Chemical Education Today
Sherlock Holmes in a Chemistry Class by Ken Shaw The Waterford School, Sandy, Utah 84093, United States
[email protected] First, a disclaimer: As the title says, this is Sherlock Holmes in a chemistry classroom. It is not the chemistry of Holmes, which would require the efforts of a true historian of Victorian and Edwardian science. I am not one of those. (My only claim to expertise is having worked in a 19th-century chemistry laboratory in college; see Figure 1.) I am a high school and middle school teacher of chemistry. And I have found a role for Sherlock Holmes in one of my classes. As high school chemistry teachers well know, we are largely engaged in teaching 19th-century science. Atomic and electronic theory, stoichiometry, kinetic theory of matter and reactions, thermodynamics, even electromagnetism;these were all ideas defined and tested with Victorian-era technology, including Bunsen burners, retorts, burets, and crucibles, which is why they are so likely to be found emitting strange fumes in Sherlock Holmes' sitting room, all to the undoubted chagrin of his landlady, the good Mrs. Hudson. To the extent that any class in general chemistry is almost necessarily a history of science, Holmes should be familiar with the tools of the trade. To consider Sherlock Holmes in the context of chemical education, I am faced with his remarks to Watson, from Arthur Conan Doyle's “Abbey Grange” (2): I must admit, Watson, that you have some power of selection which atones for much which I deplore in your narratives. Your fatal habit of looking at everything from the point of view of a story instead of as a scientific exercise has ruined what might have been an instructive and even classical series of demonstrations.
I love this Holmes quotation. It captures his truculent wit and playful egotism, and it makes me wonder again why Watson continues to endure such verbal abuse. They must be friends. I wonder if Watson is struck by his friend's use of “fatal habit” in his cranky upbraid of the doctor's tendencies, given that both know Holmes to be the true expert on “fatal habits”: namely, that damned 7% solution of his. But Holmes is preoccupied with his “instructive and even classical series of demonstrations”, perhaps peeved that his chemistry is not as well-known and admired as his crime solving. In his defense, it was A. C. Doyle who pointed out that the first chemical test for blood on fabric was in fact developed by the fictional sleuth himself! In truth, I am as guilty as Watson “of looking at everything from the point of view of a story”. So much of my general chemistry teaching takes the form of a narrative of historical discovery. After all, to trace John Dalton's reasoning from the law of multiple proportions to a proof of atomism is, for me, to discover for one's self how the law of conservation of mass and all of stoichiometry works. The history brings the ideas to life. At some point in this narrative of atomic discovery, say, in 1897, J. J. Thomson imagines a universe in the plum pudding he is enjoying. 372
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Perhaps Sherlock Holmes has met this gentleman. Perhaps he knows Thomson's terrible secret. Holmes allows us to be excused for not recognizing the scientific value of his work. (Blame Watson!) Therefore, it is up to us, as chemistry teachers, to claim Holmes' vision for our own. Bend the stories to better fit the science and the audience. In my case, three years ago, the audience became sixth-grade chemistry students. This would be a group ill suited for the dry chemistry text of a high school class. Another route to discovery would be preferable. A critical factor in any curriculum design is, of course, the audience. In 10th-grade, my audience is likely engaged elsewhere in the study of European intellectual history, so a historical, chronological approach fits into a familiar paradigm. Whether the specific subject is stoichiometry or equilibrium, students are faced with conceptual and mathematical problems that match the significant experiments performed in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. And in the case of adolescents learning about the conservation of mass, who can resist the tale of Antoine Lavoisier, a story involving love, revolution, burning metals, and a guillotine. As the American Movie Channel is fond of saying, story matters. For a sixth-grade audience learning chemistry yet perhaps yearning for adventure, I turned to Sherlock Holmes in 2007 when I became absorbed in the work of Waddell and Rybolt in JCE. As I soon discovered, we Holmesians are by no means alone. Since my first JCE publication (3), a Holmes story in Waddell and Rybolt's story-solution format, I have been contacted by archivists and educators from around the world, but mostly teachers, eager to share their love of Holmes or A. C. Doyle, as well as their own efforts to teach science through literature and media. Indeed, the bound collection of Waddell and Rybolt's original stories (4) has been so successful that a virtual issue is being published (5) that contains 17 Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: the 15 original ones by Waddell and Rybolt as well as the 2 written by me. To prepare a class for sixth-grade chemistry students, I began by watching lots of Jeremy Brett episodes (6) and reading the stories of Holmes by A. C. Doyle, taking copious notes on applicable science, character habits and speech, and any other nuggets of Holmesian intrigue I could find. Following the admirable precedent set by Waddell and Rybolt, I tried my own hand at stories that linked age-appropriate chemistry to some sort of Victorian crime. Doyle also provides precedent for this activity. Sometimes, the chemistry is quite specific, such as the hydrocyanic acid in “The Veiled Lodger” (7), the silver nitrate in “A Scandal in Bohemia” (8), or the wretched “oil of vitriol” in “The Illustrious
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Chemical Education Today
Figure 1. Brown University Chemistry Students, 1873. My own laboratory experiences at Brown easily evoked that lacquered sense of history, as the Metcalf Chemistry Buildings back in the early 1980s were themselves relics of another age;with wooden cabinets, burned bench tops, and an archaic ventilation system. There were even secret tunnels for escaping disaster! All of this would have been instantly recognizable to a young gentleman Sherlock Holmes, ca. 1870s, at Bartholomew's (1). Or was it Queens College or perhaps that fictional amalgam, Camford? (Photograph courtesy of Gayle Lynch for the Brown University Archive.)
