Elizabeth Fulhame’s Colorful Chemistry

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode Title: Elizabeth Fulhame’s Colorful Chemistry
Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Fry
Date: March 25, 2026
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts / Stuff You Missed in History Class

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Episode Overview

In this episode, hosts Tracy and Holly delve into the remarkable yet often overlooked legacy of Elizabeth Fulhame, an 18th-century chemist whose work prefigured the discovery of catalysis—a cornerstone of modern chemistry—and had links to the early development of photography. The episode explores her experimentation with dyeing textiles with metals, her influential book “An Essay on Combustion,” and the challenges she faced as a woman in science during her era.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Was Elizabeth Fulhame? (03:21–06:35)

• Sparse Biography:

  • Very little biographical information survives; not even her birth name, date of birth, or childhood details are clear.
  • Most sources simply call her “Mrs. Fulhame.”
  • She was married to Thomas Fulhame, a doctor who studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and attended Joseph Black’s chemistry classes.

• Context for Women in Science:

  • At the time, women could not formally enroll in the University of Edinburgh (not until 1892), but some attended public lectures.
  • Fulhame likely self-taught, possibly with access to her husband’s books and lab resources.

2. Fulhame’s Inspiration & Early Work (06:35–10:30)

• Origin of Interest:

  • Sparked by her husband's exposure to Joseph Black's demonstrations in chemistry (particularly dissolving metals and precipitating metal chlorides).

• Her Idea:

  • Wondered if she could “dye” textiles with gold and silver, similar to the chemical precipitation methods demonstrated by Black.
  • Faced skepticism from her husband and their friends:
    • “I imagined in the beginning that a few experiments would determine the problem. But experience soon convinced me that a very great number indeed were necessary before such an art could be brought to any tolerable degree of perfection.” (Elizabeth Fulhame, 08:40)

• Dedication:

  • Conducted experiments for 14 years, meticulously recording methods and results, limited only by her financial means.

3. Fulhame’s Experiments and Techniques (10:30–13:37; 17:25–24:43)

• Experiment Methods/Tools:

  • Worked without a patron or fully equipped lab—used home setups and a Newth apparatus (for conducting gas reactions).
  • Experimented with silk and other textiles, gold, silver, various chemicals.

• Notable Achievements:

  • Produced gold and silver-dyed textiles, some large enough to be impressive despite limited resources.
  • Used metallic dyes creatively (e.g., on maps: “Rivers... in silver and the cities in gold... the minutest branches… can be splendidly represented in this way.” [10:30])

• Challenges:

  • Couldn’t afford to patent her technique.
  • Wrote the book in part to prevent others “plundering in silence”—a common risk for 18th-century inventors, especially women.

4. The Intellectual Climate: Phlogiston vs. Oxygen Theories (12:23–13:37; 22:37–24:12)

• Phlogiston Theory:
  • A dominant but fading theory of combustion positing that combustibles released a substance (“phlogiston”) when burned.
  • Joseph Priestley (supported phlogiston) vs. Antoine Lavoisier (introduced modern oxygen theory).
  • Fulhame’s book critiques both sides, leaning more toward Lavoisier yet independent in her conclusions:
    • “She found Lavoisier's concept of combustion superior to the idea of phlogiston, but she also thought his hypothesis didn't fully account for everything…” (22:37)

5. Navigating Gender and Scientific Authority (19:48–22:37)

• Prescience on Sexism:
  • Fulhame wrote eloquently about anticipated criticism for being a woman scientist:
    • “Censure is perhaps inevitable, for some are so ignorant that they grow sullen and silent... Should the specter appear in the shape of a woman, the pangs which they suffer are truly dismal.” (19:48)
    • On men protecting their “rights” in science:
      • “…assume a dictatorship in science and fancying, their rights and prerogatives invaded, swell with rage…by innuendos, nods, whispers, sneers, grins, grimace, satanic smiles…” (20:53)

6. Key Scientific Discoveries (24:12–28:52)

• Innovative Chemistry:

  • Catalysis:

    • Fulhame noticed that certain chemical reductions required water, which wasn't consumed in the reactions.
    • “She speculated that the water was being broken down into its components, with those components facilitating combustion and then being reunited...” (26:16)
    • This prefigured the modern concept of catalysis, decades before the term was coined by Berzelius in 1836.

