Today in Smithsonian History: July 7, 1791

Page one of James Smithson’s first scientific paper, “An Account of some chemical Experiments on Tabasheer,” read to the Royal Society of London on 7 July 1791. James Smithson read the paper under the name of James Louis Macie, the name he used until c. 1800.

July 7, 1791 James Smithson’s first scientific paper, “An Account of Some Chemical Experiments on Tabasheer,” is read before the Royal Society of London and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. LXXXI, Part 2, p. 368. The paper details his many experiments on this substance found in bamboo. It is signed James Lewis Macie, the name he used until 1800.

In all, Smithson wrote 27 papers as contributions to the scientific literature, eight published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and 19 in Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. These are reproduced in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, volume 21, no. 327, 1881, edited by William J. Rhees.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives

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