Towns > Glasgow > 1828-1912 - Post-Office annual Glasgow directory > 1857-1858

The Work will be completed in about Forty Sliilling Parts, each containing thirty-two pages,
and every alternate Part will be enriched with a Portrait of some distinguished Chemist. The Illus-
trations will embrace every branch of the Arts and Manufactures, and will be intrusted to the most
competent hands. No expense will be spared to render every department as perfect as the importance
of the various subjects, and the existing condition of human acquirements, will admit. Neither
inverted commas nor brackets will be used in the work. When an extract is made, although it may
be materially altered, the name of the author quoted will appear before or after it.
In concluding, the Editor would beg to impress upon the peruser of this Prospectus, the importance
of Chemistry in all investigations relating to Technology. An eminent colleague justly remarks —
She, like a prudent housewife, economizes every scrap. The horseshoe nails dropped in the streets
during the daily traffic, are carefully collected by her, and resuscitated in the form of swords and
guns. The clippings of the travelling tinker are mixed with hoofs, or the discarded woollen garments
of the poor, and soon afterwards, in the form of dyes of the brightest hue — Prussian blue — grace
the dress of courtly dames. The main ingredient of the ink with which the Editor now composes,
was possibly once part of the broken hoop of an old ale barrel. Bones of dead animals yield the
main constituent of lucifer matches ; dregs of port wine, scrupulously rejected by the port-wine
drinker in decanting his favorite beverage, are taken by him in the morning in the form of seidlitz
powders, to remove the effects of an overheated brain : street offal, and the washings of coal gas,
reappear, nicely preserved, in the lady's smelling-bottle, or are used by her to flavor blanc-manges foi
her friends. This economy' of the Chemistry of Art is only in imitation of what we observe in thft
Chemistry of Nature.
The fabrication of coal-gas is an admirable example of the good conferred by Chemistry. Through
its introduction, morality was improved and crime lessened, owing to the brilliant lighting of our
streets making every passer-by a detective policeman. Without Chemical Science, Arts and Manu-
factures would soon become stationary in our country. The result of the Exhibition was one, says
Dr. Playfair, that England may well be startled at. Wherever — and that implies in nearly every
instance — Science or Art was inwrapped as an element of progress, it was seen as an inevitable law,
that the nation which most cultivated it was in the ascendant — France, the birthplace of a Lavoisier
and of a Dumas. Another savant writes : — Let us glance at those countries where Chemistry has
been studied, and its assistance wooed, we find them workshops for the world, wherein excellence has
been produced, and wealth flows in continuous and willing tributaries from the ends of the earth, to
purchase and reward it. In this respect the magnificent display of artistic and scientific skill presented
in the Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, unfolded revelations which, trumpet-tongued,
proclaim this truthful warning, that the country which aspires to hold a place in the world's career,
dares no longer remain indifferent to the culture of practical science.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
Fkom baron DUMAS, M.D., F.R.S.
Professor of Chemistry; Member of the Institute ; Member of
the Imperial Senate, &c. &c.
I HAVE found, on my return from a journey, the first
two Parts of your finely elaborated work on Chemistry.
I thank you in the name of Industry and Science for
having placed at their disposal the practical infor-
mation which your high technological position- has
enabled you to collect
Your great experience promises abundant and pre-
cise information. As a Frenchman, I have been highly
gratified to see my name in conjunction with that of
Sir Robert Kane in the dedication of the work.
You have wished to show that the sciences and
their applications to the welfare of humanity do not
admit eiilier of the divisions which politics establish
sometimes between nations, or of tlie rivalry between
people which arises from a conflict of interests.
I accept with gratitude the new proof of sympathy
which you offer to France in the name of England,,
and have the honour to be, &e.
J. DUMAS.
Feom professor F. GRACE CALVERT,
Koyal Institution, Manchester.
As a Subscriber and Chemist, I have great pleasure
in taking this opportunity of expressing to you my
opinion, that I consider your interesting work as the
best and most complete one which has yet appeared
of Chemistry applied to Arts and Manufactures: and
that I am convinced it will prove to be of great utility
to all Manufacturers, owing to the lucid manner in
which each subject is treated, and the valuable infor-
mation it gives on it ; and allow me to add, that we
should all feel deeply indebted to you for having
brought out a work which will tend so much to popu-
larize our valuable science.
F. GRACE CALVERT,
From SIR ROBERT KANE, M.D« F.R.S.,
President of the Queen's C ollege, Cork,
&c. &e.
I HAVE received with very great pleasure the first
Part of your new work on the Chemistry of the Arts,
and I feel bound to express my sense of the remarkable
skill and clearness with which the scientific princi-
ples are described, the manufacturing processes de-
tailed, and tlie commercial circumstances discussed, as
regards the important branches of manufactures with
which the work so far has been occupied. I feel very
much gratified at rectiiving so distinguished a my.rk
of your consideration as the dtdicationto me of, so
valuable a work on Ii idustrial Science, and I va) ue it
the more for being as sociated therein with the TtJaroa
Dumas, who.se emine:ace as a Philosopher and Chemist
I so much respect, s.nd whose personal qualifies and
friendship I so mucti value, &c.
ROBERT KANE.
Feom PROFESMOR BRANDE, D.C.L., F.^.S.,
Ot the Eoyal Mint.
I HAVE this morning received the first Part of your
splendid (for so I may call it, when compared with
what has hitherto been done in the same way) and
laborious work.
If you go on as you have commenced, there can, I
presume, be little doubt that your work will supersede
all similar publications in this country ; and, indeed,
so it ought, from its price and character. One thing
only I apprehend, which is, that it will considerably
extend beyond the bounds you have assigned to it; and
I do hope, that by-and-by, when you come to find this,
you will not be induced to cramp its extent. I should
assign 50, instead of 40 Parts, as its probable extent
WM. THOS. BRANDS.
Pnnted and Published hy William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh, and Glasc/oio,