The Last Alchemist in Paris: And Other Curious Tales from Chemistry

272 Pages·2013·2.426 MB·English

by  Lars Öhrström

The Last Alchemist in Paris
This page intentionally left blank
b
e
P
H
AAAu
r
B
F
e
LAST
the
ALCHEMIST
PARIS
in
& other curious
tales from chemistry
b
P
LARS ÖHRSTRÖM
F
ee
A
u
Br
(cid:20)
e
H
Sn
H
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Lars Öhrström 2013
Th e moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2013
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013940788
ISBN 978–0–19–966109–1
Printed in Great Britain by
Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
H He
Li Be B C N O F Ne
Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
Cs Ba La Ce Pr Nd PmSm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn
Fr Ra Ac Th Pa U Np Pu AmCm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt Ds Rg Cn Fl Lv
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Preamble: Th e Periodic Table and the Da Vinci Code ix
1 Mr Khama is Coming to Dinner 1
2 From Bitterfeld with Love 11
3 Th e Curious Incident of the Dog in the Airship 19
4 Th e Spy and the Saracen’s Secret 30
5 Biopiracy: Th e Curse of the Nutmeg 41
6 Death at Number 29 52
7 Blue Blooded Stones and the Prisoner in the Crystal Cage 57
8 Diamonds are Forever and Zirconium is for Submarines 68
9 Graphite Valley: IT in the Eighteenth-Century Lake District 78
10 Th e Emperor and Miss Smilla 88
11 Rendezvous on the High Plateau 96
12 Th e Last Alchemist in Paris 110
13 Pardon My French: Captain Haddock and the
Suff erings of the Savoyards 119
14 Two Brilliant Careers 130
15 War and Vanity 141
16 When State Security was a Stinking Business 152
17 Bonaparte’s Bursting Buttons: A Th in Story 161
18 I Told You So, Said Marcus Vitruvius Pollio 175
19 A Shiny Surface and a Tainted Past 185
20 Th e Actress and the Spin Doctor 195
vii
contents
21 Of Pea-Soup, Dangers of Coff ee in the Morning,
and the Test of Mr Marsh 207
22 To Take Back the Future 213
Acknowledgments 227
Bibliography 228
References 229
Index 243
viii
PREAMBLE
the periodic table and the
da vinci code
If you want some action, please proceed directly to Chapter 1. If you
want a short introduction to the Periodic Table, the herding of elec-
trons, and an idea of what Dan Brown could make of it, start here.
Th e Periodic Table of the Elements can be an object of fear for stu-
dents. You may have problems with the irregular conjugations of the
French verbs, or a tendency to muddle the order of the Edwards, Rich-
ards, and Henrys in the line of English monarchs, but the 114 elements
of the Periodic Table, their symbols, and their places in this highly
irregular jumble of little boxes seems to be of a diff erent order of
complexity.
To the initiated and the afi cionados, the Periodic Table is a source of
endless enthrallment, and to the apprentice chemists learning it by
heart, it is their baptism of fi re. To more normal people it just represents
the chemical landscape we all wander in, though the relations between
the map and our reality is sometimes rather vague. Th e stories in this
book will try to bridge this gap between map and reality through the
recounting of the adventures, successes, and misfortunes of ordinary
and extraordinary people from around the globe in their intentional or
unintentional meetings with various chemical elements.
ix