Client” (9). Other times, the science is concealed in the eponymous title, such as “Lion's Mane” (10) and “The Adventure of the Devil's Foot” (11). In all the stories, Holmes employs both induction and deduction of the highest quality. There are, as well, some painful exceptions to this, particularly “The Creeping Man” (12), a case in which a noted academic conducts monstrous experiments with animal serums. It is not always easy to love the science in A. C. Doyle's stories, but, of course, it was the fictional Holmes, not the real Doyle, who was trained in chemistry. I really must be careful with my Holmes fascination, as it can get the better of me. When I learned recently, for instance, that Ludwig Boltzmann, the father of statistical mechanics, died under suspicious circumstances while on holiday in Italy with his family in 1906, I immediately began to contemplate story implications. Holmes would instantly observe flaws in the official account (those bumbling Florentine policemen!) that suicide was the apparent cause of death. Really, Watson? Hung by a curtain rod in the hotel closet? What can it mean that the creator of modern thermodynamics, a world-renowned authority on the nature of cause and effect, leaves himself, dangling by the neck, to be discovered by his beloved daughter on a family vacation? Is it possible, perhaps through Boltzmann's own probabilistic technique (S = k log W), to work backward from this unfortunate equilibrium state to a motive and means for a crime? As I say, I really must be careful.
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In the meantime, I prepare for a new group of sixth graders next term. They tend to enjoy the stories, and they absolutely love the laboratory work. I have noticed a special fondness for the Baker Street Irregulars, those homeless miscreants employed by Holmes for delicate tasks such as surveillance and evidence discovery (and, occasionally, tampering). Middle school kids empathize with the pluck and resourcefulness of the Irregulars, with their street smarts, as well as with the their plight as orphans. And like the Irregulars, sixth grade students share both a fascination and a fear of Sherlock Holmes and his chemistry. There is illumination, to be sure, but there is also danger. Hopefully, they appreciate the patronage of their master. At the very least, they should remember to wear eye protection at all times. For my new story, I want to employ the concepts of molecular mass and gas density, as well some potentially hazardous reaction chemistry involving household items. (Bleach, lye, vinegar, ammonia, and natural acid-base indicators come to mind.) In that way, I might be able to create a curriculum module in which students solve a Holmesian puzzle within the context of chemical lab work conducted in class. The new case is called Quiet Dog. Lab work may require a test tube of sodium hypochlorite solution, a red cabbage, and an aspirin tablet. There is both chemistry and deerstalker caps and malice aforethought. Quickly, Watson, trouble is afoot, and the hansom cab is waiting!
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Chemical Education Today
Literature Cited 1. Doyle, A. C. A Study in Scarlet; Ward and Lock: London, 1887. 2. Doyle, A. C. Abbey Grange. In The Return of Sherlock Holmes; George Newnes, Ltd.: London, 1905. 3. Shaw, K. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85, 507-513; DOI: 10.1021/ ed085p507. 4. Waddell, T. G.; Rybolt, T. R. The Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Journal of Chemical Education: Madison, WI, 2004; http://store.jce.divched.org/shop/product_info.php?products_id=70 (accessed Jan 2011). 5. Waddell, T. G.; Rybolt, T. R. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88; DOI: 10.1021/ed101190d. See also: Jacobsen, E. K. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88; DOI: 10.1021/ed200021z.
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6. Internet Movie Database Entry for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086661/ (accessed Jan 2011). 7. Doyle, A. C. The Veiled Lodger. In The Case-Book of Sherlock Homes; John Murray: London, 1927. 8. Doyle, A. C. A Scandal in Bohemia. In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; George Newnes, Ltd: London, 1892. 9. Doyle, A. C. The Illustrious Client. In The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes; John Murray: London, 1927. 10. Doyle, A. C. Lion's Mane. In The Case-Book of Sherlock Homes; John Murray: London, 1927. 11. Doyle, A. C. The Adventure of the Devil's Foot. In His Last Bow; John Murray: London, 1917. 12. Doyle, A. C. The Creeping Man. In The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes; John Murray: London, 1927.
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