  • Early Photography:

    • Her work with silver nitrate and light-responsive textiles anticipated photographic processes.
      • Example: Treated silk “took on a reddish color that darkened until it was almost black” when exposed to sunlight, but not when kept in the dark. (28:01)

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Reception & Legacy (32:39–42:08)

7. Initial Reception

• Immediate Attention:

  • Popular Press:

    • The Gentleman’s Magazine (1795) and The Monthly Review (1796) covered her book, expressing surprise at “a lady” writing on chemistry and commending her ingenuity.
    • Quote: “We applaud this lady's persevering ingenuity....and sincerely sympathize with her on account of that disabling and discouraging narrowness of circumstances...” (Thomas Beddoes, 34:24)

  • Scientific Community:

    • Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, credited Fulhame’s experiments for inspiring his own investigations:
      • “It was on reading her book that I was induced to engage in these investigations, and it was by her experiments that most of the foregoing experiments were suggested.” (35:28)
    • Her work reviewed favorably in French and German academic circles; German translation published in 1798.

  • Criticism & Rivalry:

    • Joseph Priestley published a rebuttal, calling parts “as fanciful and fabulous as the story of the Phoenix itself.” (36:22)
    • Irish chemist William Higgins implied she’d failed to credit his prior work, though their observations were not identical. (36:57)

8. Recognition & Barriers

• Societal Limits:

  • Scientific societies generally barred women, but Fulhame was made a corresponding member of the Philadelphia Chemical Society.

  • American edition of her book (1810) called her achievement “assuredly deserving of more attention than they have hitherto received.” (39:38)

  • On women’s roles:

    • “Mrs. Fulhame has now laid such bold claims to chemistry that we can no longer deny the sex the privilege of participating in this science also... what may we not expect from such an accession of talents?” (Thomas Peter Smith, 38:04)

9. Influence on Later Science

• Photography:

  • Cited by John Herschel, coiner of the term “photography” (1839), and by chemist George Thomas Fisher Jr. (1843).
  • Fulhame’s experiments considered an early milestone in the path to photographic technology, though direct influence is unclear.

• Rediscovery:

  • Her work faded from mainstream reference by the late 19th century but was rediscovered in the mid-20th century, now accessible online.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On perseverance & sacrifice:

  • “Experience soon convinced me that a very great number indeed were necessary [experiments] before such an art could be brought to any tolerable degree of perfection.” (Elizabeth Fulhame, 08:40)

• On publishing to thwart would-be plagiarists:

  • “I published this essay in its present imperfect state in order to prevent the ferocious attempts of the prowling plagiary and the insidious pretender to chemistry ... to deprive industry of the fruits and fame of her labors.” (19:08, Fulhame preface)

• On anticipating misogyny:

  • “Should the specter appear in the shape of a woman, the pangs which they suffer are truly dismal.” (19:48)

• On her discoveries (proto-catalysis):

  • “As fast as these [water’s components] are consumed in the various processes of combustion, equal quantities are formed and rise regenerated. Like the phoenix from her ashes.” (26:16)

• On impact:

  • “It was on reading her book that I was induced to engage in these investigations...” (35:28, Count Rumford)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Elizabeth Fulhame’s identity and lack of biographical data: 03:21–06:35
• Genesis of her chemical explorations: 06:35–10:30
• Experiments and book rationale: 17:25–24:43
• Combustion theories/phlogiston debate: 12:23–13:37; 22:37–24:12
• Gender barriers and author’s preface: 19:48–22:37
• Her innovations: catalysis and photographic methods: 24:12–28:52
• Contemporary reception and legacy: 32:39–42:08

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Tone & Style Notes

• Tone: Engaging, enthusiastic, sometimes amused, and admiring—especially for Fulhame’s wit and sharpness regarding the state of women in science.
• Language: Conversational but precise, mixing accessible explanations with direct period quotations.

