Friedrich Christian Accum or Frederick Accum (29 March 1769 – 28 June 1838) was a German chemist, whose most important achievements included advances in the field of gas lighting, efforts to keep processed foods free from dangerous additives, and the promotion of interest in the science of chemistry to the general populace.Chambers Biographical Dictionary, , page 5 From 1793 to 1821 Accum lived in London. Following an apprenticeship as an apothecary, he opened his own commercial laboratory enterprise. His business manufactured and sold a variety of chemicals and laboratory equipment. Accum, himself, gave fee-based public lectures in practical chemistry and collaborated with research efforts at numerous other institutes of science.
Intrigued by the work of Frederick Winsor, who had been championing the introduction of gas lighting in London, Accum too, became fascinated by this innovation. At the request of the Gas Light and Coke Company, he carried out many experiments in this novel field of inquiry. After a time of close working association with this company, he became a member of its board of directors in 1812. The company was charged with founding the first gasworks in London to supply gas lighting to both private and public areas. Accum was instrumental in the conception and design of this extremely successful gasworks.
The majority of Accum's publications were written in English. They were executed in a style that made them quite accessible. Many scientific contributions were brought forth through his writings, which were influential in the popularization of chemistry during this era. In 1820, Accum published A Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons, in which he denounced the use of chemical additives to food. This work marked the beginning of an awareness of need for food safety oversight. Accum was the first person to tackle the subject and to reach a wide audience through his activities. His book, controversial at the time, found a wide audience and sold well. However, it threatened established practices within the food processing industry, earning him many enemies among the London food manufacturers. Accum left England after a lawsuit was brought against him. He lived out the rest of his life as a teacher at an industrial institution in Berlin.
Life and work Youth and education
Accum was born in Bückeburg, Schaumburg-Lippe, about west of Hanover. His father was from Vlotho, and had been in an infantry regiment in the service of Count Wilhelm von Schaumburg-Lippe. In 1755, Accum's father converted from Judaism to Protestant Christianity. Soon after, his father married Judith Berth dit La Motte in Bückeburg. Judith was the daughter of a hat maker, who lived in the French community in Berlin, and the granddaughter of a refugee who suffered under the Huguenot persecutions in France.Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 128
At the time of his conversion baptism, the senior Accum changed his name from Markus Herz to Christian Accum. In addition to choosing the name "Christian," Accum's father chose to emphasize his newly embraced religion by adopting the surname Accum, which derives from the Hebrew word "Akum," meaning "not-Jewish." It is not known whether he did this on his own initiative or because of pressure from his fiancee's family. After his marriage, Christian Accum opened his own soap-making shop in Bückeburg at his in-law's home. Nine years after his marriage to Judith, he received legal citizenship from the city.Bürgerbuch der Stadt Bückeburg, Entry on 22 February 1764 cited in Browne, The life and chemical services of Frederick Accum, p. 831.
Friedrich Accum attended the Bückeburg Gymnasium Adolfinum and additionally received private tutelage in the subjects of French and English. Following the conclusion of his studies, he finished an apprenticeship as an apothecary with the Brande family in Hanover, who were family friends.Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 129, supposes that Judith Accum had good connections. The Brandes also conducted business in London and were the apothecaries to the Hanoverian King of England, George III. As one of the leading centers for scientific research and industry at the close of the eighteenth century, London attracted the best and brightest minds of Europe.Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach Cavendish (American Philosophical Society: Philadelphia) 1996, p. 68
The first year in London After gaining experience as an assistant in the apothecary, Accum pursued scientific and medical studies at the School of Anatomy in Great Windmill Street in London. He became acquainted with the surgeon Anthony Carlisle (1768–1842) and the London chemist William Nicholson (1753–1815). In Mr. Nicholson's circulating journal, (Nicholson's Journal)Actual name is Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts.
In the fall of the year 1799, a translation of Franz Carl Achard's ground-breaking work on the production of sugar from beets appeared in Nicholson's Journal. Until that time, sugar cane, which was grown overseas, was the only plant from which sugar could be derived. This information made possible the creation of a domestic sugar industry, and was greeted with great interest. A short time after the article's publication, Accum had samples of beet sugar sent from Berlin, and presented them to William Nicholson. This was the first time sugar derived from beets had ever been present in England. Following his careful analysis of both types of sugar, Nicholson published a detailed report in the January edition of his journal, stating that there was no appreciable difference in taste between the two.Browne, The life and chemical services of Frederick Accum, p. 834.
