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Selected Classic Papers
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from the
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History of Chemistry |
The following papers from the history of chemistry are available as html files. Many are seminal papers in their fields. Some are interesting curiosities. Papers are arranged by subject below, or alphabetically.
Most of the entries reside either at the Classic Chemistry site at Le Moyne College or on the historical papers section of John Park's ChemTeam site. Links to classic papers outside the Classic Chemistry site are clearly credited.
- Amedeo Avogadro, Journal de Physique (1811). Includes "Avogadro's hypothesis" that equal volumes of gas contain equal numbers of molecules. (Link to a biographical sketch of Avogadro, a picture of him, and some notes on Avogadro's number.)
- Jöns Jacob Berzelius on the cause of chemical proportions (1813): the atomic hypothesis and some difficulties with it. Link to a biographical sketch.
- Roger Boscovich: excerpts from a 1763 treatise on atoms as point-like centers of force. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. Link to a biographical sketch.
- Stanislao Cannizzaro (1858): This outline of a course in chemical philosophy was instrumental in establishing the validity of Avogadro's hypothesis and in setting atomic weights on a generally accepted basis. This paper is at the ChemTeam site; it is currently in the form of an extensive excerpt to be added to. Link to a biographical sketch.
- John Dalton: 1803 article on solubility of gases in water, including Dalton's first investigation of the "relative weights of the ultimate particles of bodies"
- John Dalton, excerpts from A New System of Chemistry (1808). Dalton's atomic hypothesis as well as the erroneous hypothesis that the simplest compound containing two elements contains atoms in a one-to-one ratio. Includes a figure representing various simple and compound atoms. (Link to a biographical sketch of Dalton or view his picture.)
- Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, read before the Philomathic Society (1808). Reports results that combining ratios of many gases are ratios of small integers. (Link to a biographical sketch of Gay-lussac or a picture of him.)
- Karlsruhe Congress, 1860, account written by Charles-Adolphe Wurtz. The first international chemistry congress debates the reality and terminology of atoms and equivalents. (Link to a photo of Wurtz or a biographical paragraph.)
- Johann Josef Loschmidt (1865): estimates the size of air molecules. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. Link to further information on Loschmidt.
- Lucretius, excerpts from a 17th-century English verse translation of the Latin verse treatise De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). This selection speculates about Nature's bodies unseen and the Voyd. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. Full text is available from the Internet Classics Archive.
- Pierre-Joseph Macquer: 1766 dictionary entry on aggregation makes distinctions among what we would now call atoms, molecules, and reactants.
- Jean Charles de Marignac (1860): commentary on the paper by J. S. Stas that probed and dismissed Prout's hypothesis. Link to further information on Marignac.)
- Jean Charles de Marignac and Marcellin Berthelot on atoms, equivalents, and notation (1877): first an article by Marignac, then a response by Berthelot, and another brief response by Marignac. They disagree over notation, but both are skeptical about the existence of atoms. (Link to further information on Berthelot.)
- James Clerk Maxwell, reviews the physical atomic-molecular theory (1873). (Link to a biographical sketch of Maxwell.)
- James Clerk Maxwell, on the kinetic molecular theory (including Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular speeds) and its support for the molecular nature of matter (1875).
- Isaac Newton, from the end of his Opticks (1704). This passage, which inspired Dalton's atomic hypothesis, also treats the nature of God and induction in scientific method. Look here for more on Newton.
- Jean Perrin (1909): excerpt on Brownian movement and the reality of molecules, including an esimation of Avogadro's number (and the coining of that term). Link to a biographical sketch of Perrin.
- Joseph Louis Proust (1799): on definite proportions of copper carbonate. (Link to a biographical paragraph on Proust or a picture of him.)
- Joseph Louis Proust (1806): reserves the word compound for materials with definite proportions.
- William Prout, noting that densities of gases are multiples of the density of hydrogen, speculates that hydrogen may be the primary material from which all other materials are made (1815-16). (Link to a picture of Prout.)
- Jean S. Stas, on atomic weights of common elements (1860), deems Prout's hypothesis an illusion. (See further information on Stas and companion paper by Marignac.)
- Thomas Thomson: excerpts from A System of Chemistry (1807) that represent the first public explanation of Dalton's atomic ideas. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (View a picture of Thomson in the Edgar Fahs Smith Collection.)
- Thomas Thomson: 1808 paper on oxalic acid and oxalates relevant to law of multiple proportions and atomic hypothesis. This paper is at the ChemTeam site.
- Thomas Thomson, "On the Daltonian Theory of Definite Proportions in Chemical Combinations" (1813), an early amplification and defence of Dalton's ideas.
- S. E. Virgo: 1933 review article on Loschmidt's number. This paper is at Thomas Furtsch's site at Tennessee Technological University.
- William Whewell: excerpt from 1840 paper expressing positivist skepticism about atomic theory. Link to biographical information on Whewell.
- William Hyde Wollaston: 1808 paper on super-acid and sub-acid salts relevant to law of multiple proportions and atomic hypothesis. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (Link to biographical data on Wollaston.)
- Eduard Buchner (1897) on alcoholic fermentation without yeast cells, implicating an enzyme. (Link to further information on Buchner.)
- Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1814) on a new fat called margarine. (Link to biographical sketch of Chevreul.)
- Heinrich Hlasiwetz and Josef Habermann (1873): analysis of proteins (caesin, in this excerpt) and prevalence of what we now call amino acids
- Franz Hofmeister (1902): structure of proteins, in particular the peptide bond.
- Leonor Michaelis and Maud Leonora Menten: 1913 paper on enzyme kinetics (invertase). Link to further information about Michaelis and Menten.
