Eric John Holmyard (11 July 1891 – 13 October 1959) was an English science teacher at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

, and historian of science and technology.

Scholar

Holmyard studied at Sexey's School, Bruton, and

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (historically known as "Sussex College" and today referred to informally as "Sidney") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1 ...

, and was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. His scholarly work included rectification of accounts of the history of

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, particularly in relation with

Islamic science Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, the Umayyads of Córdoba, the Abbadids of Seville, the Samanids, the Ziyarids and the Buyi ...

. He translated texts from Arabic and Latin, and wrote extensively on Geber. He was responsible with D. C. Mandeville for the re-attribution of the alchemical text ''De Mineralibus'' to an origin in

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

. Holmyard served as the founding editor of the scientific review and history of science journal '' Endeavour''.

Textbooks

As a textbook author, he pioneered an approach to science teaching that included historical material. "His historicized science books were an enormous and long-term commercial success, with ''Elementary Chemistry'' (1925) alone selling half-a-million copies by 1960."

Teacher

He taught both

Nevill Mott Sir Nevill Francis Mott (30 September 1905 – 8 August 1996) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductor ...

and

Charles Coulson Charles Alfred Coulson (13 December 1910 – 7 January 1974) was a British applied mathematician and theoretical chemist. Coulson's major scientific work was as a pioneer of the application of the quantum theory of valency to problems of ...

at Clifton, but his personal influence on them as scientists was low (in Coulson's case, even negative).
''… Holmyard — the prolific writer of elementary textbooks — apparently met with no success in attracting him towards Chemistry; indeed, he chose quite firmly the Classics.'' In contrast, he had a great impact on the future geneticist

C. H. Waddington Conrad Hal Waddington (8 November 1905 – 26 September 1975) was a British developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher who laid the foundations for systems biology, epigenetics, and evolutionary develop ...

, who followed in his footsteps by matriculating at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. Holmyard also published a best seller, ''A Higher School Inorganic Chemistry'', along with W.G. Palmer.

Historical works

*''Kitab al-‘Ilm al-maktasab fi zira‘at adh-dhahab: Book of knowledge acquired concerning the cultivation of gold'' by Abu 'l-Qasim Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-‘Iraqi (1923; translator) *''Chemistry to the Time of Dalton'' (1925) *''Avicenna De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum'' (1927; translator with D. C. Mandeville) *''The Works of Geber'' (1928), with Richard Russell (1678 translator) *''Ordinall of Alchemy'' by Thomas Norton (1929; facsimile, editor) *''The Great Chemists'' (1929) *''Makers of Chemistry'' (1931) *''Ancestors of An Industry: The story of British scientific achievement'' (1950) *''British Scientists'' (1951) *''Alchemy'' (1957) *''A History of Technology'' (1954-8) five volumes, with

Charles Singer Charles Joseph Singer (2 November 1876 – 10 June 1960) was a British historian of science, technology, and medicine. He served as medical officer in the British Army. Biography Early years Singer was born in Camberwell in London, where hi ...

Notes

References

*Entry in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmyard, Eric John 1891 births 1959 deaths Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge British historians of science