Chasing the molecule / John Buckingham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buckingham, J.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Molecular structure--Research--History--19th century.

Molecular structure.

Organic compounds--Structure--Research--History--19th century.

Organic compounds.

Discoveries in science--History--19th century.

Discoveries in science.

History.

Organic compounds--Structure.

Research.

Physical Description:

259 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton Pub., 2004.

Summary:

In the mid-nineteenth century a revolution took place in science that reverberated throughout Victorian society. Scientists had previously realized that all organic compounds had one thing in common: carbon. Then they established that natural products were largely composed of just three elements -- carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. To a society that believed in a 'Vital Force' that made living things, these discoveries were both shocking and unbelievable. From these startling beginnings, Dr John Buckingham tracks the discovery of the structure of the molecule, and reveals how rival chemists and theories held back advance for years. The first attack on the vital force theory came when Friedrich Wohler synthesized an organic compound from an inorganic one. But it took forty years for the consequences of his experiment to be followed through, as personal disputes coloured by nationalism delayed progress. It was not until the 1860s that August Kekule -- a pillar of the German academic establishment who claimed the answer came to him in dreams -- and Sicilian Stanislao Cannizzaro -- who revealed the important but neglected work of Avogadro -- triggered the key discoveries that enabled scientists to pursue the real story at the heart of life once more. John Buckingham unfolds for the first time the full story of the molecules of life and shows how the breakthrough paved the way for the giant chemistry-based industries of the next century to build the modern world. Vividly and engagingly written, Chasing the Molecule will appeal to anyone interested in the history of science and scientific endeavour.

Contents:

1 A Leaf is not a Stone 5

2 Sugar is Nothing but Water Rendered Solid 19

3 Try Some of these Coffee Grounds 33

4 Alike, Globular and All of the Same Magnitude 48

5 The Flaming Intellectual Hearth 61

6 Into the Boundless Thicket 77

7 May We See the Trees? 90

8 An Infinitely Wise Arrangement 101

9 New Bodies Floating in the Air 115

10 Adieu, Monsieur! 123

11 A Cross-Channel Excursion 143

12 The Kingdom of the Two Italians 161

13 The Man on the Clapham Omnibus 173

14 All is Found! 195

15 It's All Over for the 'Thing-in-Itself' 211.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-242) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0750933453 :

OCLC:

55004994