- Gerardus Johannes Mulder (1839): elemental analysis of proteins, coins term protein
- Louis Pasteur (1861) on alcoholic fermentation and beer yeast. (Link to further information on Pasteur.)
- Louis Pasteur (1863): germs are implicated in putrefaction, contrary to the notion of spontaneous generation.
- Louis Pasteur (1879): physiological theory of fermentation (This paper is in the Internet Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham).
- William Prout (1827): analysis, classification, and organization of bio-organic materials.
- Johann Christian Reil: "On the Vital Force" (1796) says that "forces", such as the vital, animal, and vegetable forces are simply the properties of matter.
- Moritz Traube (1858) on the chemical nature of ferments and putrefaction.
- Edward Frankland: complete 1852 paper on organometallic compounds; it contains an early and clear statement of the concept of valence. (Thanks to John Park for transcription.) Link to further information on Frankland.
- August Kekule: excerpt of 1865 paper on the structure of aromatic compounds. This paper is on Rod Beavon's chemistry site. (Link to further information on Kekule.)
- W. Kossel: 1916 paper on relationship of bonding to periodic table and atomic structure. (This paper is at the ChemTeam site.)
- Irving Langmuir: 1919 papers on the octet theory of chemical bonding. These papers are at the ChemTeam site: 1 and 2 . (Link to a biographical sketch of Langmuir.)
- Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush on "Polarity and Ionization from the Standpoint of the Lewis Theory of Valence" (1920); the last section on associated liquids describes hydrogen bonding. This paper is at the ChemTeam site.
- Joseph Achille Le Bel: tetrahedral geometry of carbon (1874). This paper is at the ChemTeam site as is this photo.
- G. N. Lewis: 1916 paper on the electron pair bond. This paper is at the ChemTeam site, as is this picture. (Link to a biographical sketch of Lewis.)
- Louis Pasteur: 1860 lecture on optical rotation, crystal structure, and molecular asymmetry; it describes manual separation of non-superimposable crystals.
- Linus Pauling on the nature of the chemical bond and the electronegativity of atoms (1932). This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (Link to further information about Pauling.)
- Jacobus van't Hoff: optical activity and the tetrahedral geometry of carbon (1874). This paper is at the ChemTeam site. Link to a biographical sketch of van't Hoff.
- Alexander Williamson: synthesis of ether and structure of ethers and alcohols (1850). Link to further information about Williamson.
- Robert Boyle, (1672). Excerpts on the difficulty of getting anything to burn in a vacuum.
- Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of A Candle, 1860. This series of lectures is at Fordham's Modern History Sourcebook.
- Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1772) argues that there is nothing absurd about the weight of phlogiston; it is just lighter than air. (Link to further information about Guyton de Morveau.)
- Antoine Lavoisier, read before the Academie royale des sciences (1775). Identification of the substance (oxygen) which combines with metals upon calcination; this version includes paper as read in 1775 and as published (revised) in 1778. (Link to a biography of Lavoisier.)
- Antoine Lavoisier, read before the Academie royale des sciences (1775). Puts forth his theory of combustion and criticizes the phlogiston theory.
- Antoine Lavoisier: Oeuvres, (Paris, 1862-1893, 6 vols.): page images at Panopticon Lavoisier
- Joseph Priestley, Considerations on the Doctrine of Phlogiston and the Decomposition of Water: 1796 summary of reasons to doubt the new antiphlogistic theory and retain that of phlogiston.
- Jean Rey (1630): Essays on the cause of the increase in weight of tin and lead upon calcination (excerpts). Rey says that the air is the cause, foreshadowing the conclusion established by solid experimentation nearly a century and a half later. Link to biographical information on Rey.
- Georg Ernst Stahl: three short passages from the father of the phlogiston theory: an early (1697) mention of phlogiston and its association with sulfur; a later (1718) association of the term phlogiston with the principle sulfur; and still later (1723) a formal definition of chemistry and outline of the structure of matter. (Link to biographical information on Stahl or view a picture of him.)
- Richard Watson: 1789 paper on the properties of phlogiston. [transcribed by Joel Benington, St. Bonaventure University] (Watson was bishop of Llandaff, Wales, and Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge.)
- Svante Arrhenius: 1887 paper "On the Dissociation of Substances Dissolved in Water" concerning electrolyte solutions. This paper is at the ChemTeam site.
- Niels Bjerrum: 1909 paper on solutions of strong electrolytes. This paper is at the ChemTeam site.
- J. N. Brønsted: 1923 paper on the concept of acids and bases. This paper is at the ChemTeam site as is this photo.
- P. Debye and E. Hückel: 1923 paper on colligative properties of electrolyte solutions. This paper is at the ChemTeam site, as is a photo of Debye.
- Michael Faraday: excerpt of 1834 paper "On Electrical Decomposition", which coined such common terms as electrode, anode, cathode, anion, and cation. Faraday also announced the result that the "chemical decomposing action of a current is constant for a constant quantity of electricity". This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (Link to a biographical sketch of Faraday.)
- Hermann von Helmholtz: 1881 Faraday lecture on Faraday and electricity. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (Link to a biographical sketch of Helmholtz.)
- Lord Kelvin (William Thomson): excerpt from 1902 paper speculating on how discrete electrical charges ("electrions") within atoms might underlie properties of those atoms. This paper is at the ChemTeam site.
- Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald: 1888 paper describing dilution law. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (Link to a biographical sketch of Ostwald.)
- Sören Sörensen: excerpt from 1909 paper which introduces the pH scale. This paper is at the ChemTeam site. (View a picture of Sörensen at the Edgar Fahs Smith Collection.)
- Alessandro Volta: on the battery, 1800, using discs of silver and zinc. This paper is at the ChemTeam site as is this picture.
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