Polymer science is now an active and thriving community of scientists, engineers and technologists, but there was a time, not so long ago, when there was no such community. The prehistory of polymer science helps to provide key insights into current issues and historical problems. The story will be divided into an ancient period ( from Greek times to the creation of the molecular consensus), a nascent period (from Dalton to Kekule to van’t Hoff) and a period of paradigm formation and controversy (from Staudinger to Mark to Carothers). The prehistory concludes with an account of the epochal 1935 Discussion of the Faraday Society on “Polymerization”. After this meeting an active community engaged in trying to solve the central problems defined by the discussions.
SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science History of Chemistry Series Editor Seth C. Rasmussen, Fargo, USA For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/10127 Jacobus Henricus Van’t Hoff (1852–1911, Nobel 1901) Grandfather of Polymer Science Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania Libraries Gary Patterson A Prehistory of Polymer Science 123 Gary Patterson Department of Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University 4400 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA e-mail:
[email protected] ISSN 2191-5407 ISBN 978-3-642-21636-7 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-21637-4 e-ISSN 2191-5415 e-ISBN 978-3-642-21637-4 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011940054 Ó The Author(s) 2012 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface The present volume examines the time period before there was a coherent scientific community devoted to the study of macromolecules. It starts with a series of studies of particular polymeric materials that were important in this pre-paradigm period. The history of natural rubber is followed from the time of the great French explorers (1735) to the formulation of the first successful theory of rubber elasticity (1935). The history of polystyrene is presented from the discovery of styrene in the late eighteenth century to 1935. The first commercially successful polymeric material synthesized completely from inexpensive small molecules, Bakelite, provides a fascinating story of both academic and industrial chemistry. The story of the polysaccharides and Sir Norman Haworth (Nobel 1937) completes the studies of materia polymerica. The crowning event in the prehistory of polymer science is the Faraday Society Discussion of 1935 on Polymerization. A history of the Faraday Discussions that led up to this event is presented. The chronicle of the Faraday Society includes Discussion Meetings that went from glory to glory until the Society was absorbed by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The b