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Many years ago, I watched and was completely fascinated by a PBS series - Connections (and later Connections 2 and Connections 3). The Connections set was going to be among the first purchases once I started buying DVD's for personal use although it was eventually years before I ever found a set for sale and it was restricted to educational institutions and quite pricey.
So when I saw the book, it was like a flashback and I knew I had to get a copy. And it is just as good as I remember. This 2007 edition has a new preface, updating a view that was originally started in 1978 and even updated in 1995. Remarkable how much some things have changed and how some have not.
Anyway, the book. There are only 10 chapters and they are independent of each other.
To give you an idea, I broke down the pattern of Chapter 7: The Long Chain. Starting with jet aircraft and their consequences on travel today.
Back to 16th and 17th century trade in the Baltic and the Dutch monopoly. Dutch trading vessels were built different from their warships, more focused on how much cargo could be stuffed on board and with a lower center of gravity, were far more stable during ocean voyages.
Side trip to Edward Lloyd who created 'insurance' for investors since many ships unfortunately disappeared - yes, the beginning of Lloyd's of London.
Anyway, back to the ships. Russia wanted a warm-water port and attempted to elbow their way into the Baltic Sea which caused a war. Surprise there. England had another source - the American colonies - at least until they declared independence.
English forested land was restricted for Naval use so glass and iron workers needed another fuel for their furnaces which was found in coal and coke.
Coal could provide a tar-like substance under certain circumstances when it was being turned into coke - replacement tar for shipping which changed over to copper lined hulls. So coal-tar was distilled into a multitude of substances - salts used in soaps and a vapor that burned bright and without any odor.
While working on the steam engine, James Watt and partner Matthew Murdock were told of the vapor which could be ignited - the first gas burning lamps. Gaslight spread across the country and changed society. Streets were safer. Factories could work longer hours which means production rose. Evenings were available, even for classes and so literacy spread.
Another coal tar waste was naphtha, which could clean cloth-dying machinery as well as dissolve rubber. Dissolved rubber could be applied to cloth making it waterproof. Making just about anything cloth based waterproof - tents, mattresses, gloves, hoses, printing rollers, and even raincoats.
Supply of rubber couldn't keep up with demand so authorities were encouraged to either grow rubber in the Kew Gardens or get seedlings from South America and create plantations in the Far East. But Kew Gardens was more interested in the cinchona tree in which the bark contained quinine - the only treatment for malaria.
More compounds were being discovered in the sludge-like tar - like coal tar or aniline dyes. Colors previously unavailable or unstable were now vibrant, didn't fade or change color in gaslight. BASF kept the stream of different colors flowing even as other German companies created aspirin, diagnostic tissue stain and other medical discoveries.
A food crisis caused by large increases in population. Grain from the Americas was undercutting the German Junkers rye growers. Rye was exported and the ground was too exhausted to grow wheat without fertilizer which had been coming from Chile whose deposits were nearly exhausted.
Which brings back the last of the coal-tar discoveries dealt with the so-called 'SOHO stink' or the stench coming off the Thames which was the dumping ground for everything. The ammonia was turned into a salt. BASF took the salts, some hydrogen and liquid nitrogen in a pressure vessel to obtain ammonia which mixed with air and passed through a platinum mesh and mixed again with soda, became the same vital fertilizer. Problem solved!
Not quite.
Calcium carbide and water gave off a gas known as acetylene, a competitive source of bright lighting. Unfortunately, electricity had become cheaper so all the calcium carbide was laying about when BASF (yes, them again) used to create an even more potent fertilizer.
Because of a lack of markets for their fertilizers, Germany had to have colonies which means a bigger Navy. That arms race contributed to war breaking out in 1914. Still with the fertilizer, it needed one more chemical step to become gun cotton which was an explosive.
Out of the acetylene debacle came one more development (besides fertilizer and war). Created as a protective coating for aircraft wings and discarded as 'not useful' until a variant was produced called polyvinyl chloride or PVC.
And that's just one chapter. So much information and so intertwined. And that was just the basic as I could make it leaving out names and lots more side trips.
A quote from Isaac Newton "If I have seen further than Others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." Perhaps not all these inventions were the actions of giants and their names and discovery is only known by a select few but they laid groundwork and provided direction for those who came after. For every aspect of our lives, dozens of men and women advanced humanity's knowledge. So a tip of the proverbial cap and a thank you for their dedication and their innovations.
Note: This review is identical to that posted on GoodReads.com
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The product received was not new as described
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2021
The book "Connections" as received was not in "New" condition as listed or as priced. The front flysheet had been removed as shown in the attached photograph.
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2021
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