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Final Thoughts

Elizabeth Fulhame stands as a pioneer whose bold scientific inquiry and sharp observations anticipated major advancements in chemistry and photography. Despite facing societal and financial barriers—and fading into obscure footnotes—her work has been rightfully recognized for its ingenuity and persistence. Tracy and Holly highlight Fulhame’s resilience, scientific legacy, and sardonic humor, reinforcing why she deserves a prominent place in the history of science.

Transcript

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[Holly Fry]

welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Three of my four most recent episodes have been about someone named Elizabeth, including today. I did not do that on purpose, it was just a coincidence. But if you've been looking at your app and kind of you've done a double take, like didn't they just do this? They just had Elizabeth. It's a different Elizabeth. There are just a lot of Elizabeths, I guess.

[Holly Fry]

Welcome to the stuff you missed in history class. Festival of Elizabeths Festival of Elizabeths

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I just finished reading the last couple of books in the Edinburgh nights series by T.L. huchu. These books are set in Scotland in a post catastrophe world that is full of ghosts and magic and the occult. And then there are also a lot of references to real historical figures underpinning this fictional world. And in the fourth book of this series, Elizabeth Fulhame gets mentioned as the author of Catalysts and A Guide to Refining Practical Magic. And I thought, was that a real person? And googled and it was. That is not a real book though. Elizabeth Fulham's 1794 book was on chemistry and it was ahead of its time. And I'm also just really fascinated by her, even though we really don't know much about her.

[Holly Fry]

So most sources describe Elizabeth Fulham as Scottish, and that is because she was married to Thomas Fulhame, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a medical degree in 1784. So there's an assumption in play that they met in Edinburgh or maybe somewhere nearby. We don't actually know exactly where Thomas was from either. People often came to Edinburgh to study medicine from other parts of the British and Irish Isles and even other parts of the world. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He was from Ireland.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In terms of Elizabeth's biography, that's basically it. We don't know when she was born or who her parents were. We don't know what her name was before she got married, or what her childhood was like or how long she lived. There are even some doubts about whether her name was Elizabeth. She published her work under the name Mrs. Fulhame, and that is how 18th and 19th century writers referred to her.

[Holly Fry]

So if you're thinking, aren't there birth certificates or marriage certificates, something that we could use to confirm some of these very basic details? In Britain and Ireland, clergy kept records of baptisms, burials and marriages going back to the 16th century. But there wasn't a legal framework for civil registrations of these kinds of events until 1836 for England and Wales, 1854 for Scotland and 1864 for Ireland. So it is possible that there are church records related to the lives of Elizabeth and Thomas Fulhame somewhere, but if they do exist, no one has found them yet.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1779, while he was in medical school, Thomas Fulhame took a chemistry class that was taught by Scottish chemist and physician Joseph Black. In addition to being a highly respected chemist, Black had a reputation for being both inspired and inspiring as a teacher and attracting students from outside of Scotland to study chemistry with him. Chemistry was part of the medical curriculum, but a lot of medical students also took more chemistry than they needed because they wanted to keep learning from him. That included Thomas Fulham, who continued to be connected to Black's chemistry classes until 1790. That was not just after he finished his chemistry requirement for his medical degree. It was years after he finished that medical degree. These two men were also correspondents, and Black credited Thomas Fulhame with developing a method to manufacture white lead.

[Holly Fry]

Black's lectures were also popular with the general public, and a significant number of people paid three guineas to take his general chemistry course. Women could not formally enroll at the University of Edinburgh until 1892, but there were some women who attended lectures that were open to the public before that point. Now, we don't really know. If Elizabeth Fulhame did that, there would have been few, if any women in the audience quite as early as her lifetime. She may have pursued an interest in chemistry on her own, maybe with her husband's help, to get access to books and materials from the university.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It is likely that she became interested in developing techniques for dyeing cloth in 1780, when her husband started taking this chemistry class. One of Black's regular demonstrations involved dissolving metals in an acid solution and then precipitating metal chlorides out of that solution. Elizabeth wondered if it was possible to do something similar to precipitate metals onto textiles, creating fabrics that were basically dyed with silver and gold.

