reviews From Caveman to Chemist: Circumstances and Achievements Hugh W Salzberg. American Chemical Society: Washington, DC. 1991. ix + 294 pp. 15.1 x 22.5 cm. Illustrations.$24.95 (HE), $14.95 (PB).
This hiehlv readable book traces the histom of chemistm from the3tdne Age ongins of ceramics andmetallurgy tb the culminationol'classical chernistrvat thecndofthe 19th century. It evolved fmm notes of l&ures that Professor Salzberg gave intermittently during more than two decades at the City College of New York "to interest undergraduates in learning something of the origin and development of chemistry and of how chemists arrived at their characteristic viewpoint." Rather than being a detailed, comprehensive history, the volume is, in the words of its author, "a narrative designed to give chemists and interested bystanders some insight into the profession." Salzberg focuses on the oddities, paradoxes, false starts, and anomalies of chemistm. a maior one beine the contrast between the great age of Lemical technolo& and the extreme vouth of scientific chemistw. Concentratim.. .~ r i m a r ily on evolvmg concepts of matter, he emphasizes the ideas and accomol~shmentsof "orechemists" and chemists in the light of sohal, institutionh, economic, cultural, and political fadors. The 15 chapters deal with ancient technology; Hellenic chemical science; the Hellenistic and Roman eras; the rise of alchemy; Islamic alchemy; Medieval and Renaissance European artisans, alchemists, natural philosophers, medicine, and medical alchemy (Paracelsus); the information explosion; undermining the scientific establishment; the first chemists (Beguin, Sala, van Helmont, Boyle); phlogiston (Black); Lavoisier and the Chemical Revolution; atomic weights and molecular formulas (Dalton, Berzelius); organic chemistry (Laurent); and the divisible atom (Arrhenius). In addition to the chemists mentioned, numerous other scientists who contributed to the intellectual framework of chemistry are discussed. In a two-page epilogue Salzberg updates his story by contrasting 19thcentury chemistry with 20th-century chemistry and by predicting that "The chemists of the future will solve their problems with the same mental equipment as the great chemists of the past." Each of the first six chapters is provided with a "Timeline" (a graph relating technological advances to general historical events). All chapters but the first include specific references for a total of 111citations, and a five-page list of
additional general readings is also given. Twenty illustrations (one in full color), two maps, and structural formulas and equations enhance the text, and an extremely detailed 22-page (two columns per page) index add to the book's utility. The volume contains only few factual errors, and these are relatively minor. For example, Colbert established the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1666 not 1664 (p 1451, William Henm was born in 1774 not 1744 (D 213). Louis A. Kahlenberg taught at the University of Wisconsin not Michiean ( D 257,. and the Dover edition of Lavoisier's ~ a i t 6 - ai ~~prod&tionof the translation by Robert Kerr not William Creech, for whom the book was printed. Unfortunately, more than five dozen typographical errors (mostly in proper names) detract from the book's otherwise authoritative impression, e.g., the consistently incorrect placing of A.D. aRer rather than before dates. These also include the lack of proper diacritical marks and the misspelling of Mahdihassau, (R.) P. (Multhauf),Berthelot, and Chimie (p 50), Philippus (Paracelsus) (p 1111, Vannoccio (Biringuccio) (p 1291, Hieronymus (Brunschwig) (p 1301, Andreas (Libau) (p 1351, Accademia (p 1461, Hooykaas (p 1711, (Georg)Ernst (Stahl) (p 1761, Opuscules Physiques et Chimiques (pp 191,205), Acadbmie (des Sciences) (p 192), Joseph Louis (not Louis Joseph) Proust (p 2081, Wollaston (p 211), Hofmann (pp 219, 2391, Amedeo (Avogadro) (p 220), Eilhard (Mitscherlich) (pp 230, 2461, Annales de Chimie et de Physique (p 238), Berthollet (p 249), Priestley and Palmaer (p 260), Erwin (Schrodinger) (p 262), Dijksterhuis (p 2661, and Lavoisier (p 268). Most of these errors could probably have been avoided by more meticulous proofreading. These minor mistakes notwithstanding, this engrossing book is recommended to students and instructors of courses in the history of chemistry as well as to laymen interested in the historical development of chemistry. George B. Kauffman California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740 Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science Sydney Ross. Kluwer Acaoemic Puolicalions' Dororecht (The hetherlandsj, Boston. London. 1991. x 235 pp 15 0 x 22.2 cm. Figs., Illustrations. $69.00
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This collection of seven scholarly but eminently readable essays by Sydney Ross, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry
Reviewed in This Issue Reviewer Hugh W. Saltzberg. From Caveman to Chemist: Circumstances
and Achievements Sydney Ross, Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men i f Science FredAftalion. A History of the International Chemical Industry Titles of Interest Monographs Continuing Series
