Chapter 2
I Technology Transported; 1788-1840
II Technology Established; 1840-1940
III The Coming Of Science
i Education for Food Technology
ii Research Institutes
IV From Science To Technology: The Post-war Years
V Products And Processes
VI Conclusion
VII Acknowledgements
References
Index
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The SCIV was modelled on the London based Society of Chemical Industry, of which a sub-branch had been formed in Sydney in 1898. The SCIV was, however, the first independent chemical society in Australia. In addition to public analysts it drew heavily on industry and academia for its membership. As in England in the 1870s, before the foundation of the Institute of Chemistry (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) so in Australia at that time there was no body or mechanism for validating the qualifications of men offering themselves as public analysts. So the SCIV took a lead in the early part of this century in protecting the public from incompetence, even to the extent of drawing up an Analysts' Bill for the Victorian Parliament. The need for it was obviated by the introduction in 1906 by the University of Melbourne of a Diploma of Analytical Chemistry. At this time, too, there was established a Diploma of Public Health which required six months of laboratory work in the university Chemistry Department on the analysis of air, water, and food. The (now Royal) Australian Chemical Institute was founded in 1917 and assumed the responsibility of assessing the professional standing of chemists generally.
In 1900, among the first papers presented to the SCIV was one by H. A. Danne on the 'Determination of Moisture in Butter' and the society continued to show an interest in food related matters. In the first ten years subjects discussed included both beet and cane sugar, the manufacture of starch, a new reaction for differentiating between raw and pasteurized milk, and prophetically, or perhaps, in 1902 a cri de coeur, black spot in apples and its eradication. In July 1910, R. E Boan lectured very competently on milk pasteurization and it is clear from his paper that the principles involved were very well understood in Australia at that time. In April 1912, Grove Johnson discussed the fermentation industries. In November 1915, Professor W. A. Osborne of the University of Melbourne lectured on the new concept of the vitamins and he and Associate Professor W. J. Young combined in 1922 to present a paper on 'The Physiology and Biochemistry of Milk and Milk Products'. Until the emergence after the Second World War of other organizations specifically food oriented, the SCIV continued to offer in Victoria a major forum for the discussion of the scientific and technical aspects of food.[118]
Before the turn of the century systematic research in food science was confined mainly to Germany and the U.S.. It was essentially chemical, with some empirical studies on the equipment used, but there was, of course, Prescott and Underwood's work on the microbiology of canned products. Food science as we know it today arose as a result of the advances in biochemistry and nutrition in the early twentieth century, which is one reason why Farrer and Guthrie's work was so impressive; it preceded those advances. It was also technological, not biological in thrust.
The recognition that a scientific approach to the Australian sugar industry was needed led to the establishment of a sugar experiment station at Mackay in 1898 and the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (BSES), an idea borrowed from Hawaii, was set up by Act of Parliament in 1900. This was a major event in the history of Australian food science and technology. Its initial impact was on the cultivation of cane, which is essentially agricultural, but as has already been noted, the bureau later turned to technology.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Australian Chemical Institute; Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations; Society of Chemical Industry of Victoria (S.C.I.V)
People in Bright Sparcs - Boan, R. F.; Danne, H. A.; Farrer, William; Guthrie, F. B.; Johnson, Grove; Osborne, Prof. W. A.; Young, Assoc. Prof. W. J.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition page 115, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/114.html