[Holly Fry]

And she mentioned this idea to her husband and some of their friends, and they all dismissed her. She thought she could really figure this out, though, which is so admirable in her words. Quote I imagined in the beginning that a few experiments would determine the problem. But experience soon convinced me that a very great number indeed were necessary before such an art could be brought to any tolerable degree of perfection.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She went on to DO experiments for 14 years, carefully recording her methods and results with various textiles, metals and chemicals. We'll talk more about the methods in just a bit. But she was eventually able to make small bits of gold and silver cloth. She didn't really think these were worth public attention, but she kept trying until her only limit was her budget. She could basically make a piece of gold cloth that was large enough to use up the components she could afford to buy for that experiment. She described one particularly good piece as measuring about a yard long and almost flawless.

[Holly Fry]

She mostly worked with silk, but she experimented with other fabrics as well. Some of her experiments apparently turned out just sort of stained and sad looking. But she also produced pieces of cloth in a whole array of other colors, some of which were flecked with silver or gold. She said that she had once seen a piece of fabric made for the late king of Spain which was purple with gold wire running through. Is possible that she saw this on a trip with her husband. We know that he traveled to Spain in 1789 and she tried to get a similar effect on a piece of white silk and succeeded, Quote having produced a beautiful purple color with gold beaming through it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Fulham also found another use for her techniques which was more like a paint, in her words. Quote I have applied it to some maps. The rivers of which I represented in silver and the cities in gold. The rivers appearing, as it were, in silver streams have a most pleasing effect on the site and relieve the eye of that painful search for the course and origin of rivers. The. The minutest branches of which can be splendidly represented in this way.

[Holly Fry]

In October of 1793, Fulham met, quote, an illustrious friend of science, and that was most likely English chemist Joseph Priestley. He approved of her work and he offered to have it presented to the Royal Society. Priestley was a fellow of the Society at that point. Fulheim didn't say exactly why, but she decided to go a different route. And publish her book herself. Now, it is possible that the reason for that traces back to Priestley, who was persecuted for his dissenting religious views and branded as seditious for his support of the American and French revolutions. Priestley fled to the United States in 1794 and that was the same year that Fulhames An Essay on Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dyeing and Painting, Wherein the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic hypotheses proved erroneous. It's one whole title and it was printed by J. Cooper in Bow Street, London.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In the 18th century, booksellers filled the role of publishers and Fulham's bookseller was Joseph Johnson. Johnson was Priestley's publisher as well, and he was also known for publishing works that were considered to be radical at the time that included the work of religious dissenters and feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft.

[Holly Fry]

Regarding that phlogistic and antiphlogistic hypotheses situation referenced in that title in the 18th century, one theory was that all combustible materials contained a substance known as phlogiston which was released in the act of burning. The ash or other residue that was left behind was the dephlogisticated substance. I love that word. This basic idea was first proposed by Johann Becker in 1667 and then it was further developed by Georg Ernst Stahl, who coined the term phlogiston in the early 18th century.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

By the time Fulhame wrote her book, this theory had supporters and opponents. Supporters included Joseph Priestley, who called oxygen dephlogisticated air when he isolated it in 1774. Challengers to this hypothesis included Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier, who we've covered on the show before and who was building on priestley's work. In 1777, Lavoisier proposed a theory of combustion that described air as a mix of gases, with one of those gases which he called oxygen, being required for combustion.

[Holly Fry]

And we're going to get into how all of this connects to full Ames book After we pause for a sponsor break

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

To get to the details of Elizabeth Volheme's book, she had doubts about whether the techniques that she had developed for dyeing cloth with metals could be established as an art or an industry. She was working without a patron or other financial backing, so her experiments were limited to what she and her husband could afford. That meant she didn't have access to anything like a fully equipped lab. She was doing experiments at home with a few glass vessels and a Newth apparatus.

