A victory of practice over science: The unsuccessful Modernisation of the Dutch white lead industry (1780–1865)

Abstract

The example of the white lead industry shows us a sharp picture of the differences between traditional and modern technology, and throws an interesting light on the competition between these two types of techologies, because in this case the outcome did not correspond to widespread views on the superiority of the scientific approach when applied to industry. After explaining the basic features of the so‐called “Dutch process” of white lead production, which, contrary to common opinion, differed considerably from the ancient production method, the paper concentrates on the competition between the Dutch process and new “chemical” production processes. Methods using chemical knowledge to produce white lead in solution were introduced into practice from 1780 onwards. Although these methods had a nimbus of scientificness surrounding them, they all failed in the end. “Scientific” white lead makers were not able to change the quality standards which the painters were adhering to, by the dumping of cheap synthetic pigment, also because incremental improvements made the traditional technology a “moving target”.