The chemist has helped to shape the laboratory over the last four hundred years. What does the changing appearance of the laboratory over this period tell us about the needs and preoccupations of chemists? And how have chemists changed the laboratory? Beginning with the alchemical laboratory of the late 16th century, this paper then examines Lavoisier's laboratory in the 1780s, Liebig's laboratory in the 1830s, Bunsen's in the 1850 and then the chemical palaces of the 1860s and 1870s. After examining the specialised laboratories developed for industry and government agencies, the paper concludes with the laboratories of the 1960s in Stanford and the very latest laboratories in Oxford.

The chemist and the laboratory

248th National Meeting (2014)

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