A book that sparked New Zealand-born Nobel Prize winner Alan MacDiarmid's interest in chemistry is now part of the country's science history.
The 1924 book The Boy Chemist was borrowed by a young Alan MacDiarmid from the Lower Hutt library. He kept it for a year, using itto increase his knowledge of chemistry and conduct experiments.
Now rare, the book is being copied in honour of Professor MacDiarmid who works at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and who was last year awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry.
George Jones, Wellington branch president of the Royal Society, the country's top independent science and technology body, is making copies of the book. He hopes to present Professor MacDiarmid with a copy during an expected visit to New Zealand next year.
Mr Jones has used a copy bought for Wellington's National Library by the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection.
He set out to buy a copy of the book himself but found only one available over the internet. He decided not to buy it after it jumped in price from $US85 ($200) to $US235 and higher still due, he said, to "opportunistic pricing".
Mr Jones said he believed Professor MacDiarmid borrowed the book having decided to learn more about chemistry after looking through some of his engineer father's books.
The young chemist kept the book for a year, renewing its loan from the Lower Hutt library. "He also said he spilled a variety of chemicals over it during that year," said Mr Jones.
In contrast the copy Mr Jones was using was clean. It had been owned by a boy who grew up to be a sports writer.
"We assume he did not do very many of the experiments."
Mr Jones said he would have a few copies of The Boy Chemist for sale for $100 or so to people who would like to own it or give it to schools or libraries.
But it was not for budding chemists of the 21st Century.
The book was out of date, of marginal educational value and addressed only to boys.
