![]() ![]() Above all, Griffin suggested simple ways of adapting or obtaining cheap starting materials and apparatus, pointing out simple short cuts. The tone is unfailingly enthusiastic and positive, prizing experiment and experience above theory. Its approach was unique - this was not a teacher writing for students, but a more experienced student helping his fellows along the way. The small volume - printed in octavo format, smaller than a modern paperback - sold out immediately and ran to many editions throughout the 19th century. In 1823 he published his Chemical recreations. Even after his graduation, while working in his father’s business, he became obsessed with the idea of educating the common working man in the ways of science generally, and chemistry in particular. Griffin developed a real passion for chemistry. Nothing is known of JJ’s early years, but when he finished school he went to one of the top scientific establishments of the day, Glasgow’s Andersonian Institution. His father was a bookseller and publisher who, at some point in John Joseph’s youth, moved the family to Glasgow where his business prospered. John Joseph Griffin was born in Shoreditch in London, UK, the area then a far cry from the trendy creative hotspot it is today. Today in many glassware catalogues, the plain glass container is often called the Griffin beaker. Upturned by Greek alchemists it became a still - hence the Arab word al- ambic while the Latin word bicarium, in turn gives us the Italian word bicchiere (a drinking glass) and the French pichet (a jug or pitcher). Was young Becher inspired by beakers? He would, no doubt, have used them the word itself can be derived back through Germanic roots to the Greek word ambikos for a drinking cup. Earlier still, the seventeenth century physician and chymist Johann Becher - ’Becherglas’ is a beaker in German - was the father of the phlogiston theory that would be developed by Georg Stahl. Hermann Kolbe - whose surname resembles the word for flask in German - was a highly influential, if notoriously prickly, organic chemist. ![]() Chemical examples, however, are thin on the ground. For example, I know a Dr Roger Kneebone, an outstanding teacher of emergency surgery. What’s in a name? For many years, on its back page, the magazine New Scientist collected anecdotal data on nominative determinism, the long-held hypothesis that your name has an impact on your future prospects and career. Source: © RSC LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRE ![]()
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