M. A. van Royen — properly Mejuffrouw M. A. van Royen, Chem. docts. (Chem. doct.) — was a Dutch female chemist of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum of the Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut in Amsterdam who, in 1930, performed the testing of the Atjeh-turpentine samples against the draft Ontwerp-normaalblad V 597 of the Hoofdcommissie voor de Normalisatie in Nederland. She is named in the Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet of 1930 as the author of the investigation recorded in Table VI of the pamphlet, which established that the Atjeh-turpentine met every requirement of the draft normalisation standards except the refractive index, which fell marginally below the proposed minimum of 1.469.
The testing against the draft Normaalblad
The Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet records that the testing of the Atjeh-turpentine samples against the draft Ontwerp-normaalblad V 597 was performed by Mej. M. A. van Royen. The two available samples — H.M. no. 1504 and H.M. no. 1607 — were tested in full against the draft standards; the third sample, H.M. no. 1553, was insufficient in quantity for the full test. The results, recorded in Table VI of the pamphlet, established that the Atjeh-turpentine met every requirement of the draft standards except the refractive index, which fell marginally below the proposed minimum of 1.469. The actual values were 1.4677 (sample 1504) and 1.4680 (sample 1607), against the Pharmacopoeia minimum of 1.468 — which the samples met at the limit — and the draft Normaalblad minimum of 1.469, which they failed by 0.0013 and 0.0010 respectively. The shortfall was attributed to the exceptionally high α-pinene content of the Atjeh product (85–90%, against 60–70% in American and French turpentines), which had the effect of letting the lower refractive index of α-pinene (1.4658) dominate the refractive index of the entire mixture.
Other publications
The list of Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum preserved at the back of the Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet records that M. J. van Royen — possibly the same person — was the author of Bericht No. 40 (Onderzoek van Gom van Acacia decurrens uit Nederlandsch-Indië, 1928); and that “Dra. M. van Royen” was the co-author, with Ir. W. Spoon, of Bericht No. 34 (Verdere opmerkingen over exploitatie van Euphorbia’s in Zuid-Afrika; onderzoek van hars en caoutchouc, 1928). The attribution of these publications to “M. J.” van Royen, “Dra. M.” van Royen and “Mej. M. A.” van Royen may reflect the inconsistent abbreviation of a single individual’s initials, or the work of related female chemists at the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum in the same period.
Significance
Van Royen’s significance in the historiography of colonial Aceh is as the chemist whose testing of the Atjeh-turpentine samples against the draft Ontwerp-normaalblad V 597 established the marginal shortfall of the Atjeh product from the proposed refractive-index standard. Her work is the principal published scientific evidence for the chemical properties of the factory-scale Atjeh-turpentine, and her position as a Chem. docts. at the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum is a document of the role of female scientists in the colonial-commodity research programme of the Koloniaal Instituut in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
See Also
- Atjeh-terpentijn (Spoor, 1930)
- Atjeh-terpentijn
- Ontwerp-normaalblad V 597
- Afdeeling Handelsmuseum
- Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut
- W. Spoon
- L. P. de Bussy
- D. B. Spoelstra
- Hoofdcommissie voor de Normalisatie in Nederland
- 1930
Source
Atjeh-terpentijn: tegenwoordige kwaliteit en nieuwe beoordeelingen, by Ir. W. Spoon, Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut No. 57, Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1930, p. 19 (Toetsing aan de ontwerp-normalisatie-eischen).