Abstract
The enduring link which exists between industry and science as we know it today only began to be established in the middle of the 19th century. In this article I argue that the establishment of this link occurred by means of a radical change in the very way of conceiving scientific activity. Thus, I show what was the new conception of scientific activity that appeared in the middle of the 19th century and ask how it came to be established. I suggest that the answer lies in the interweaving of two activities that did not exist until the 19th century: the systematic work of the laboratories, which only gained an institutional dimension in the 1830s, and the exploitation of coal tar for industrial goals, which only started in 1856.
Keywords:
Industrial Revolution; English scientific culture; Justus von Liebig; Coal tar industry; Industrial development in 19th century