From Atoms to Molecules

Professor Colin A. Russell, The Open University and the University of Cambridge. UK

• Contents: Preface; 'Rude and disgraceful beginnings': a view of the history of chemistry from the 19th century; The electrochemical theory of Sir Humphry Davy - I: the voltaic pile and electrolysis; II: Electrical interpretations of chemistry; II: The evidence of the Royal Institution manuscripts; The electrochemical theory of Berzelius - I: origins of the theory; II: An electrochemical view of matter; Berzelius and the development of the atomic theory; Introduction to Essai sur la Théorie des Proportions Chimiques et sur l'influence Chimique de l'Électricité, by J.J. Berzelius; Chemistry on the edge of Europe: growth and decline in Sweden; The archives of Sir Edward Frankland: resources, problems and methods; Chemical techniques in a pre-electronic age: the remarkable apparatus of Edward Frankland; Kekulé and Frankland: a psychological puzzle?; Early concepts of aromatic substitution; August Wilhelm Hofman, cosmopolitan chemist; The changing role of synthesis in organic chemistry; The origins of conformational analysis; Advances in organic chemistry over the last 100 years; Chemical bonds 1841-1991: 150 years of the British chemical community; Index.

'... historians will find useful insights into the social and cultural world of chemists in Britain and Germany.' Metascience