From Atoms to Molecules

Studies in the History of Chemistry from the 19th Century

Colin A. Russell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780754668558
• eBook ISBN: 9781040249918
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The focus of this volume by Professor Russell is the history of organic chemistry, which arose improbably out of early speculations about the construction of chemical compounds, and in particular their electrochemical nature. The rise of electrochemistry and the work of Berzelius were critical in this regard, and receive much attention in the first few chapters in this book. Aspects of the contributions of Frankland (fully explored elsewhere) and those of Kekulê and Hofmann are considered, together with the miscellaneous functions of organic synthesis and the origins of conformational analysis. Questions of chemical organisation are germane to the whole sequence of events and are briefly summarized before the whole last hundred years of organic chemistry are placed in historical perspective.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• I ‘Rude and disgraceful beginnings’: a view of the history of chemistry from the nineteenth century
• II The electrochemical theory of Sir Humphry Davy - I: The Voltaic pile and electrolysis
• III Ibid., II: Electrical interpretations of chemistry
• IV Ibid., III: The evidence of the Royal Institution manuscripts
• V The electrochemical theory of Berzelius - I: Origins of the theory
• VI Ibid., II: An electrochemical view of matter
• VII Berzelius and the development of the atomic theory
• VIII Introduction to Essai sur la Théorie des Proportions Chimiques, et sur l’Influence Chimique de l’Electricité
• IX Chemistry on the edge of Europe: growth and decline in Sweden
• X The archives of Sir Edward Frankland: resources, problems and methods (with Shirley P. Russell)
• XI Chemical techniques in a pre-electronic age: the remarkable apparatus of Edward Frankland
• XII Kekulé and Frankland: A psychological puzzle?
• XIII Early concepts of aromatic substitution
• XIV August Wilhelm Hofmann, cosmopolitan chemist
• XV The changing role of synthesis in organic chemistry
• XVI The origins of conformational analysis
• XVII Advances in organic chemistry over the last 100 years
• XVIII Chemical bonds 1841–1991: 150 years of the British chemical community
• Index