James Hyatt was born in 1817 in New York. Little has been discovered about his education but he obtained a doctorate. He wrote a number of text books including First lessons in chemistry, (1839), Lime and marl: their agricultural uses (1848), The elements of chemistry, (1856) and Periodicity in vegetation (1875). He was an early member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a popular lecturer. An interesting feature of his 1856 textbook was his social concern, as he believied that if the children of ‘the labouring classes’ were taught chemistry, they would be paid more for their work. He also emphasised the uses of chemistry in providing ‘human necessity, comfort, health, and life’. His chemistry text published in 1856 (four years prior to the Karlsruhe Conference) makes the assumption that the chemical formula for water was (HO) and he did not consider the common gases to be diatomic. These features were common in textbooks of the time, but his clarity in expressing these concepts may have been the reason why there was no second edition of his book. Another aspect of James Hyatt’s life was his habit of breathing in the chlorine gas in the belief that it assisted his good health; again this was a common view. He also habitually breathed in ‘nitrous oxide ... ‘whence it is known as exhilarating or laughing gas’. He lived to the ripe old age of eighty-seven, promoting science to the end.

James Hyatt, chemist, scientist, and communicator: A man of his times

249th National Meeting (2015)

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