Ignored, Disregarded, Discarded? On the Introduction of the Periodic System in Norwegian Periodicals and Textbooks, c. 1870–1930s
The above quote from P. K. Hustad (1878–?), a textbook author and teacher at an agricultural school in mid-Norway, might at first glance be taken as an argument for the use of the periodic system in the teaching of chemistry, as opposed to introducing element by element as was the tradition before the periodic system was presented and used in textbooks. Hustad, however, did not mention the periodic system at all in his text. As I will demonstrate in this chapter, Hustad’s book was not exceptional in this respect: Even though university professor Thorstein Hallager Hiortdahl (1839–1925) introduced the periodic system in his textbook in 1888 and some textbook authors continued this tradition into the 1890s, others ignored the periodic system completely as late as the 1920s and ‘30s. This contrasts sharply with Stephen Brush’s conclusion that by the late 1880s the periodic system was “widely accepted” in America and Central Europe, and that most textbooks in America and Britain after this time discussed the periodic system. In fact, the periodic system received little attention in Norway, not only compared to the United States and Central Europe, but compared to the rest of Scandinavia as well. The aim of the present volume is to compare how the periodic system was received in different countries. Answering such a comprehensive question, is, of course, challenging given the limited selection of printed sources. Quite often the sources that could shed light on the kinds of discussions that took place between relevant actors are either lost or inaccessible. As a consequence, I have chosen to look at how the periodic system was presented in Norwegian periodicals and to what degree—if any—it was introduced and/or used in Norwegian chemistry textbooks during the years between 1870 and the 1930s. I have based my investigation on textbooks available in the Norwegian national library database4 and other texts of which I was aware, as well as on the most common Norwegian chemistry and science periodicals.