Hydrometers at Work: Chemical Governance and the Dutch Empire in the Nineteenth World

Activity: Talk or presentationOral presentation

Description

The history of hydrometers is an ideal vehicle to shed fresh light on the historical relationship between chemistry and the evolving Dutch empire in the early nineteenth century world. While manufacturers of chemical substances and drugs relied on the instrument to guarantee their businesses’ productivity, chemists and administrators promoted the instrument as tool to bring the Netherlands and the far-flung Malay Archipelago under one political umbrella. By approaching the instrument’s global career through the lens of chemical governance, this paper makes two interrelated points. First, the paper highlights the historical significance of everyday chemical and material practices in the early nineteenth century Dutch empire, an aspect which imperial historians usually neglect. In order to make this point I, for instance, zoom in on the use of hydrometers at a saltpetre manufacture in Gresik on the north-east coast of Java where chemically trained practitioners linked the proper application of the instrument to the improvement of the colony’s gunpowder production. Second, my paper argues that establishing an empire wide ‘gravimetric culture’ never remained an uncontested endeavour. Tax officers, instrument makers, apothecaries, chemists, administrators and manufacturers got regularly entangled in fierce debates about the instrument’s design, calibration, use, and efficiency. Taken together the paper shows how the standardized measurement of fluids and the governance of empire became closely intertwined endeavours in the nineteenth century world.
Period11 Jul 2024
Event titleInternational 19th Century Studies Association Conference 2024
Event typeConference
Conference number19
LocationDurham and Virtual, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational