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J. DUDLEY HERRON Purdue University Wert tofayene, Indim. 47907
Make Chemistry Live with Historical Anecdotes Clair G. Wood CJniuersity of Maine a t Orono A course in chemistry that fails to give the student some historical insight into the evolution of the subject is, at best, an incomplete one. Unfortunately most texts either ignore or pay lip-service to the historical aspects of chemistry. Thus the task of adding historical perspective to the structure of chemistry while teaching the body of chemical knowledge associated with the high school course falls upon the teacher. I think it fair to say that few of us are doing it. High School Forum is designed to tell the reader "how to" rather than "why they must" do something, and I do not intend this to he a sermon telling overworked teachers their sins of omission. Rather I wish to offer suggestions that I have tried in over a decade of teaching high school chemistry and which I have incorporated into a module for a course in science teaching methodology. Two questions present themselves when the historical approach is discussed. 1) Where do I, as a teacher, obtain the necessary background if i t was not a part of my college preparation? 2) Given the background, what is the most effective means of putting it to work in the classroom? In answer to the first question, numerous inexpensive paperbacks in the history of chemistry are available as well as the more exhaustive treatments to be found in hardbound editions. The Journal is a source of many articles on chemical history, a number of which have been compiled into a single volume ( I ) . The answer to the second question lies ultimately with the personality and classroom technique of the individual teacher. If, for example, the teacher is accustomed to a formalized lecture presentation, it may be that he or she will feel uncomfortable with a storytelling approach and the desired effect will fall flat. Nearly all of the articles in the literature dealing with utilizing historical material in chemistry teaching may be placed in three categories fitting different teaching styles. One means of teaching historical material is to give a formalized assignment th;ough the biographical approach as illustrated by the articles of Wade and Kauffman (2,3). In both cases cited, the student is required to choose a famous chemist and prepare a report dealing with his background and the impact of his work upon contemporaries and the evolution of chemistry. It is interesting to note that over forty years separate the two papers descrihing essentially the same technique. This says much about the state of the art in this area of chemical instruction. I feel that the rigidity of this method defeats its purpose of lending a sense of humanity to chemists of the past. Teachers inclined to use this method might do well to remember the old schoolboy lament
An alternative means of having students research and write about chemical personalities is to have them pattern
their paper after a newspaper science article. This might take the format of an interview, straight science reporting, or even sensationalism. The results could then be posted on a science bulletin board or perhaps used in conjunction with a creative writing assignment in English. Headlines such as "Prominent Chemist Has Visions" is much more of an attention getter than "The Biography of Kekule." And think what a student writing a gossip column could do with the marriage of Lavoisier's widow to Count Rumfnrrl .".U.
The technique I personally have found most rewarding is the anecdotal or stow tell in^ approach. An excellent account of this method may befound in the 1973 volume of REACTS (4). All that is needed for the storytelling approach is a fund of stories and a little narrative ability. Use of frequent asides in this manner will more than repay the time spent by relieving the monotony of difficult technical material and also by providing a framework for the topic under discussion. A case in point is the announcing of the theory of the tetrahedral carbon atom by van't Hoff. From almost any textbook the student will gain the impression that the theory was immediately and generally accepted. A recounting of Kolhe's diatribe aeainst the theow as a "hallucination" and "a oainted prostitute not fit For the company of good society2'iends a totallv different oerS~ective to the initial reaction aeainst . . - ~ - ~ a now accepted axiom. At the risk of boring the reader with familiar tales I would like to recount a few of my favorite stories and how they may be related to the chemistry lesson. At the start of the year a brief amount of time is usually spent discussing alchemy and alchemists. One such man was a Scot named Alexander Seton who appeared in a number of European cities between 1601 and 1604. Using sulfur and a mysterious powder whose nature was unknown, Seton reputedly transformed lead to gold in front of large numbers of witnesses. The gold was declared genuine by the goldsmiths of Zurich, men not likely to he decieved on that subject. Seton died as a result of torture in a Dresden prison in 1604 and the secret of his "transformations" died with him. Was the gold an extremely clever fake or did Seton substitute real gold in his reaction pot for the lead? Who knows? Bismuth is an element for which there is little student interest. The following anecdote is good, both for some chemistry and for a laugh. Women in the 1700's used a preparation of bismuth to give themselves a fashionable, chalk-white skin. One such young lady resplendently white by this means t w k the baths a t Harrowgate whose waters contained hydrogen sulfide. The result was that her skin turned a jet black. She is reported to have shrieked and fainted as did her gallant escort when he observed the extraordinary change. Soap and hard scrubbing removed both the black and her anxietv. The chemistrv of her predicament may be written as: ~ B ~ ( o H ) ~ + NO~ 3HzS = 2HN03 + 4Hz0 + BizSs. when starting a unit on &on I always initiate a discussion on its two allatropic forms. How were two such unlike substances as diamond and graphite shown to he Volume 52.