A102
Journal of Chemical Education
George B. Kauffman
A102
George B. Kauffman George 6. Kaufffman
A102 A103 A103 A103 A1 05
a t the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is the latest (No. 13) in Kluwer's popular Chemists a n d Chemistry series, begun in 1984 a s "a series of books devoted to the examination of the history and development of chemistry from its early emergence a s a separate discipline to the present day." Chapter 1, "Scientist: The Story of a Word", examines in intricate detail the origins, development, and use of a term that we usually take for granted. Chapter 2, "The Story of the Volta Potential", deals with the controversy between Volta's contact theorv and Faradav's chemical theorv of cell voltage and includes a 19-page appendix, "Explanation of Kelvin's Exoerimcnts." bv Ross's collea~mea t RPI. Roland M. ~ i c h t e n k e i n ~ . h a p t e ;3, "The ~ e & h for Ele&omagnetic Induction 182CL1831". focuses on Faradav's discovery of the phenomenon and the 10-year search by Arnp&re and others that preceded it. Chapter 4, "Faraday Consults the Scholars: The Origin of the Terms of Electrochemistry". presents a 'classic example of how new scientific word; are ~ n v e n t r dand brought into circulation"- the first published full account of Paruday's consultations with scholars before deciding in 1834 on such electrochemical terms as anode, cathode, ion, anion, and cation. Chapter 5, "Herschel and Hypo" (a previously unpublished 19-page essay), discusses Sir John Frederick William Herschel's discovery of sodium thiosulfate a s a preservative ("fixer") in the photographic process a s a case study par excellence of the close relationship between fundamental and applied chemistry. Chapter 6, 'Herschel on Faraday and on Science*, communicates "an unpublished expression of respect by Herschel for Faraday", and Chapter 7, "Herschel's Marginal Notes on [John Stuart1 Mill's On Liberty", provides "valuable evidence of the contemporary response to a book that has come to be acceoted a s the most ~owerfuland the most persuasive expression ofthe politicai ideals of the Western democracies". In a six-oatre E~ilofme. Ross draws valuable . conclusions from the essays, which ''&strate how far values and attitudes have changed in certain respects since the end of the last century" and which serve as examples of fallacies and errors described a s "idols" (false appearances of the mind) by Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum (1620). In addition to its specific subject matter, Ross's volume suwevs the formative oeriod of science a s a orofession in England and introduces a number of figures of the transition to professionalism in terms of their attitudes toward it. I recommend it highly to historians of chemistry and of science, to chemists interested in the history of their subject, and to instructors of courses in chemistry, especially physical chemistry and electrochemistry, who wish to introduce a humanistic and historical dimension to their lectures ~
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Patrick P. McCurdy, former Editor of Chemical & Engineering News and Chemical Week and the present editor of l'bday's Chemist, laments that "much ofthe written history of chemistry, chemical technology, and the chemical industry has been fragmented and piecemeal." In contrast to such conventional histories of chemistry, Aftalion's masterly study presents a n international perspective, integrates the story of chemical science with that of chemical industry, and emphasizes 20th-century developments. I n writing his book, Aftalion "wanted to point to the sequence of events that has shaped the landscape of chemical science and industry into its present state," and he reeards the oroduct a s "essentiallv the histow of human ktelligen& applied to a particu"lar field of knowledge." After a short prelude titled "From Prehistory to the Dawn of Quantitative Chemistry," h e succinctly surveys in six chapters, "The First Chemical Manufacturers", "Advances in Chemistry During the First Half of the Nineteenth Centurv," "The Great Scientific Breakthrou~hsfrom 1850 to 19i4," "Developments During the period Spanning the Two World Wars (1914-19451," "World War I1 and Its Consequences for World Chemicals", and 'The New Facts of World Chemicals Since 1973" (the date of the Yom Kippur War,. Hc has packed an incredible amount of matcriaiiho this vast, fascinating panorama of the contributions of ubiouitous. evervdav oroducts of literallv hundreds of ~- sci~~enti'sts and industrialists a s well a s of hGndreds of chemical com~aniesin dozens of different countries. all admirably placed in their scientific and socio-political contexts. This attractive and modestly priced book will be invaluable to chemists and chemical engineers working in both corporate or academic environments; scholars and students in the history of chemistry, science, and technology; and anyone desiring perspective on a recently much maligned industry responsible for a myriad of products essential for our quotidian needs and well-being.
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