[Holly Fry]

A Newth apparatus is a set of interconnecting glass chambers developed by John Mervyn Newth for carbonating water. We've actually talked about it before in our episode on Johann Schweppe and Carbonated Beverages. This apparatus could also be used for other purposes. Surgeon Robert Liston, who we have also covered on the show near and Dear to My Heart, adapted one to administer anesthesia to his patients. Fulheim used a new apparatus for various experiments involving gases, placing pieces of cloth in one of the chambers depending on exactly what she was trying to expose it to.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Fulheim also wrote that she did not have the means to patent her techniques, and even if she did have the means, she thought such an application would be in vain. Quote if we may judge the future by the past. She also thought the experiments themselves were not unworthy of the attention of other chemists, since, in her words, quote, they seemed to throw some light on the theory of combustion. So even though she didn't feel like she could patent what she was doing, she wrote this book.

[Holly Fry]

She also seems to have thought that if she didn't write the book, someone else might try to pass off the ideas that she had developed in her experiments as their own. As she wrote in the preface, quote I published this essay in its present imperfect state in order to prevent the ferocious attempts of the prowling plagiary and the insidious pretender to chemistry from arrogating to themselves, and assuming my invention in plundering silence. For there are those who, if they can not by chemical, never fail by stratagem and mechanical means to deprive industry of the fruits and fame of her labors.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She also had some thoughts about the way she was likely to be received and treated as a woman publishing scientific work. These thoughts are honestly one of my favorite parts of this whole book. We are going to read a chunk of them in her words. Quote it may appear, presuming to some, that I should engage in pursuits of this nature, but averse from indolence, and having much leisure, my mind led me to this mode of amusement which I found entertaining, and will, I hope, be thought inoffensive by the liberal and the learned. But censure is perhaps inevitable, for some are so ignorant that they grow sullen and silent, and are chilled with horror at the sight of anything that bears the semblance of learning in whatever shape it may appear. And should the specter appear in the shape of a woman, the pangs which they suffer are truly dismal.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, it's so good. She went on to say. Quote There are others who suffer the same nature in a still higher degree, but by virtue of an old inspiring tripod on which ignorance, servility, or chance has placed them, assume a dictatorship in science and fancying, their rights and prerogatives invaded, swell with rage, and are suddenly seized with a violent and irresistible desire of revenge, manifesting itself by innuendos, nods, whispers, sneers, grins, grimace, satanic smiles and witticisms uttered sometimes in the acute and sometimes in the nasal obtuse twang with an affected auteur and contempt of the spec shrugs and a variety of other contortions attending.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She did not dance around what she thought of people who got so wadded up at the idea of women doing science. Quote Sometimes the goblin which thus agitates them lurks latent, and nothing is perceived but hollow murmurs, portending storms. Sometimes the lurking fiend darts with sidelong fury at the devoted object which, if unarmed, falls victim to the grisly monster. But happily for humankind, the magic tripod drags none into its dizzy vortex but those who are radically stupid and malicious, who are beasts of prey destined to hunt down unprotected genius, to stain the page of biography, or to rot unnoted in the grave of oblivion.

[Holly Fry]

Fulham's preface is followed by an introduction in which she gives an overview of the evolving understanding of combustion, including the arguments for and against the phlogiston theory. She references multiple 17th and 18th century scientists. Making it clear that she was well read and familiar with the scientific literature and theories of the day. She concludes that neither side in the phlogiston debate was fully correct. She found Lavoisier's concept of combustion superior to the idea of phlogiston, but she also thought his hypothesis didn't fully account for everything, including what was going on when bodies became heavier during combustion.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

After this introduction, the book doesn't just list out all of her years of experiments using metals, chemicals and clothing. She thought that would be tedious to read, and beyond that, she wanted to arrange the experiments in a way that allowed them to mutually illustrate each other. So she covered 127 experiments, which was a fraction of the number that she actually carried out. She grouped them so that their successes and failures could illustrate a general principle or provide data about how their methods could be improved. There are chapters on the reductions of metals by hydrogen gas, phosphorus, sulfur, charcoal, light, acids, et cetera, and chapters on the oxygenation of different combustible bodies.

