The Hare-clarke Controversy over the Invention of the Improved Gas Blowpipe

Credit for the initial invention of the gas blowpipe has been marked by an unusually large amount of controversy (1), involving bitter charges of plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty. An example of this involves the American chemist Robert Hare,1781-1858 (2), who claimed that Edward Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge University (3), had falsely taken credit for the invention of the improved gas blowpipe. Edward Daniel Clarke, LLD (1769-1822), had published, in 1819, The Gas Blowpipe; or, Art of Fusion by Burning the Gaseous Constituents of Water (4), in which he staked out his claim for the primary credit for the invention of this apparatus. Hare maintained that he had published the details of its construction fifteen years earlier then that of Clarke. This led Hare to ask the question in 1820, “Will Briton’s tolerate such conduct in their professors?”