Bowen's Kale was a reference material produced by British chemist

Humphry Bowen __NOTOC__ Humphry John Moule Bowen (22 June 1929 – 9 August 2001) was a British botanist and chemist. Early life and education Bowen was born in Oxford, son of the chemist Edmund Bowen and Edith Bowen (nee Moule). He attended the Dragon Sc ...

and used for the

calibration In measurement technology and metrology, calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of known ...

of early

scientific instruments A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research. History Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...

intended to measure

trace elements __NOTOC__ A trace element is a chemical element of a minute quantity, a trace amount, especially used in referring to a micronutrient, but is also used to refer to minor elements in the composition of a rock, or other chemical substance. In nutri ...

during the 1960s. With Peter Cawse, Bowen grew, dried, and crushed a large amount of marrow-stem

kale Kale (), also called leaf cabbage, belongs to a group of cabbage (''Brassica oleracea'') cultivars primarily grown for their Leaf vegetable, edible leaves; it has also been used as an ornamental plant. Its multiple different cultivars vary quite ...

(''Brassica oleracea'' var. ''medullosa'') into of a homogeneous and stable powder in 1960 that was subsequently freely distributed to researchers around the world for over two decades. This was probably the first successful example of such a ''de facto''

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

. Bowen's Kale stimulated the preparation of further materials by other organizations for similar use.

References

Bibliography

* Bowen, H. J. M., A standard biological material for elementary analysis. In P. W. Sallis (ed.), ''Proc. of the SAC Conference'', Nottingham, UK, pp. 25–31. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, 1965. * Bowen, H. J. M., Kale as a reference material. In W. R. Wolf (ed.), ''Biological Reference Materials: Availability, uses and need for validation of nutrient measurement'', pp. 3–17.

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

, 1984. * Stoeppler, M., Wolf, W. R. and Jenks, P. J. (eds.), ''Reference Materials for Chemical Analysis: Certification, Availability and Proper Usage''. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2001. . (See pages 4, 26, 59 & 216.) 1960 introductions 1960 establishments in England Standards of the United Kingdom Powders Biodegradable materials Collections of museums in the United Kingdom Elemental analysis History of chemistry {{Measurement-stub

See also

References

Bibliography