Making Physicians: Tradition, Teaching, and Trials at Leiden University, 1575–1639

Abstract

as well as his later rebellion against an academic career in Ghent, which he found stultifying, preferring to try his luck in America, with long absence from, and consequent negative impact on, his marriage to Céline Swarts. Mercellis dispels some myths, notably that Baekeland earned $750,000 by selling his invention of Velox photographic paper in 1899 to Eastman Kodak. In actuality, he shared this sum with two partners, Leonard Jacobi and Albert Hahn, making only $215,000 from the deal, which was nonetheless sufficient to set him up as an independent researcher. When he later referred to this period in his life and the sale of his interests in the Nepera Chemical Company, Baekeland failed to mention any partners, only using the pronoun “I” in his presentations, consequently gaining all the reputational benefit. Somewhat of an academic elitist, he nonetheless valued the practical approach rather than the theoretical, rejecting those in an academic “ivory tower” (p. 54). Baekeland made money in business but was careful to avoid mention of this when talking in academic circles, where he often focused on theoretical rather than practical approaches, postulating theories about the structure of his phenolic resins, which were later proven to be very much off the mark. He promoted industrial chemistry as “a service to society” (p. 183), regarding science and technology as superior in social and cultural value to literature and art, an opinion which did not endear him to some of his peers and provoked debate. However, as an entrepreneur of his time, he benefited from the increasing popularity of science and technology in the contemporary zeitgeist. The book is enriched by the use of a range of primary archives, notably sources in Ghent, Belgium, and better-known records in the United States. This research will be invaluable to historians of technology and the history of science.