A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science [Anglais] [Relié]

"...will captivate younger chemists..." "...there has been nothing like it available since [...] 'A pictorial history of chemistry', 1939..."

Praise for A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science . . .
"With the original and often startling images of chemistry, Arthur Greenberg makes the history of science come to life. A remarkable, witty book!" -- Roald Hoffmann, PhD, Nobel Laureate
"Chemistry has perhaps the most intricate, most fascinating, and certainly most romantic history of all the sciences. Arthur Greenberg's A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science provides an entirely new sort of history, a dramatic journey in which he transports us through more than a hundred scenes or episodes from the earliest beginnings of alchemy to the latest in quantum mechanics and transmutation. Dr. Greenberg's essays--delightful, learned, quirky, highly personal, and richly illustrated with contemporary drawings (many of great rarity and beauty)--provide a kaleidoscope of intellectual landscapes, bringing the experiments, the ideas, and the human figures of chemistry's past intensely alive." -- Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings
About the cover art . . .
The artwork on the cover of this book is from an egg tempera painting (original in full color; author's private collection) signed in 1845 and is a version of a 17th century work by David Teniers the Younger (J. Read, Prelude to Chemistry, The MacMillan Co., New York, Plate 29; J. Read, The Alchemist in Life, Literature, and Art, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., London, 1947, Plate 21 and pp. 72-79). It has some mischief in it: the leg of the table has a mouth and an eye reminiscent of a tortoise or dragon--both potent chemical symbols. The painting is signed "las voy" ("les noy" or similar) with some symbols and we do not know the identity of the artist.

Provides an entirely new sort of history of the over one hundred scenes or episodes from the earliest beginnings of alchemy to the latest in quantum mechanics and transmutation. DLC: Chemistry--History.

Praise for A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science . . .
"With the original and often startling images of chemistry, Arthur Greenberg makes the history of science come to life. A remarkable, witty book!" -- Roald Hoffmann, PhD, Nobel Laureate
"Chemistry has perhaps the most intricate, most fascinating, and certainly most romantic history of all the sciences. Arthur Greenberg's A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science provides an entirely new sort of history, a dramatic journey in which he transports us through more than a hundred scenes or episodes from the earliest beginnings of alchemy to the latest in quantum mechanics and transmutation. Dr. Greenberg's essays--delightful, learned, quirky, highly personal, and richly illustrated with contemporary drawings (many of great rarity and beauty)--provide a kaleidoscope of intellectual landscapes, bringing the experiments, the ideas, and the human figures of chemistry's past intensely alive." -- Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings
About the cover art . . .
The artwork on the cover of this book is from an egg tempera painting (original in full color; author's private collection) signed in 1845 and is a version of a 17th century work by David Teniers the Younger (J. Read, Prelude to Chemistry, The MacMillan Co., New York, Plate 29; J. Read, The Alchemist in Life, Literature, and Art, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., London, 1947, Plate 21 and pp. 72-79). It has some mischief in it: the leg of the table has a mouth and an eye reminiscent of a tortoise or dragon--both potent chemical symbols. The painting is signed "las voy" ("les noy" or similar) with some symbols and we do not know the identity of the artist.

ARTHUR GREENBERG, PhD, was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946 and obtained his PhD in chemistry from Princeton University in 1971. He is presently Dean, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and Professor of Chemistry, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.

CHLORINE FAIRIES?

Real Fairy Folks or The Fairy Land of Chemistry (Lucy Rider Myer,Boston, 1887) was a rather too precious take on Jane Marcet's marvelous Conversations on Chemistry, first published 80 years earlier. Twins Joseph and Josephine or Joey and Jessie--sentimental descendants of Sol and Luna?) learn chemistry from their uncle Richard James, a chemist also known as "The Professor."

Chlorine fairies [Fig. 134(a)] are the moleules in chlorine gas. The chlorine atoms each have one arm (monovalent); they wear green dresses; the fully spread wings signal volatility [remember the winged dragon in Basil Valentine's Third Key--Fig. 17(c)?]. Bromine, a liquid, has one-armed fairies in red dresses with their wings folded; mild heating causes the bromine fairies to spread their wings and fly. The one-armed fairies in solid iodine wear purple dresses and have their wings folded and their legs tucked up. "My, my!" exclaimed Jessie. "They must be just the teeniest-weentiest kind of people." Sodium and chlorine fairies wed to form salt [Fig. 134(b)] and their dress is now white (what else?) and their wings folded and legs tucked up. Hydrogen fairies and hydrochloric acid (really gaseous HCl) fairies are shown in Figures 134(c) and 134(d). Figure 135(a) correctly depicts the atmosphere, which is 80% nitrogen fairies and 20% oxygen fairies. The oxygen fairies correctly h! ave two arms [see water fairies in Fig. 135(b)] but the nitrogen fairies should have three arms each rather than oneperhaps a bit too monstrous? Come to think of it, how would Ms. Meyer know how many arms were linking the fairy atoms? The octet rule remained some thirty years into the future.

Uncle Richard has his niece and nephew and their neighborhood friends sniff chlorine, bromine, and hydrogen sulfide. He also keeps a bottle of strychnine in the house to show the children. He composes poetry: "Hg, Mercuree, What a poet, I be!" I wouldn't want him near my children. Michael Faraday was inspired by Jane Marcet's book to become a chemist. Had he read Fairy Land of Chemistry he might have become a CPA.