Number 3,March 1975 / 179
the same element? In 1772 Antoine Lavoisier and some friends bought a large diamond and burned it in an atmosphere of pure oxygen. Carbon dioxide was the only product. Later, in 1799, Guyton deMarveau converted diamond to graphite by heating it to 1000°C in the absence of air. While interesting chemically, these two ventures are not as profitable as the reverse process. Henri Moissan tried to convert graphite to diamond by dissolving it in molten iron and allowing the mixture to cool. His hope was that the initial temperature and force generated by the cooling mass would effect the transformation. After years of failure Moissan finally discovered a single diamond chip about a milimeter in length in the cooled mass. He was generally credited with the transformation until an assistant confessed that he had slipped the diamond chip into the mixture. He was tired of the endless experiments and hoped success would end Moissan's quest. Finally, as an example of courage and determination nothing surpasses the story of Madame Curie and her four years of labor in an abandoned horsestable behind the University of Paris. In her own words, "I treated as much as 20 kg (44 lhs) of material a t a time, which has the effect of filling the shed with great jars of precipitates and liquids and to stir, for hours at a stretch, the boiling matter in a smelting basin.'' From tons of ore came, by this laborious effort, the few crystals that lead to the discovery of radium. Similar to the storytelling technique is the method termed hv B e r ~ e ras the detective approach (5). Here the teacher c&sta&ly interrupts his narrative with questions desimed to draw the student into the discussion. This method reouires more formal . ~ r e.~ a r a t i oand n cannot be utilized in as many instances; however, it is very effective for lendine vitalitv and interest to the day's lesson. A brief excerpt o f ' ~ e r ~ e rpaper 'i will illustrate this approach. In a unit on vitamins, Berger starts with a discussion of Eijkman's research on heriheri in a Dutch East Indies prison colony in 1890. Through continual quizzing of the students, Berger leads them through the series of experiments which correctly attributed the cure of heriheri to unpolished rice. Then, having correctly pinpointed the curative agent, Eijkman came to a totally erroneous reason
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/ Journal of Chemical Education
for the cure! Skillful use of this method can, better than many laboratory experiments, teach the nature of scieutific inquiry and also lend needed reminders to students that, contrary to the way most textbooks read, research is not an unbroken string of successes. Certainly other, and perhaps better, methods of using history in the chemistry course exist. By whatever means, however, we owe i t to our students to show the implications of scientific advancement as well as giving them an understanding of the material itself. Editors Note: Readers are invited to contribute historical anecdotes that they have found useful. Include the source (if possible) and a description of how you use the story. A future column will he devoted to your contribution. Address the contribution to: Dr. J. Dudley Herron, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. Literature Cited 111 Ihde, A,, and Kislisr, W.."Selected RDsdinga in the History of Chemistry,' can Chemical Society, Easton. Pa., 1965. (2) Wade, I. W.. "A Method for Uaing History of Chemistry an a Teaching Aid? School Sci. & Moth., 28,877 119uo. 13) Ksuffman, G. B., "Teaching in the History of Seirnee; A Biogrsphieal Approach," J Coil Sci Teorhing, 1,2611971). (11 Reeves. W.. "Stowtelling in Chemistry." REACTS. Vol. 4, Uniu. of Md. Ross,
...... 1911
(51 Bornr, M., "Using Hi6ory in Teaching Seienee." Tha Science Teochar. 30. 24 (19631.
Suggested Readings in the History of Science Asimov, I.. "The Search ForTheElemon~,"BasicBmks, N.Y. 1962. Asimov, I., "A Short HistorydChemistry? Anehor. New YorK, 1965. Cohn. Bernard. "TheBvthofthe NewPhysica."Anehor Books. NewYork. 1960. Drake. Stillman, "Dirove"er & Opinions01 Galilee," Anehor Bmkr, Now York. 1957. Eialey, Loren. "Danrins Century," Anchor Books. Naw York. 1958. Hwlo, Fred. "Pmm Stonchenge t o M d e r n Coamalogy."Fraeman. San Frsmeireo, 1972. Ihde, A , Kieffex. W. F.."SelectedResding~inthoHistoryofChemism."Ch~mical Education Publishing Co.. Eastan. Pa. 1965. Jaffe. B.. "Crucibles: The SforioiChemistrv."Fawrrtt W o r l d L i b w , NewYork. 1960. Km=ter. A.. '"TheSleepwalkem." New York. 1959. M a m . Steven. "A Histowofthe Science."Colli~rBooks. New York. 1962. McKenzie, A. E. E.. "Major Achievementsin Science." Simon& Schuafer. NowYork. 1960. Paehter. H e w M.. "Psraeelsus: Magielnto Seienee." Collier Boob. New York. 1961. Patterson. E. C., "John Dalton and the Atomic Theory." Doubleday & Ca.. Inc., N.Y.,
