Dr Ian Rae provided an intriguing and fascinating discourse on the way the explosives industry was a microcosm for the development of practical analytical chemistry around the turn of the 19th Century and early 20th Century.
Using gunpowder as an exemplar, he described the early qualitative use of observation ( eg. observation of released coloured gases), passing through the use of various derivatising processes (permitting colorimetric and volumetric analyses) to the beginning of spectrometric analysis.
Accompanying this Ian provided fascinating biographical details for some of the principal investigators involved in these advances.
As always, discussion followed and personal insights were shared as the meeting drew to a close.
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Peter Cockrum
Retired
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