Chemical Bonding: Ritual and Community-Formation at Chemistry Conferences, 1921-22

In 1921 and 1922 the Utrecht-based chemist Ernst Cohen organized two informal international conferences. Their aim was to break the boycott of scientists from the former Central Powers that was the official policy of the new international scientific organizations established in the wake of the First World War. Like many scientists from formerly neutral countries, Cohen rejected that policy and tried to reunite his German and Austrian colleagues with their French, Belgian, British, Russian, and American counterparts. The two Utrecht meetings were meant as an “experiment” at such reintegration. In this paper I examine not so much the success of this attempt, but primarily how it was done. By what means did Cohen et al. try to re-establish a broken community? Precisely because this was the only objective of the two meetings, and their subject-matter was relatively unimportant, they offer a window on the mechanisms of community-formation at conferences. What was articulated, for example, at the speeches and toasts? What was the function of the excursions and banquets with courses named after famous chemists? What was the role of spouses in the meetings? And what was the meaning of the various papers, on subjects like “free radicals” and “bonding through light”, for the social aims of the conferences? These rituals have to be situated not only against the background of the war and its rifts, but also in the light of an elite culture of academic scientists faced with their increasingly important, and problematic, industrial connections.