Friedrich Christian Accum or Frederick Accum, March 29, 1769 – June 28, 1838.
School period
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
The First English Anaesthetist, Medical School in London.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
Title of Culinary Chemistry by Friedrich Accum.
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
The first London gasworks 1814. Plate from Accum's A Practical Treatise on Gas Light (1815). The retorts are set transversely, directly under the chimney; the gasometer is on the left.
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
Friedrich Accum Posters for sale.
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
A treatise on adulterations of food, and culinary poisons by Friedrich Christian Accum, 1820, Printed by J. Mallett, Sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown edition.
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
Letter from Accum concerning the second edition of his book Chemical reagents, 26 March 1818.
Gallery of Friedrich Accum
Black and white photograph of an oil painting by Samuel Drummond, from London.
The first London gasworks 1814. Plate from Accum's A Practical Treatise on Gas Light (1815). The retorts are set transversely, directly under the chimney; the gasometer is on the left.
A treatise on adulterations of food, and culinary poisons by Friedrich Christian Accum, 1820, Printed by J. Mallett, Sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown edition.
Black and white photograph of an oil painting by Samuel Drummond, from London.
Connections
Partner: Anthony Carlisle
Sir Anthony Carlisle, 15 February 1768 in Stillington, England – 2 November 1840 in London was an English surgeon.
Friend: William Nicholson
William Nicholson, 13 December 1753 – 21 May 1815 was a renowned English chemist and writer on "natural philosophy" and chemistry, as well as a translator, journalist, publisher, scientist, inventor, patent agent and civil engineer.
Culinary chemistry: exhibiting the scientific principles of cookery, with concise instructions for preparing good and wholesome pickles, vinegar, conserves, ... with observations on the chemical...
A Practical Treatise on the Use and Application of Chemical Tests: With Concise Directions for Analyzing Metallic Ores, Earths, Metals, Soils, Manures, and Mineral Waters (Classic Reprint)
A treatise on adulterations of food, and culinary poisons
(This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)
This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for kindle devices. We have endeavoured to create this version as close to the original artefact as possible. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we believe they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spiritous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, ... Other Articles Employed in Domestic Economy - Kindle edition by Friedrich Christian Accum. Cookbooks, Food & Wine Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Chemical Analysis and Composition of American Honeys: Including a Microscopical Study of Honey Pollen
(Excerpt from Chemical Analysis and Composition of America...)
Excerpt from Chemical Analysis and Composition of American Honeys: Including a Microscopical Study of Honey Pollen An analysis of the nectar of the honeysuckle quoted by Bonnier.
Friedrich Christian Accum was a German chemist and food investigator. He is noted for the establishment of his own business to manufacture chemicals and laboratory equipment, as well as for giving public lectures on practical chemistry, and developing a gasworks for the Royal Mint in 1817.
Background
Friedrich Christian Accum was born on March 29, 1769, at Bückeburg, Westphalia. The son of a converted Jew, Herz Marcus, and a Huguenot, Judith La Motte, Accum was the sixth of seven children and the youngest of the three who lived to maturity. A small family soap-boiling business begun with the aid of his mother’s dowry continued to provide income after his father’s death in 1772.
Education
Friedrich followed the usual classical curriculum at the more than usually respected local Gymnasium. It was, however, an interest in chemistry that led to his move to England in 1793, as assistant in the Hannover and London firm of Brande, apothecaries to George III. 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.
Accum was early indebted to the patronage of Anthony Carlisle and the friendship of William Nicholson. About 1800 he established his own laboratory; he was also “assistant chemical operator” to Humphry Davy, resigning in September 1803. In 1802 he began public lecturing, and the steady stream of laboratory pupils included the Americans Benjamin Silliman (in 1805) and William Peck. Orders for chemical apparatus for Harvard, Yale, even Pondicherry, India, were a natural consequence.
In December 1820 the scandal that followed Accum’s arrest for mutilating books in the Royal Institution library led to his flight to Germany. Some of the proceeds from his technological and publishing successes went with him, and he was soon reestablished in Berlin, with two technical professorships. In England he was a subscriber to the Royal Institution, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Linnean Society, and a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The last connection continued after his move to Germany.
The value of Accum’s work lies in the way he saw and exploited the technological possibilities of the rapidly advancing science of chemistry. His activities as lecturer, author, laboratory instructor, merchant, consultant, and technical adviser epitomize the opportunities that the industrial revolution opened to the emerging class of professional chemists. His pioneer work on gas-lighting and food adulteration was of fundamental importance.
Accum was intimately concerned with the application of F. A. Winsor’s 1804 patent of a gas-lighting process. He undertook the experimental work necessary to overcome the complaints of Winsor’s rival William Murdoch and the scruples of Parliamentary committees. As a result his name appeared as “practical chymist” on the 1812 list of the first Corporation of London’s highly successful Gas-Light and Coke Company. Profiting from his experience, Accum advised other fledgling gas companies and wrote the 1815 treatise that became the classic text of gas technology. Lqual fame, although not success, surrounded his work on food adulteration. He was long aware of this problem and his deliberately sensational 1820 work (motto “There is death in the pot”) did much to awaken that public concern that eventually resulted in the Adulteration Act of 1860. Not surprisingly, Accum’s outspoken attacks, and his naming of offending individuals, antagonized powerful interests. This antagonism may well explain the harsh line the Royal Institution took toward his own shortcomings, despite the pleadings of his former patron Carlisle.
Quotations:
Accum alludes to his moral stance on food adulterations as he claims that:
"The man who robs a fellow subject of a few shillings on the high-way, is sentenced to death; while he who distributes a slow poison to a whole community, escapes punishment."
Connections
On May 10, 1798 Accum married Mary Ann Simpson (March 6, 1777 – March 1, 1816) in London.