The history of the chemical laboratory between 1760 and 1840 has tended to focus on purpose-built and dedicated sites. This talk proposes that much chemical inquiry took place in adapted spaces in this period, such as the home, and was shaped by domestic notions of economy, the proper social and material management of the household. With a focus, in particular, on the way domestic material culture provided resources for experimentation, what emerges, then, is a picture of chemical experimentation during this time period in which the re-use of old things was as significant a part of chemistry as the invention or consumption of new. This history of economic chemistry then offers insights into the future sustainability of experimentation.

Simon Werrett is a senior lecturer in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London.