405 JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY SEPTEMBER 199 1 VOL. 6 The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sesquicentenary 1991 Pro Scientia et Humanitate On February 23rd 1841 a meeting called by Robert Warington resolved that ‘it is expedient that a chemical society be formed’. On March 30th of that year the founding meeting of the Chemical Society of London was held at the Royal Society of Arts; Thomas Graham was elected as the first Presi- dent and R. Warington as an Hono- rary Secretary. The first Honorary and Foreign Member was Justus von Liebig. In 1874 the Society of Public Ana- lysts was founded which in 1907 became the Society of Public Analysts and other Analytical Chemists and was later to become the Society for Analytical Chemistry (SAC). The SAC in 1968 had a total of 2268 members of which 19 18 were based in the UK it also produced the journals The Ana- lyst Analytical Abstracts and Proceed- ings of the Societv for Analytical Chemistry.In 1877 The Institute of Chemistry was founded which in 1944 became the Royal Institute of Chemistry (RIC) by Royal Charter. In 1967 the first amalgamation dis- cussions began between the various organizations. In 1972 the Chemical Society the RIC and the Faraday Society amalgamated. There was also a provisional agreement with the SAC. However at this point it was 98 years old and it was decided that full amal- gamation should wait until the end of 1974 after the centenary celebrations at which it was announced that the SAC had ‘scored 100 not out innings declared closed’. The amalgamation was complete.On June lst 1980 there was com- plete unification of all of the societies under the one name The Royal Society of Chemistry. So from the founding 77 members of the Chemical Society of London the Society has grown over the past I50 years to a current member- ship of over 43000 world-wide with over 300 permanent staff based at premises in Burlington House Lon- don (front cover) Thomas Graham House Cambridge (named after the first President) and Distribution Centre Letchworth. The RSC is actively celebrating the sesquicentenary of the founding of the Chemical Society. An extensive agenda of celebratory activities and events have been taking place through- out the year probably the most notable being the Annual Congress in April at Imperial College London.Attended by over 2000 chemists the opening ceremony took place in the Great Hall where the guest of honour Lord Porter expressed the sentiment ‘the debt mankind owes to chemistry is enormous’. The Science Museum also mounted an exhibition in Imperial College on the foundation of the Chemical Society. Other events with a historical theme were organized and included the ple- nary address by Professor Colin Rus- sell (Chemical bonds 184 1-1 99 l) the Historical Group’s symposium (His- torical highlights of the 150 years) and a reception at the Royal Institution. The reception included an address by the Director Professor Sir John Tho- mas on ‘The Genius of Faraday’ as this year also marks the bicentenary of Michael Faraday’s birth. At this year’s Congress there was a strong industrial and practical repre- sentation among the symposium top- ics which went some way to alleviat- ing its undeserved although tra- ditional image of being ‘dry and aca- demic’.The Industrial Division held a joint symposium with the Royal Neth- erlands Chemical Society which at- tracted industrial sponsorship. The meeting was the fourth in a series of international conferences and avoided a clash of interests. Another area of new science being considered was the area of sensor technology. The Analytical Division ran a series of sessions on ‘Lumines- cence and optical sensors’ and its Electroanalytical Group combined with the Faraday Division’s Electro- chemistry Group to set up a sympo- sium on new electrochemical sensors. The special nature of this year’s congress brought out a high proportion of distinguished speakers including El- ias Corey Sir Derek Barton and Jean- Marie Lehn all Nobel Laureates.Other symposia topics could be broadly labelled professional matters such as the environment education in the future and women in chemistry which was attended by Dorothy Hodgkin the most distinguished British female chemist whose Nobel prizewinning research in crystal- lography was discussed. The biennial meeting of the interna- tional chemical society Presidents took place at Burlington House an event normally held in conjunction with the IUPAC congress but arranged this year to honour the RSC’s anniver- sary. There was also the second Chemistry and Developing Countries Symposium run by the RSC and sup- ported by the British Council and the Commonwealth Science Council.Other events planned have been the Anniversary Concert performed by the Royal College of Music and the fash- ion show ‘Chemically Chic!’ which took place at London’s Savoy Hotel. ‘Chemically Chic!’ generated the most media coverage that the RSC has ever received for a single event. The show aimed to stress how chemistry has influenced fashion in ways both obvious and subtle obvious through dyes and synthetic materials; subtle through the treatment or processing of ‘natural’ fibres so that wool cotton and silk are comfortable to wear and easy to care for. The highlight of the show however was the new Licritherm ther- mochromic textile ink (a development by Merck) and its use in the fabric industry.The ink is based upon ther- mochromic liquid crystals which are incorporated into microcapsules. The crystals give rise to changes in the waveband of the reflected light. They are screen printed onto fabrics by using an aqueous binder resin. When the fabric changes temperature with atmospheric conditions or where the fabric is in contact with the human body the colour changes from colour- less to red and then through the colours of the visible spectrum to blue violet and finally to colourless again as the temperature increases. The chang- ing colours are viewed against a dark background for the greatest effect. In Cambridge an Anniversary Open Day was held at Thomas Graham House on June 26th 199 1. The theme of the day reflected 150 years of scientific publishing.Thomas Graham House (TGH) is the information man- agement and membership base for the RSC and is to be found on Cam- bridge’s renowned Science Park. Opened in 1989 by HRH Prince Phi- lip it houses the editorial offices of all of the primary journals including JAAS. The TGH open day was attended by about 400 top chemists and scientists from industry and the academic world a variety of other people including406 JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY SEPTEMBER 1991 VOL. 6 some local Members of Parliament were also invited. The staff of TGH spent the day showing the visitors around the building and explaining the process of scientific publishing. Some historical pieces of printing equipment and original journals were on display to help with the explana- tions.Lunch was in the form of a Victorian buffet with the catering staff dressed appropriately. Some other members of staff also entered into the spirit of the day and dressed in full Victorian costume at the end of the day they must have been extremely glad to divest themselves of the heavy and cumbersome garments. During the afternoon the guests were invited to attend a TGH version of the extremely successful London fashion show but with a difference! Gone were the TV presenters and professional models and in their place a few willing and able members of staff including one rather unwilling partici- pant the Editor of JAAS Judith! At this point thanks are due to Pat Styris wife of Dr. Dave Styris (Pacific Northwest Laboratories WA USA) without whose help the TGH fashion show would definitely not have been the same. She was seconded as ward- robe assistant and managed to make sure that all of the models looked great and after a few stitches here and there made all of the dresses fit-hard work but genuinely appreciated. Dr. Dave Styris and Dr. Barry Sharp (Loughborough University) attended the show and comimented that it was great fun and all of the models were excellent. However it would appear that it was a good thing that the Licritherm costumes were restricted to the models and not the audience whose temperatures were definitely rising. The day finished with a ‘staff only’ evening (we deserved it-honest!) which included a disco and a great deal of food and drink. The next day was a little quiet in some offices but of course the Analytical staff were their usual efficient selves not a bleary eye in sight. Let’s hope the RSC’s next 150 years go as well. Sheryl Whitewood Assist ant Editor JAAS