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Eric John Holmyard
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<h2 id="scholar">Scholar</h2> <p>Holmyard studied at <a href="/facts/Sexey%2527s_School%2c_Bruton/NrEwPrch">Sexey's School, Bruton</a>, and <a href="/facts/Sidney_Sussex_College%2c_Cambridge/AtBPlK3a">Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge</a>, and was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. His scholarly work included rectification of accounts of the history of <a href="/facts/Alchemy/CEx0U1Em">alchemy</a>, particularly in relation with <a href="/facts/Islamic_science/ajn0zRSc">Islamic science</a>. He translated texts from Arabic and Latin, and wrote extensively on <a href="/facts/J%25C4%2581bir_ibn_Hayy%25C4%2581n/qUTxy4kA">Geber</a>. He was responsible with D. C. Mandeville for the re-attribution of the alchemical text <i>De Mineralibus</i> to an origin in <a href="/facts/Avicenna/EYKG4Vez">Avicenna</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> Holmyard served as the founding editor of the scientific review and history of science journal <i><a href="/facts/Endeavour_(journal)/6ykg97XI">Endeavour</a></i>. </p> <h2 id="textbooks">Textbooks</h2> <p>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 <i>Elementary Chemistry</i> (1925) alone selling half-a-million copies by 1960."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="teacher">Teacher</h2> <p>He taught both <a href="/facts/Nevill_Mott/r1xrUSDh">Nevill Mott</a> and <a href="/facts/Charles_Coulson/CSKYHwBU">Charles Coulson</a> at Clifton, but his personal influence on them as scientists was low (in Coulson's case, even negative).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> In contrast, he had a great impact on the future geneticist <a href="/facts/C._H._Waddington/CAQAXWz0">C. H. Waddington</a>, who followed in his footsteps by matriculating at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. Holmyard also published a best seller, <i>A Higher School Inorganic Chemistry</i>, along with W.G. Palmer. </p> <h2 id="historical-works">Historical works</h2> <ul><li><i>Kitab al-‘Ilm al-maktasab fi zira‘at adh-dhahab: Book of knowledge acquired concerning the cultivation of gold</i> by Abu 'l-Qasim Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-‘Iraqi (1923; translator)</li> <li><i>Chemistry to the Time of Dalton</i> (1925)</li> <li><i>Avicenna De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum</i> (1927; translator with D. C. Mandeville)</li> <li><i>The Works of Geber</i> (1928), with Richard Russell (1678 translator)</li> <li><i>Ordinall of Alchemy</i> by Thomas Norton (1929; facsimile, editor)</li> <li><i>The Great Chemists</i> (1929)</li> <li><i>Makers of Chemistry</i> (1931)</li> <li><i>Ancestors of An Industry: The story of British scientific achievement</i> (1950)</li> <li><i>British Scientists</i> (1951)</li> <li><i>Alchemy</i> (1957)</li> <li><i>A History of Technology</i> (1954-8) five volumes, with <a href="/facts/Charles_Singer/I1aKTprm">Charles Singer</a></li></ul> <h2 id="notes">Notes</h2> <ul><li>Entry in the <i><a href="/facts/Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography/QCm9t1Sn">Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</a></i></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%20John%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%20J%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20E%2E%20J%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Eric%20John%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Eric%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22E%2E%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Eric%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Eric%20John%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Eric%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22E%2E%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22E%2E%20John%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%20John%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%20J%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20E%2E%20J%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20E%2E%20John%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Eric%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Eric%20John%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Eric%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20title%3A%22E%2E%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Eric%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Eric%20John%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Eric%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20description%3A%22E%2E%20J%2E%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%20John%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%20J%2E%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Eric%20Holmyard%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Holmyard%2C%20Eric%22%29%20OR%20%28%221891-1959%22%20AND%20Holmyard%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29">Works by or about Eric John Holmyard</a> at the <a href="/facts/Internet_Archive/PHStU8Lo">Internet Archive</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Alchemy at Clifton College, Bristol, UK". Archived from the original on 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-02-08. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070221092632/http://www.scienceatclifton.co.uk/clifton/alchemy.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20070221092632/http://www.scienceatclifton.co.uk/clifton/alchemy.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Liukkonen, Petri. "Avicenna". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 20 February 2007. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070220050756/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/avicenna.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20070220050756/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/avicenna.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Mayer, A. K. (December 2002). "Fatal Mutilations: Educationism and the British Background to the 1931 International Congress for the History of Science and Technology" (PDF). History of Science. 40 (4): 445–472. doi:10.1177/007327530204000404. S2CID 162156437. <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/hos/events/past_events/2005-2006/workshop_publications/mayer.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.princeton.edu/hos/events/past_events/2005-2006/workshop_publications/mayer.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>[1]: … Holmyard — the prolific writer of elementary textbooks — apparently met with no success in attracting him towards Chemistry; indeed, he chose quite firmly the Classics. <a href="http://www.quantum-chemistry-history.com/Coulson1.htm" target="_blank">http://www.quantum-chemistry-history.com/Coulson1.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>