In chemistry, Alistair Matheson Duncan (c.1941-), otherwise known as A.M. Duncan, is an English chemistry historian, whose specific focus is 18th century chemistry, in particular affinity chemistry and the use of affinity tables. Of note, Duncan wrote the 30-page introduction section to the 1970 edition of Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman's 1775 A Dissertation on Elective Attractions. [1]
Education
Duncan completed his 1971 PhD on “Eighteenth-Century Theories of Chemical Affinity and Attraction” at the University of London. [2] In circa 1980, Duncan was in contact with German science historian Jeremy Adler and gave him direction and guidance with his research on the affinity chemistry behind Goethe’s Elective Affinities.
References
1. Duncan, Alistair M. (1970). “Introduction to the 1970 Edition”; in A Dissertation on Elective Attractions (pgs. vii-xxxviii) by Torbern Bergman. Frank Cass & Co.
2. Duncan, Alistair M. (1971). “Eighteenth-Century Theories of Chemical Affinity and Attraction”, PhD thesis. University of London.
Further reading
● Duncan, Alistair M. (1962). “Some Theoretical Aspects of Eighteenth-Century Tables of Affinity”, Annals of Science, 18: 177-95 and 217-32.
● Duncan, Alistair M. (1996). Laws and Order in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry. Clarendon Press.
