These developments did not mean that van Marum was becoming isolated. On the contrary,
he continued to uphold his correspondence with researchers around the world, and remained
one of the foremost scholars in his own country. In 1794 he was elected secretary of the
Holland Society. 3 This was the highest position at the Society, roughly equivalent in status to
that of the presidents of other countries’ academies. The Holland Society remained the
Netherlands only scholarly association of national scope until King Louis Napoleon created
what was first known as the Royal Institute in 1808 (it was rechristened the Royal Academy
some decades later), a process in which van Marum was intimately involved.
Neither did this mean that van Marum reduced the amount of research he performed. Besides
numerous shorter articles, he published two major books before the turn of the century. The
first of these, the Second Sequel to the Experiments with Teyler Electrical Machine, came
out in 1795. It delivered pretty much what the title promised. The second book was
published in 1798, and contained descriptions of improvements to various scientific
instruments and chemical experiments van Marum had devised over the past years, much in
the same way he had improved on Lavoisier’s gasometer with Fries.65
10. Van Marum’s Practical Appliances
This second book was testimony to another of van Marum’s passions: he was adept at
handling and improving scientific instruments and practical appliances, and even devised a
range of new apparatus designed for the public good.66 In the 1780s and the 1790s for
instance he devoted time to the issue of fires. He used the electrostatic generator to find out
what shape was best for lightning rods - the question of whether they were to be rounded or
pointed was one that was not properly settled for decades to come - and also tried to improve
the process by which fires were put out. To this end, he constructed a new, improved fire
extinguisher, which he presented to the public in early 1795. His aim was to have such fire
extinguishers placed at nodal points all over Haarlem, so that they would be easily accessible
in case of fire. The Teyler Foundation, however, refused to finance this scheme. The trustees
were most likely convinced this was not what Pieter Teyler had had in mind when he penned
his will. What’s more, from their neo-humanist outlook they would not necessarily have been
enamoured with van Marum’s proposal. Nevertheless, van Marum’s ideas did not go
unnoticed. To some extent, this was perhaps inevitable, given the spectacular nature of the
63 Johan A. Bierens de Haan, De Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, 1752-1952 (Haarlem: Tjeenk
Willink & Zoon, 1970), 56.
4 Martinus van Marum, “Second Sequel to the Experiments with Teyler’s Electrical Machine,” vol. 5, Martinus
van Marum: Life & Work (Leyden: Noordhoff International Publishing, 1974), 145-240.
65 Martinus van Marum, “Description o f Some New or Perfected Chemical Instruments Belonging to Teyler’s
Foundation and o f Experiments Carried Out with These Instruments,” vol. 5, Martinus van Marum: Life & Work
^Leyden: Noordhoff International Publishing, 1974), 239-298.
For a detailed analysis o f van Marum’s work on practical appliances, see: R.J. Forbes, “Applied Technology,”
vol. 3, Martinus van Marum: Life & Work (Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1971), 278-328.
demonstration he organised in order to demonstrate how he would put out fire: a hut was
constructed outside Haarlem and then set on fire, only so that it could be extinguished. News
of the demonstration appears to have carried far. To his own surprise, van Marum was asked
to restage the demonstration on a trip to Germany in 1798. He had explained and
demonstrated the mechanism on a smaller scale at various other stops on the same trip, but on
one of his last stops, in Gotha, upon returning to the town after having visited researchers in
other places, he recorded: “I learned to my surprise that in my absence the Duke [of Weimar]
had caused a hut to be made of the same size as the one I had set on fire and extinguished at
Haarlem.” Arrangements were then made to fill the hut with flammable substances in the
same way as had been done in Haarlem - and van Marum seems to have miscalculated a little.
“For want of tar I caused about 401bs. of molten resin to be thrown into the straw” he reports,
then laconically stating that “as a result the fire was much fiercer than in the Haarlem
experiments”. He then immediately adds, perhaps proudly: “however, I succeeded in
extinguishing it with 4 to 5 buckets.” 7
Around the same time he was developing his ideas for a fire extinguisher, van Marum also
came up with a ventilation system which would improve the quality of the air in enclosed
spaces. It was initially devised for buildings - van Marum tested it on the Foundation’s
laboratory in 1796 — but he soon adopted it for use on ships too. This can be seen as the
culmination of a long-standing interest of his in the quality of air. As early as 1783 van
Marum had devoted time to a treatise on unhealthy fumes and gases - together with Adriaan
Paets van Troostwijk - which was published by the Batavian Society of the Experimental
Sciences in 1787.69
Finally, van Marum’s medical background showed on a number of other devices he
constructed. In 1801 for instance he improved the design of a “Papin” cooking pot, with the
aim of improving the poor’s nourishment. During this period many inhabitants of Haarlem
were dependent on charitable soup kitchens for sustenance. He also devised a bath that was
supposedly to help cholera patients. And van Marum sought to apply the knowledge he had
gained about the properties of air when he studied the best way to resuscitate victims of
drowning.
By the time the 1798 treatise on improved chemical devices came out however, the focus of
van Marum’s interest had again begun to shift. Again, it is not that he had lost interest in the
nature of electricity or the chemical composition of the material world. Van Marum in fact set
the electrostatic generator in motion again at least twice during the early years of the 19
^ Martinus van Marum, “Journey to Kassel, Göttingen, Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena in 1798, vol. 2,
Martinus van Marum: Life & Work (Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1970), 311.
68 “Bericht van Doctor van Marum betreffende onlangs gedaane proefheemingen ter verbetering der
luchtzuivering op groote scheepen,” Nieuwe Algemene Konst- en Letterbode, voor meer- en min-geöejfenden,
May 31, 1799.1 am grateful to Huib Zuidervaart for drawing my attention to this article.
69 Martinus van Marum and A. Paets van Troostwyk, Antwoord op de vraage: Welke is de aart van de
verschillende, schadelijke en verstikkende uitdampingen van moerassen, modderpoelen, secreeten, riolen, gast-
o f zieken- en gevangenhuizen, tnijnen, putten, graven, wijn- en bierkelders, doove koolen etc? En welke zijn de
beste middelen en tegengiften om de schadelijkheid dier uitdampingen, naar haaren verschillenden aart, te
verbeteren, en de verstikten te redden?, vol. 8, Verh. Bataafsch Genootschap Proefonderv. Wijsbegeerte
(Rotterdam: Dirk en Ary Vis, 1787).