Global Commodities as Connectivities—Chemistry in Birmingham and Camphor Wars in Formosa, 1860s–1914

Time: 6:30pm

Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut St.

In the late 19th century Europe’s chemical industry spread globally, bringing new products and industries—from photography, artificial silk manufacture, and gunpowder, to art nouveau products, underground electric cables, celluloid, and plastic manufactures—to relatively isolated regions.

Ian Inkster will examine how this new chemistry upset the social and political balance in non-Western locations, such as Formosa (present-day Taiwan) and Japan. He will also argue that these global impacts could have been rendered either insignificant or positive by the very chemistry that created them.