To Light Such a Candle

by Keith J. Laidler.

Oxford University Press
Oxford, 1998.(384+ xii) pp
ISBN: 0-19-850056-4.
$45.00

Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold

While attending a history of medicine meeting some years ago I was attracted to a program title on the interactions among painters and physicians in early 19th century London. The paper, which was based on a Ph.D. thesis, was read from a prepared manuscript but, to my surprise and disappointment, no slides were employed. Had they been lost on the way to Baltimore? No, the young lady elected not to use any illustrations because "scholars in history did not expect them." A significant number of historians still hold to this strange custom. Keith Laidler is not of that school and his latest book is richly illustrated with line drawings, reproductions of paintings and engravings, and photographs of the scientific men and women who are his subjects.

The title comes from a statement by Bishop Hugh Latimer to a fellow 16th century martyr, "We shall this day light such a candle ... as shall never be put out." (It was a "Roman" candle: Latimer and Ridley were burnt at the stake for refusing to recant Protestantism when Mary became Queen of England.) I dare say that the average reader in this country will miss the dark humor but will connect with the qualifier "chapters in the history of science and technology" as Laidler makes the metaphor for scientists, inventors, and technologists who have cast intellectual light. The selected individuals and their work are central to this volume but interactions and chronologies are also discussed with enthusiasm. Thus technology sometimes preceded science, e.g. steam engines before thermodynamics, while basic science discoveries often lay dormant before their technological values were realized. These themes are clearly developed, all in an easy style and amenable even to those without much more than high school physics and chemistry.

Individual readers will find their own favorite subjects. I was particularly taken by chapters 4 and 5 on "Michael Faraday and electric power" and "James Clerk Maxwell and radio transmission." There is much of general interest and particularly enjoyable is the manner in which Laidler discovers and describes less well known people such as William Robert Grove (1811-1896). Sir William was variously barrister, scientist, and judge, and credited with one of the first clear statements of the first law of thermodynamics. While professor at the London Institution, Grove developed an electric cell that was subsequently favored by Michael Faraday (1791-1865) in his demonstrations at the Royal Institution. The diagrams, which are frequently taken from the original publications, are well placed in the text. The index, which combines subjects and names, works well and the inclusion of birth and death years for the scientists is appreciated. The lack of a list of figures, or page references to portraits, is a minor criticism.

The ninth and final chapter, "Scientists, science, and society," is both welcome and appropriate. It represents the ideas and views of a successful scientist and educator at the level of a sincere fireside chat. A discussion of the contributions of Robert Merton and his followers in the sociology of science, who popularized the term "organized skepticism," as opposed to an unqualified "skepticism" (which may conjure up simply "Doubting Thomases" in the lay mind) would have improved this section. It may be of passing interest to mention that the American Physical Society recently engaged a select committee to formulate working definitions of science and scientific research. To date, according to the popular press, the committee remains dissatisfied with its attempts, which reminds us of the difficulties that attend such seemingly simple endeavors.

Laidler, who was born in Liverpool and received his first degree from Oxford, did graduate work at Princeton University. He has rubbed shoulders with some of the best and brightest around the world. During World War II he was a member of the Canadian Armaments Research and Development Establishment, where one supposes he developed his abiding interest in technology. Since 1955 Dr. Laidler's research and teaching career has been spent at Ottawa University, Canada, where he became Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in 1981. He is the author of several basic books on physical chemistry and also the recipient of awards from the History of Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society.