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The elements : a visual history of their discovery / Philip Ball.
LIBRA QD466 .B26 2021
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ball, Philip, 1962- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Chemical elements--History.
- Chemical elements.
- History.
- Genre:
- History.
- Physical Description:
- 224 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 26 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021.
- Summary:
- "The Elements is a stunning visual history of how the chemical elements were discovered. By piecing together the Periodic Table, science writer Philip Ball explores not only how we came to understand what everything is made of but also how chemistry developed into a modern science. He groups the elements into chronological eras of discovery, covering three millennia from the first known to the last named. As he moves deliberately from classical antiquity to the age of atomic bombs and particle accelerators, Ball highlights images and stories from around the world and sheds needed light on those who struggled for their ideas to gain inclusion. By featuring some elements that aren't true elements but were thought to be, such as phlogiston and caloric, Elements makes bold choices in order to tell the full history of this important science. To order the book's sequence into eras of element discovery, separate short sections for each element or groups of related elements are gathered into larger parts. Short interludes (or feature spreads) are interspersed that convey important intellectual milestones in how we think about the elements"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: ch. One The Classical Elements
- ch. Two The Antique Metals
- ch. Three Alchemical Elements
- Interlude: What Exactly is an Element?
- ch. Four The New Metals
- The Periodic Table
- ch. Five Chemistry's Golden Age
- Interlude: John Dalton's Atoms
- ch. Six Electrical Discoveries
- Interlude: The Periodic Table
- ch. Seven The Radiant Age
- ch. Eight The Nuclear Age.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9780226775951
- 022677595X
- OCLC:
- 1237652554
- Publisher Number:
- 99988374379
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