Name Things Damell Salyer Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY 40475 Thousands of commonlv used phrases containing names science and technology specifically identify contr~butions~to with their discoverers, developers, or sources. Generally one or more proper names are followed by one or more words identifying the particular thing. Richter, referring to the use of named oreanic reactions. puts it beautifullv in the foreword t o Org&ic Name ~ e a & n s (I): The term "named reactions" is the designation generally applied toreactions which either for historical reasons, or because of their unfsiline value. or. finallv. because of the associated mnemonic convenience hek the n&e of their discoverers. Chemists have a long, interesting, and wide-ranging history of having so-named apparatus, chemicals, concepts, effects, equations, methods, disasters, instruments, lahoratories. laws. measurine devices.. nrizes. . nrocesses. rules. theories, etc. Organic name reactions are particularly well documented. The ninth edition of Merck Index gives some 500 (2). Organic Name Reactions (1963),a translation of earlier German editions, tabulates and gives informative descriptions of more th& 450 (1). Other named things are not as extensively documented, but Tascher has a small selection ---- ~ ~(3). . ~~, - - ~ On occasion the desirability of "naming after names" has been discussed (I.4). Ball noints out that descrintive names immediately draw tieattention of the initiated& thenature and/or use of the thines beine named ( 4 ) . Richter ooints out. in the foreword to Organic Game ~ e d c t i o n sthat'the , disco: verer's name mav have value as a mnemonic device or cover the lack of an a&eptable descriptive name (I). Indiscriminate use of name phrases can be confusing, which is indicated by the objective of Organic Name Reactions t o add more informative descriptions to some named reactions ( I ) . Naming with names continues unabated, presumably hecause i t combines convenience with usefulness. In a recent year two dozen titles of papers in the Journal of Chemical Education included one or more name phrases. The use of name nhrases is sufficientlv established for the 1986 ACS Style ~ u i d (5) e t o include several in its list of abbreviations. One advantaee of name ohrases t o the educator, which has been discussedaith respect to the names of elements (61,is the opportunity of instilling historical perspective along with the regular instruction. Courses in chemical literature should provide an ideal opportunity for this. T o this end an assignment was devised for our undergraduate chemical literature course. The Asslgnrnent
Ten individual name phrases were given to each student in the undergraduate literature course. The students were ex-
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pected t o answer rather straiehtforward auestions about kach name phrase: Who was thPperson (full name, nationality, etc)? What islwas the thine referred to? Each answer had to be supported with appropriate literature citations. Extra credit was given if the literature citations was to the original literature source and for secondary citations of that original or primary citation. The Data Base
The student assignments were randomly generated without duplication on an Apple IIe microcomputer from a data base that initially contained 180 name phrases but that quickly grew to 850 items (7). The data base (see table) was constructed from name phrases found in recent undergraduate textbooks, from suggestions of colleagues, and from the authors experience. Originally the guideline used in collectine the name nhrases was that thev had to be chemicallv rerated apparatus, laws, theories, principles, series, cornpounds, reagents, tests, reactions, e t ~However, . the list did include a few items that were outside the guideline but were of sufficient interest to warrant their inclusion. Some effort was made to include more familiar name phrases, both old and new. Data treatment devices, such as coefficients, constants, indices, plots, and scales, were included but were not used as frequently. Results
The students' rate of comoletion of this assienment and the quality of the answers were the same as for ;her assignments in the course. This assienment did produce a marked increase in student interest. For several days after the assignment was made, discussions of the finds or the problems encountered were regularly heard in the hallways and laboratories. According to the students this assignment was not trivial. Identification of the particular thing was usually possible, and in most instances identifying the person was easy. Difficulties were encountered in locating early original Examples ot Name Phra-
Used In the Undergrauuate Chemlcal Literature Course
D e w tiask Doberelnef'strials Dmmn egulllbriurn Dubmcq col~~irnBter Dumas bulb Erlenmeyerflask Fahrenheit scale Falan's rules
Fuller's earth Oabrlel syntixsls Oauosian distribution Gel* counter Geisler tube Glbbs metal Glauber's sail Globe lar
Snell'a law Soxhlel emactu Sguibo tunnel Stock system Stokes lines The& blue Thlele tube Tollen's test
references. Well-established name phrases caused problems because they are considered to be in general use and are no longer referenced. This assignment provided unusual opportunities for students to explore older textbooks, chemical dictionaries (8),chemical encyclopedias (9, 10). and similar works in physics and engineering (11-14) which are usually ignored in chemical literature searches. Despite the fact that name phrases are nondefinitive, and that the wrong person has sometimes been credited with a particular contribution (15), name phrases continue to be used. As long as name phrases are a part of chemical jargon, they can, with proper care, be used as an efficient instruction tool. Extension and improvement of the data base used in this study could provide interesting and informative literature assignments for all levels of undergraduate students. The most obvious improvement would be to provide for subcategories within the data base. Appropriate subcategories would include: organic name reactions, mathematical equations, glassware, instruments, laws, theories, specific tests, etc. Interesting extensions of this idea would be to
include subcategories in which the names are not those of people (for example, color names for indicators). Finally extension of the named phrases into areas related to chemistry such medicine, engineering, oceanography, atmospheric science, and some branches of biology would provide many other interesting possibilities. Literature CHed
6. Bell. D. W. . ICham. Educ. 1985.62.787 . . 7 . A" "ndoeum~ntodlist of the 650-item data bas. wiu be amt to anyone requesting it and supplying sufficient pas.tage for 4 0% 8. Haruley, G.G . The Condensed ChemieolDietionnry. 9thed.; VanNastrand: 1966. 9. Intepnoaoml ~ ~ ~ chemical ~ ~science; ~ van ~ ~ ~~ t1964. ~ ~ d ~ id :. 10. Kingaeftea Chemical Encyclopedia, 9th ed., Van Nastrsnd: 1966. 11. Glasstone, S. Sourcebook on Atomie Energy. 2nd ed.;Vao Nostrand: Princeton, NJ.
Volume 66
Number 4
April 1989
319
