The author of To Light Such a Candle is Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Ottawa. Keith Laidler will be familiar to many chemists, but especially to physical chemists who have adopted his physical chemistry textbook or his chemical kinetics book or have read The World of Physical Chemistry, a previous book about the history of science. In the present work, Laidler widens his scientific and historical horizons substantially, but still deals most completely with topics that might be covered in a course in physical chemistry. The only organic or biochemistry that is discussed is in Chapter 7, "The Braggs and Molecular Architecture", in which the role of crystallography in the determination of structures is described. Laidler also includes here an excursion into molecular biology, genetics, and the relationship of science to religious belief. The majority of the book focuses on the physical side of science, rather than chemical and biological subjects or, as Laidler would say, the "harder" rather than the "softer" sciences. Each chapter title includes the name of a person or two. For example, "James Watt and the Science of Thermodynamics" (Chapter 2), "Daguerre, Talbot, and the Legacy of Photography" (Chapter 3), "Michael Faraday and Electric Power" (Chapter 4), "James Clerk Maxwell and Radio Transmission" (Chapter 5), "J. J. Thomson and the Electronic Age" (Chapter 6), "Planck, Einstein, the Quantum Theory, and Relativity" (Chapter 8). While Laidler's history is woven around these central figures, he attempts always to follow the scientific thread rather than merely the lives of individual scientists. Sometimes this approach is a bit awkward, since so many of the people described contributed substantially to several important problems. In these cases, the author either reminds the reader that a person had been described earlier, or promises serious discussion of the individual when his larger contributions are dealt with in a later chapter. While this is occasionally disconcerting, it does draw attention to the diversity of the talents of many of the great historical figures of science and technology. Sticking to the scientific thread requires bringing in dozens (hundreds?) of supporting characters in addition to the "stars", but it makes a history of ideas rather than a history of persons. In a few cases, Laidler points out that the names most associated with a discovery or invention did little to further the science and technology of the subject. Ask an acquaintance, "Who invented radio?" Most likely he or she will say "Marconi". In fact, Laidler tells us that Guglielmo Marconi barely understood the physics of radio; he relied on the ideas and demonstrated devices of others, including Heinrich Hertz and Sir Oliver Lodge. Marconi was the first to transmit a radio signal over both the English Channel and the Atlantic. He apparently was ignorant of the "well-known" physical principal that waves travel in straight lines, and was willing to try what the physics community believed to be impossible. Marconi was an ambitious and contentious businessman, and his Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company parlayed his experimental success into an enterprise that actually made money from the technology. None of his scientific contemporaries were able to do so.

No book is perfect, and this one is no exception. A few errors are apparently merely typographical or minor misstatements. On page 71, Daguerre is said to have opened an exhibition in 1922 (he died in 1851). On page 133, Faraday is credited with liquefying carbon dioxide; he probably solidified it instead. In describing holography, an illustration on page 112 implies that one could make a hologram of a running horse in a straightforward manner. In fact, such a project would be quite a challenge. Probably the author intended the object illustrated to have been a small model of a horse; such a hologram would be easily produced. On page 120 are shown four original illustrations from Volta's first paper on what came to be known as the "Voltaic pile". Uncharacteristically, Laidler does not fully explain what those drawings were intended to illustrate (although he does describe the science generally). Given the large number of topics with which the book deals, it is surprising that there is not more with which one might disagree.

It is a pleasure to read a book about the history of science that so clearly and accurately describes the scientific and technological milieu in which the discoveries and inventions occurred. It is rare that a person as informed in the scientific arena is willing to contribute to the historical understanding of the subject. I have already recommended To Light Such a Candle to students in my physical chemistry classes. I believe that many teachers of these subjects would be well advised to incorporate some of Laidler's history into their teaching.