Scaling Up: The Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Rise of a New Profession

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Chemical engineering - as a recognized skill in the workplace, as an academic discipline, and as an acknowledged profession - is scarcely a century old. Yet from a contested existence before the First World War, chemical engineering had become one of the big four engineering professions in Britain, and a major contributor to Western economies by the end of the 20th century. The subject had distinct national trajectories. In Britain - too long seen as shaped by American experiences - the emergence of recognized chemical engineers was the result of professional aspirations and contingency, and shaped by a shifting ecology of institutions, firms and government. Drawing upon extensive archival research, this book examines the evolution of technical practice, working environment and social interactions of chemical engineering. It should be of considerable interest to historians, sociologists of the professions, and to practitioners themselves.