he history of chemistry is a story of human endeavor-and as er T ratic as human nature itself. Progress has been made in fits and starts, and it has come from all parts of the globe. Because the scope of this history is considerable (some 100,000 years), it is necessary to impose some order, and we have organized the text around three dis cemible-albeit gross--divisions of time: Part 1 (Chaps. 1-7) covers 100,000 BeE (Before Common Era) to the late 1700s and presents the background of the Chemical Revolution; Part 2 (Chaps. 8-14) covers the late 1700s to World War land presents the Chemical Revolution and its consequences; Part 3 (Chaps. 15-20) covers World War I to 1950 and presents the Quantum Revolution and its consequences and hints at revolutions to come. There have always been two tributaries to the chemical stream: experiment and theory. But systematic experimental methods were not routinely employed until the 1600s-and quantitative theories did not evolve until the 1700s-and it can be argued that modem chernistry as a science did not begin until the Chemical Revolution in the 1700s. xi xii PREFACE We argue however that the first experiments were performed by arti sans and the first theories proposed by philosophers-and that a rev olution can be understood only in terms of what is being revolted against.
Author(s): Cathy Cobb, Harold Goldwhite (auth.)
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer US
Year: 1995
Language: English
Pages: 475
Tags: Documentation and Information in Chemistry
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
ca. 100,000–300 BCE: Prehistoric Chemist to Chemical Philosopher—the Seeds....Pages 3-25
ca. 300 BCE–600 CE: Alexandria and Alchemy....Pages 27-50
ca. 200 BCE–1000 CE: From Rome to Baghdad....Pages 51-67
ca. 1000–1200: Alchemy Translates from East to West....Pages 69-88
ca. 1300–1500: The Evolution of European Alchemy....Pages 89-105
ca. 1600: Philosophers of Fire....Pages 107-126
ca. 1700: The Search for System and Phlogiston....Pages 127-147
Front Matter....Pages 149-149
ca. 1700: Révolution!....Pages 151-169
ca. 1800–1848: Après Le Déluge....Pages 171-184
ca. 1800–1848: The Professional Chemist....Pages 185-211
ca. 1848–1914: Thermodynamics—The Heat of the Matter....Pages 213-233
ca. 1830–1914: Organic Chemistry—Up from the Ooze....Pages 235-256
ca. 1848–1914: Inorganic Elements and Ions—New Earths and Airs....Pages 257-281
ca. 1848–1914: Analytical, Industrial, and Biochemistry—Creations of Coal....Pages 283-306
Front Matter....Pages 307-307
ca. 1914–1950: Quantum Chemistry—The Belly of the Beast....Pages 309-335
ca. 1914–1950: Polymers and Proteins—Links in the Chain....Pages 337-358
ca. 1914–1950: New Materials and Methods—Organic and Inorganic Chemistry Grow....Pages 359-376
ca. 1914–1950: Chemical Kinetics—Boom or Bust....Pages 377-390
ca. 1914–1950: Radiochemistry—Dalton Dissected....Pages 391-414
The Best Is Yet To Come....Pages 415-430
Back Matter....Pages 431-475