Laboratory worker, merchant and private tutor In 1800, Accum and his family changed residence in London from 17 Haymarket to 11 Old Compton Street. There he would live for the next twenty years. His family home also served as a school, an experimental laboratory and place he sold chemicals and scientific instruments. Accum's business cards of the time described his activities thus:
Mr Accum acquaints the Patrons and Amateurs of Chemistry that he continues to give private Courses of Lectures on Operative and Philosophical Chemistry, Practical Pharmacy and the Art of Analysis, as well as to take Resident Pupils in his House, and that he keeps constantly on sale in as pure a state as possible, all the Re-Agents and Articles of Research made use of in Experimental Chemistry, together with a complete Collection of Chemical Apparatus and Instruments calculated to Suit the conveniences of Different Purchasers.Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 129f. 1951. This cards was in the Banks Collection in the Department of Prints and Drawings in British Museum when Cole published his work.
For many years, Accum's establishment was the only significant institution in England that provided lectures on the theory of chemistry as well as training in laboratory practice. Amateurs were welcome to perform simple experiments on site to enhance their knowledge. Accum's teachings attracted various prominent students. These included the well-known London politician and later prime minister Lord Palmerston, the Duke of Bedford, and the Duke of Northumberland. Additionally, his laboratory was the first in Europe to be visited by students and scientists from the United States, among whom were Benjamin Silliman and William Dandridge Peck. When Silliman later became Professor of Chemistry at Yale College (precursor to Yale University) in New Haven, he ordered his first laboratory equipment from Accum in London. Accum's biographer, Charles Albert Browne, stated in his 1925 work that some of the older American colleges still had sales receipts from Accum's London business.Browne, The life and chemical services of Frederick Accum, p. 842.
With the development of new laboratory apparatus, Accum positioned himself in the middle market range with respect to cost and usability. Accum developed portable laboratory kits, intended for farmers, for the analysis of soils and stones. With affordable prices ranging from three to eighty pounds sterling, these chests were the first truly portable laboratories.Browne, The life and chemical services of Frederick Accum, p. 845.
Teacher and researcher In March 1801, Frederick Accum was offered a position at the Royal Institution in Ablemarle Street, a research institute founded two years earlier by Count Rumford.About the early history of the Royal Institution, see Morris Berman, The Early Years of the Royal Institution 1799–1810: A Re-Evaluation, in: Science Studies 2, 3 (1972), S. 205–240.
By 1803, Accum had published a series of articles in Nicholson's Journal, which discussed a number of subjects: investigating methods to determine the purity of medicines, determining the existence of benzoic acids in vanilla extract, observing the explosivity of sulphur-phosphorus mixtures.Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 131 lists On the Separation of Argillaceous Earth from Magnesia, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 2 (1798), p. 2; An Attempt to Discover the Genuineness and Purity of Drugs and Medicinal Preparations, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 2 (1798), p. 118; A Historical Note on the Antiquity of the Art of Etching on Glass, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 4 (1800), p. 1–4; The Occurrence of Benzoic Acid in Old Vanilla Pods, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 1 (1802), p. 295–302; Analysis of New Minerals such as the so called Salt of Bitumen, the Bit-Nobin of the Hindoos, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 5 (1803), p. 251–255; On Egyptian Heliotropium, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 6 (1803), p. 65–68; Experiments and Observations on the Compound of Sulphur and Phosphorus and the dangerous Explosions it makes when exposed to Heat, in: Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts 6 (1803), p. 1–7. In 1803 one of Accum's most significant publications was completed. Cole, Accum's biographer states that this book, System of Theoretical and Practical Chemistry, "was the first text-book of general chemistry written in the English language to be based on Lavoisier's new principles; it is outstanding, also, in that it is written in a popular style, the subject matter being graduated as with a modern text-book."Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 130.
Accum held his first lecture on chemistry and mineralogy in a small room in his house on Old Compton Street. His audience grew so rapidly that he soon had to rent the Medical Theatre on Cork Street. After resigning from the Royal Institution and taking a new position with the Surrey Institution, he continued with his popular lectures. An advertisement in The Times on 6 January 1809 indicates that Accum offered a course on mineralogy and the chemical analysis of metals every Wednesday evening.Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 132 citing the notice. It appeared in The Times on 6 January 1809, Nr. 7562.
His increasing interest in mineralogy at this time is also apparent from the titles of two books he authored between 1803 and 1809. The first was a two volume work that appeared in 1804 entitled A Practical Essay on the Analysis of Minerals, which was reissued in 1808 as A Manual of Analytical Mineralogy. In 1809 he published Analysis of a Course of Lectures on Mineralogy. Beginning in 1808, while at the Surrey Institution, Accum also published, a series of articles on the chemical properties and composition of mineral water in Alexander Tilloch's Philosophical Journal.Cole, Friedrich Accum, p. 132