F. Sherwood Taylor

Frank Sherwood Taylor (1897 – 5 January 1956) was a British historian of science, museum curator, and chemist who was Director of the Science Museum in London, England.

F. Sherwood Taylor was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, southern England and Lincoln College, Oxford. He then undertook a PhD at University College, London in the new Department of History and Method of Science.

He spent a period as a schoolmaster and then as a lecturer in chemistry at Queen Mary College, London. He was a founder member of the Philosophy of Science Group. He was also the founder editor of the Ambix journal, started in 1937, and the journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry In 1940, he succeeded Robert Gunther as Curator of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. Towards the end of his life, he was Director of the Science Museum from 1950 until his death in 1956. During this time, he delivered the 1952 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London on How Science has Grown. He was President of the British Society for the History of Science from 1951 to 1953.

The Young Chemist and Sydney Brenner

In an interview conducted by Errol Friedberg, Sydney Brenner said:

I think like most children, I got interested in nature very early. And then by reading a little book called The Young Chemist by Sherwood Taylor, I got interested in actually doing chemical experiments. So I started my career as a garage chemist, buying chemicals from the local pharmacist and making things according to the prescriptions then, and going forward to more experiments, just on that basis. I then started — still while I was at school — extracting pigments from petals and just doing really cookbook chemistry, on that basis.

Books

F. Sherwood Taylor wrote many books on the history of alchemy and chemistry in particular, and also of science in general:

• Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry (1931); 5th edition (1939)
• Organic Chemistry (1933)
• A Short Organic Chemistry (1933)
• The Young Chemist (1934, new edition 1961). Practical Books, Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh.
• The World of Science (1936); 1064 pages
• Galileo and the Freedom of Thought (1938)
• General Science for Schools: Parts 1–3 (1939)
• The March of Mind: A Short History of Science (1939)
• A Short History of Science and Scientific Thought, with readings from the great scientists from the Babylonians to Einstein (1940)
• The Century of Science (1941)
• The Conquest of Bacteria, from Salvarsan to Sulphapyridine (1942)
• Science, Past and Present (1945)
• The Fourfold Vision: a study of the relations of science and religion (1946)
• Two Ways of Life - Christian and Materialist (1947)
• A Century of British Chemistry (Science in Britain) (1947)
• Man's Conquest of Nature (1948)
• Concerning Science (1949)
• The Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry (1949)
• British Inventions (1950)
• Man and Matter - Essays Scientific & Christian (1951)
• The Alchemists (1952)
• Power Today and Tomorrow (1954)
• An Illustrated History of Science (1955)
• A History of Industrial Chemistry (Technology and Society) (1957)
• An Introduction To Alchemy

References

1. Aether (classical element)
2. Stephanus of Alexandria
3. List of alchemists
4. Hydrochloric acid
5. Chemistry
6. Alchemy
7. Man and Matter
8. Tin(IV) oxide
9. List of people with surname Taylor
10. Zosimos of Panopolis
11. List of people associated with University College London
12. John of Ruusbroec
13. Henry Ernest Stapleton
14. Frank Taylor
15. Science Museum, London
16. Vera Barclay
17. List of non-fiction writers
18. List of important publications in chemistry
19. History of Science Museum, Oxford
20. Sherwood Anderson