Social Relationships

We can find meaning in George Berg’s glassmaking and chemistry project by looking to eighteenth-century concerns that combined social or public interest in the idea of “improvement” with concepts of personal enlightenment. Employing an interpretation such as this, we can add Berg to a long list of others known through their inventions and improvements, through letters to journals or newspapers, and through submissions for awards of patents or other gratuities. Attributing Berg’s endeavor to his desire to advance social and personal fortunes creates a precise position for Berg as a curious and dedicated amateur heeding the call to advance public life through a combination of intellectual and practical activities. Clubs and coffeehouse societies dedicated to investigation and recognition of useful information are well known as a feature of eighteenth-century social life, especially in London. Of these groups, the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (the Society of Arts) was a leader in the dissemination of the paired concepts that the arts and sciences could be improved by anyone, and that the improved results should be available for all. Berg was a member of the Society of Arts, so it is reasonable to consider his connections to this organization as a way to understand some of the broader contexts of his project. It is all the more important because there is no evidence Berg submitted his formulas for recognition. Therefore, a closer examination of this relationship offers insight into the more subtle ways that the Society of Arts encouraged useful invention and the concept of improvement.