[Holly Fry]

She wrote about her experiments in plain, accessible language using what was called the French nomenclature. That was what was outlined in the 1787 publication Metard de Nomenclature chimique, which was written by chemists Berthollet, Fourcroy, Guitant, de Morveau and Lavoisier. She also included a two page glossary to help anyone who was still using the older terminology and spelled out her reasons for using different terms than the French standard. In a couple of places where she

[Tracy V. Wilson]

did so, she detailed her materials, methods and results, including all those different colors of clothing that we mentioned earlier. As an example, here is one of her experiments with gold. In order to determine whether a solution of gold in ether or one in water were best adapted to the object of these experiments, I evaporated to dryness a solution of gold in nitromuriatic acid and dissolved the salt in distilled water. In this solution I immersed a piece of silk which, after it was dried in the air, was suspended in a glass cylinder like the former piece and exposed to the action of hydrogen gas about two months. The silk, after some time assumed a purple color and five or six specks of reduced gold the size of pinheads and one much larger were observed. Examining the silk in the sunbeams, I perceived the whole of it spangled with minute particles of reduced gold.

[Holly Fry]

As Fullhane discussed the results of the experiments in her book, she made some observations that were really quite ahead of her time. One was that some of the chemical reactions she was working with specifically the reduction of metals happened only in the presence of water, and some substances seemed to burn better when they were damp. In some cases, chemical reactions happened at room temperature. If there was water present and without the water, she would have needed a smelter.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It was obvious to her that water was facilitating these reactions and that it wasn't consumed by those reactions. She speculated that the water was being broken down into its components, with those components facilitating combustion and then being reunited into water when the reaction was over. In this way, she said, quote, as fast as these are consumed in the various processes of combustion, equal quantities are formed and rise regenerated. Like the phoenix from her ashes.

[Holly Fry]

She didn't have the details exactly right, and observing this phenomenon also led her to the incorrect conclusion that all such reactions required the presence of water. But what she was describing was catalysis. That's a chemical process in which one substance facilitates a chemical reaction without being consumed in that reaction. The discovery of catalysis is usually attributed to Jans Jakob Berzelius, who coined the term decades later in 1836. Fulhame was not the first person ever to observe and describe this kind of reaction, but she was the first person known to have framed it as part of a whole class of reactions that were also similar to one another. Catalysts are a truly enormous part of the chemical industry today, used in the production of everything from foods to medicines to plastics, and in both the refining of petroleum and the limiting of emissions from gasoline powered vehicles.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Those are just examples, not an exhaustive list of everything catalysts are used for.

[Holly Fry]

Dear me no.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She also experimented with photosensitivity. She described impregnating silk fibers with murate of silver which took on a bluish black color when exposed to the sun. Or immersing a piece of silk in silver nitrate and exposing it to the sun where it almost immediately took on a reddish color that darkened until it was almost black. Silk, treated the same way but kept in the dark, did not go through such a color change. She also described the similar results with gold chloride and speculated that the reaction could be used to write letters or words. Various historians of photography have described what she was doing as a photographic process and as an early example of the kinds of experiments that would eventually lead to daguerreotypes and photographs.

[Holly Fry]

We will talk about how Fullheim's work was received after we pause for a sponsor break.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

So we started off this this episode by talking about how today we know almost nothing about Elizabeth Fulhame. So it might seem like logically, her work must have gone unnoticed when she published it in 1794. But it did not. They got some attention both within and outside the scientific community.

[Holly Fry]

The Gentleman's Magazine was first published in London in 1731, and it remained in print for nearly two centuries. It was a popular periodical and it was also the first to use the word magazine, meaning storehouse, to describe a published collection of essays and articles and similar texts. In June of 1795, the Gentleman's Magazine published an anonymous review of Fulham's book. It began, quote, an essay on combustion by a lady thought we could proceed from no other pen than that of Miss Williams or Mrs. Wollstonecraft, and must be a political disquisition disgu we were agreeably disappointed to find that it relates entirely to a method of making cloths of gold, silver and other metals by a chemical process.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So in that passage, Wollstonecraft is obviously Mary Wollstonecraft. Ms. Williams was probably Helen Maria Williams, who was an English writer and social critic who was connected to Joseph Priestley and to Wollstonecraft among other 18th century figures. Apart from what this anonymous writer is implying about women and feminists in this piece, it suggests that Fulheim's book was widely read enough to catch an editor's attention and be worth writing about in a popular magazine.

