Robert James Forbes, since 1959 a corresponding member of the Society for the History of Technology, died in the Netherlands on January 13, 1973, at the age of seventy-two. In ancient technology and the history of petroleum technology, he was one of the world’s leading scholars.
New acquaintances often expressed surprise that a man so proudly Netherlandish should have so Scottish a name. He was, in fact, descended from the noted Scots theologian of the early 17th century, John Forbes of Corse, who married a Dutch wife, studied in Holland, and took refuge there from the religious enthusiasms of some of his Presbyterian contemporaries. This inheritance led Robert Forbes to show remarkable friendship and helpfulness to many British and American scholars.
Born at Breda on April 21, 1900, he graduated in chemical engineering from the Technological University of Delft. From 1923 until 1959 (save for the period of the Nazi occupation, when he was entrapped in the Netherlands) he served Royal Dutch-Shell both in Europe and in the Indies as a chemist. From 1959 he was permanent secretary of the Hollandsche maatschappij der wetenschappen, the oldest scientific body of the Netherlands. At the University of Amsterdam he was professor of the history of pure and applied science in antiquity. In 1953 he received an honorary D.Sc. from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa), and in 1959 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.
In 1960 he was awarded the Dickinson Memorial Medal of the Newcomen Society, and he was the first recipient (1962) of the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology.
In 1936 Forbes published a brief study, Bitumen and Petroleum in Antiquity. His concern for petroleum technology led him to his Short History of the Art of Distillation (1948) and, through asphalt, to Notes on the History of Ancient Roads (2d ed. 1964). This line of interest resulted likewise in The Technical Development of the Royal Dutch-Shell, 1890–1940 (1957), Studies in Early Petroleum History (1958), and More Studies in Early Petroleum History (1959).
Meanwhile, however, his passion for the entire history of technology had been deepening, especially that of the early empires, Greece and Rome. His indispensable Bibliographia Antigua, covering nearly every aspect of ancient technology, appeared in six volumes between 1940 and 1950, with massive supplements in 1952 and 1963. Bibliography was followed by monographs. Between 1955 and 1964 nine volumes of Studies in Ancient Technology were published, a superhuman accomplishment of which the defects pale before the merits.
Forbes likewise made attempts at general syntheses, notably his Man the Maker (1950), a two-volume History of Science and Technology (with E. J. Dijksterhuis) (1963), and The Conquest of Nature: Technology and Its Consequences (1968). Not all of his readers were pleased with the results, but his critics must be asked to do better than he did. His death is a major loss to a profession still in the juvenile stages of development.
Lynn White, Jr.
Originally published as Lynn White, Jr., “Robert James Forbes (1900–1973),” Technology and Culture 15, no. 3 (1974): 438–39. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.1974.a892738.
Taviss, Irene. Review of The Conquest of Nature: Technology and Its Consequences, by R. J. Forbes. Technology and Culture 10, no. 2 (1969): 304–07. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.1969.a892365.
Forbes, Robert James. The Conquest of Nature: Technology and Its Consequences. Kiribati: Praeger, 1968.
Forbes, Robert James and Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis. A History of Science and Technology. Vol 2. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Serbia and Montenegro: Penguin, 1963.
Forbes, Robert James and Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis. A History of Science and Technology. United States: Penguin Books, 1963.
Forbes, R. J. More Studies in Early Petroleum History, 1860–1880. Leiden: Brill, 1959.
Forbes, R. J. Studies in Early Petroleum History. Leiden: Brill, 1958.
Forbes, R. J. The Technical Development of the Royal Dutch/Shell 1890–1940. Hague: Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, 1957.
Forbes, R. J. Studies in Ancient Technology. 9 Volumes. Leiden: Brill, 1955–1964.
Forbes, Robert James. Man the Maker, a History of Technology and Engineering. New York: H. Schuman, 1950.
Forbes, Robert James. Bibliographia antigua: Wetenschap en techniek [Bibliographia antigua: Science and technology]. Netherlands: Nederlandsch Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1950.
Forbes, Robert James. Bibliographia antigua: Mijnbouw en geologie [Bibliographia antigua: Mining and geology]. Netherlands: Nederlandsch Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1949.
Forbes, Robert James. Bibliographia antigua: Bouwmaterialen. Aardewerk, faience, glas, glazuur, siersteenen. [Bibliographia antigua: Building materials. Pottery, faience, glass, glazes, beads]. Netherlands: Nederlandsch Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1944.
Forbes, Robert James. Bibliographia antigua: philosophia naturalis [Bibliographia antigua: Natural philosophy]. 4 volumes. Netherlands: Nederlandsch Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1940.
Forbes, R. J. Short History of the Art of Distillation. Leiden: Brill, 1948.