large (although the pollution per unit of product was sometimes considerable).1 With respect to the Netherlands, all this changed in a very short time around 1850.2 For reasons discussed here, a number of branches of the Dutch chemical industry were brought into serious disrepute between 1850 and 1870, at both local and national levels. The issues were hotly debated in public as a consequence of the increasing sensitivity and alertness with regard to public health in general that resulted from the rise of the sanitary movement.3 Apart from that, however, the pollution itself also increased considerably because the chemical industry in the Netherlands experienced a boom after 1850. Within a few years several garancine, sulphuric acid, alkali and stearic candle factories were established on scales that overshadowed all prior chemical manufacturing activity.4