[Holly Fry]

In 1796, English physician and chemist Thomas Beddoes wrote about Fulham's book in The Monthly Review. He said it would be better titled Experiments on the Reduction of Metals in the Ordinary Temperature of the Atmosphere. But he described her discovery of the need for water to be present in certain reactions as singular and the overall work as ingenious and entitled to respectful consideration. He wrote, quote, we applaud this lady's persevering ingenuity. We admire her dexterity in carrying on her researches almost without apparatus, and we sincerely sympathize with her on account of that disabling and discouraging narrowness of circumstances of which she so feelingly complains. May she soon meet with a being such as she has heard of on the record of fame, but never seen one vis a liberal patron, or else experience such a change in circumstances as shall allow full scope to her abilities.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1798, Benjamin Thompson, who later became Count Rumford, published an essay called An Inquiry concerning the Chemical Properties that have Been Attributed to Light that was in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. In this he describes the results of an experiment with gold as agreeing perfectly with similar experiments by the, quote, ingenious and lively Mrs. Fulhame. In a footnote in this paper, he went on to say, quote, it was on reading her book that I was induced to engage in these investigations, and it was by her experiments that most of the foregoing experiments were suggested. Thompson was a British physicist born in the colony of Massachusetts, and the year after publishing this essay, he and Joseph Banks established the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

[Holly Fry]

Other 18th century scientists cited her work as well. It was reviewed favorably in the French annals De Chimi, and a German version of her book was published in Gottingen in 1798. But not everybody's response was positive. While Joseph Priestley had apparently encouraged Fulham to publish her work, he later published a point by point rebuttal of her conclusions, saying her description of what we now known as catalysis was, quote, as fanciful and fabulous as the story of the Phoenix itself.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Irish chemist William Higgins sounded sort of petulant when he discussed fulham's work in 1799. He did call it ingenious, and he said he read it with great pleasure. But in between those two more positive passages, he said, quote, had this fair author read my book, and indeed I suppose she did not, having quoted every other treatise upon the subject, no doubt she would have been candid enough to do me the justice of accepting me from the rest of my cooperators in science when she told them they erred for having overlooked this modification of their doctrine. And also when she adduced it as an original idea of her own. He implied that he had had this same discovery regarding the presence of water in chemical reactions first before she did, although his observations were focused only on the rusting of iron While she was looking at chemical reactions more broadly.

[Holly Fry]

The scientific societies of Europe were not open to women at this point, but Fulham was named a corresponding member of the Philadelphia chemical society. Philadelphia chemist Thomas Peter Smith wrote a sketch of the revolutions in chemistry in 1798, and in it he said, quote, I shall now present you with the last and most pleasing revolution that has occurred in chemistry. Hitherto we have beheld this science entirely in the hands of men. We are now about to behold. Women assert their just, though too long neglected, claims of being participators in the pleasures arising from a knowledge of chemistry. Already have Madame dossier and Mrs. McCauley established their rights to criticism and history. Mrs. Fulhame has now laid such bold claims to chemistry that we can no longer deny the sex the privilege of participating in this science also. What may we not expect from such an accession of talents? How swiftly will the horizon of knowledge recede before our united labors, and what unbounded pleasure may we not anticipate in treading the paths of science with such companions?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

If you don't recognize the names that he dropped in there, Madame dossier is Anne Dacier, a translator, commentator, and scholar from France who had died in 1720. Catherine Macaulay was the first english woman to become a published historian. She died in 1791.

