William Crookes (1832-1919) and the commercialization of science / William H. Brock.

Aldershot : Ashgate, [2008], ©2008.

xxvii, 556 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

A tailor's son -- Photographic chemist : the making of an editor -- Earning a living -- Thallium -- Carbolic and cattle plague -- Selling science, 1865-1875 -- Spiritualism -- Mysterious forces : investigating Mr Home -- Chemistry is strictly a science of precision -- The investigation of Florence Cook, 1872-1874 -- Scandal : the investigations of Annie Eva Fay and Rosina Showers -- The radiometer and its lessons : William Carpenter versus William Crookes -- Dark spaces and the fourth state of matter -- Ubi crux ibi lux : the business of electricity -- The commercialization of public health : water -- The commercialization of public health : adulteration, sewage and hygiene -- Radiant spectroscopy : the rare earths crusade -- Esoteric chemistry in the nineties -- Inert gases and transmutations -- The wheat problem -- Radioactivity -- Welsh gold and African diamonds -- The grand old man of chemical physics, 1907-1913 -- The final years, 1913-1919 -- The afterlife.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [491]-541) and index.