- Eric John Holmyard
Eric John Holmyard (1891-1959) was an English science teacher at
Clifton College [ [http://www.scienceatclifton.co.uk/clifton/alchemy.htm] ] , and historian of science and technology.cholar
His scholarly work included rectification of accounts of the history of
alchemy , particularly in relation withIslamic science . He translated texts from Arabic and Latin, and wrote extensively onGeber . He was responsible with D. C. Mandeville for the re-attribution of the alchemical text "De Mineralibus" to an origin inAvicenna . [ [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/avicenna.htm Avicenna ] ]Textbooks
As a textbook author, he pioneered an approach to science teaching that included historical material. "His historicized science books were an enormous and long-term commercial success, with Elementary Chemistry (1925) alone selling half-a-million copies by 1960." [ [http://www.shpltd.co.uk/mayer-fatal-mutilations.pdf PDF] .]
Teacher
He taught both
Nevill Mott andCharles Coulson at Clifton, but his personal influence on them as scientists was low (in Coulson's case, even negative [ [http://www.quantum-chemistry-history.com/Coulson1.htm] : "… Holmyard — the prolific writer of elementary textbooks — apparently met with no success in attracting him towards Chemistry; indeed, he chose quite firmly the Classics."] ).Historical works
*Kitab al-‘Ilm al-maktasab fi zira‘at adh-dhahab: Book of knowledge acquired concerning the cultivation of gold by Abu 'l-Qasim Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-‘Iraqi (1923) translator
*Chemistry to the Time of Dalton (1925)
*Avicenna De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum (1927) translator with D. C. Mandeville
*The Works of Geber. (1928) with Richard Russell (1678 translator)
*Ordinall of Alchemy by Thomas Norton (1929) facsimile, editor
*The Great Chemists (1929)
*Makers of Chemistry (1931)
*Ancestors of An Industry: The story of British scientific achievement (1950)
*British Scientists (1951)
*Alchemy (1957)
*A History of Technology (1954-8) five volumes, withCharles Singer
*The Book of knowledge acquired concerning the Cultivation of Gold: An Arabic Alchemical Treatise, by Al-Iraqi (1991) translatorNotes
References
*Entry in the "
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography "
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