[Holly Fry]

An American edition of Fulham's book was published in Philadelphia in 1810, and that characterized it as little known in north America. This edition began with an anonymously written advertisement which characterized the book's pages as, quote, assuredly deserving of more attention than they have hitherto received. From there it read, quote, whether it be that the pride of science revolted at the idea of being taught by a female, I know not. But assuredly the accomplished author of this essay has sufficiently evinced the adequacy of her requirements in the promulgation of opinions subversive of a part of the highly esteemed edifice raised by the efforts of Lavoisier and others that the work has hitherto remained unknown in this favored land, where freedom of inquiry is so sedulously cherished is matter of surprise, especially when it is known that many years past the author was elected an honorary member of the then existing chemical society of Philadelphia, a distinction founded on the merit of this work.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Later this anonymous editor continued, quote, I cannot doubt the justice of the opinions deduced by Mrs. Fulhame from her numerous and well conducted experiments. And although it may be grating to many to suppose a female capable of successfully opposing the opinions of some of our fathers in science, yet reflection will serve to satisfy the mind devoted to truth that she has certainly thrown a stumbling block of no small magnitude in the way of sentiments we have been taught to consider as sacred.

[Holly Fry]

Scientists and researchers on both sides of the Atlantic continued to refer to Fulheim's work for decades. English polymath John Herschel is one of the people credited with coining the term photography, and he cited Fulham in his first paper on the subject, which was published in March of 1839. Chemist George Thomas Fisher Jr. Noted her gold chloride experiments in the introduction to his Manipulations in the Scientific Arts, Part 3 Photogenic Manipulation, whose introduction walks through the history of photography that was published in 1843. It is not clear whether Fulhame had a direct influence on the development of photography, but it is clear that people knew about and were talking about her work in the early years of photography's evolution.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Over the 19th century, Fulheim's work went from being actively discussed in the fields of chemistry and photography to being more of a footnote in textbooks and in works about the history of those fields, and then those references also largely stopped until her work was rediscovered in the mid 20th century. It is much easier to access her work today than it was in the 1960s, though at that time there were a few copies in archives and special collections in various libraries, which was where people rediscovered it. Today, though, all three versions of her book are available as scans online, either as text or as scans of the actual pages. That includes the original London printing, the German translation, and the 1810American edition. And that is Elizabeth Fulhame and I kind of love her, even though we know almost nothing.

[Holly Fry]

I'm excited to talk about her on Friday.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Me too.

[Holly Fry]

Do you have listener mail in the meantime?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I do have listener mail. This listener mail is from David and David wrote Just listened to your behind the scenes coffee episode where you shifted into typology and the long s or and then David actually put the long s in the email. It's the one that looks kind of like an F. I recently ran across this exercise in reading a story where the text regresses back through the centuries of English script and thought you'd enjoy it. I admit I hit a wall when the text reached the 1200s, but learned a lot of new script along the way. There's a nice description of the different eras. At the end I have to admit that my inner 14 year old went straight to Mind you, moose bites can be pretty nasty. That being from the very comical credits to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Enjoy. And so this links to a piece called how far back in time can you understand English? @Dead Languages Society.com that languages is plural. I also laughed at your description. Suspicion of shrimp and grits in New England reminded me of the time my brother caused a minor event at the airport when he tried to fly home from his visit here with white lily, flower and grits in his luggage. Truly enjoy the show David. David was writing from South Carolina, that being why someone was returning his home with white lily, flower and grits. PS Pet Tax this is Katy Cat KK taking over my chair, helping with the taxes, then her normal repose of snoozing after belly scritches. The very cute kitty cat thank you so much David for this email. I saw I think the author's thread on Blue sky which was similar. Like each piece of it was a different mess and so you could sort of step your way back to read what it would be like earlier and earlier in English. And I think I also got to not being able to understand it anymore at about the 1200s. So if folks want to look for that again, it is called how far back in time can you understand english? @dead languagessociety.com it is a fun little exercise both to just see how far back do I understand this and also to see how much English has evolved over the last approximately thousand ish and something years. We've had a whole episode of the show about that fact a long time ago about the history of the English language. So thank you again David. If you would like to send us a note, we're@history podcastheartradio.com you can see our show Notes on our website, which [e-mail] and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of I iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

7 brought to you in part by Vital Farms. I love eggs. I turn to them all the time as a quick and easy way to start a meal and Vital Farms eggs are brought to you by hens that have access to fresh air and sunshine and you can actually look up on the carton see the farm that those eggs came from. Vital Farms is also a certified bee corporation with a purpose to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food. Look for the black egg carton in the egg aisle and visit vitalfarms.com to learn more. Vital Good Eggs no shortcuts Time for

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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