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he history of chemistry is a story of human endeavor-and as er T ratic as human nature itself. Progress has been made in fits and starts, and it has come from all parts of the globe. Because the scope of this history is considerable (some 100,000 years), it is necessary to impose some order, and we have organized the text around three dis cemible-albeit gross--divisions of time: Part 1 (Chaps. 1-7) covers 100,000 BeE (Before Common Era) to the late 1700s and presents the background of the Chemical Revolution; Part 2 (Chaps. 8-14) covers the late 1700s to World War land presents the Chemical Revolution and its consequences; Part 3 (Chaps. 15-20) covers World War I to 1950 and presents the Quantum Revolution and its consequences and hints at revolutions to come. There have always been two tributaries to the chemical stream: experiment and theory. But systematic experimental methods were not routinely employed until the 1600s-and quantitative theories did not evolve until the 1700s-and it can be argued that modem chernistry as a science did not begin until the Chemical Revolution in the 1700s. xi xii PREFACE We argue however that the first experiments were performed by arti sans and the first theories proposed by philosophers-and that a rev olution can be understood only in terms of what is being revolted against.
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Creations of Fire Chemistry' s Lively History from AIchemy to the Atomic Aqe
Crea tions of Fire Chemistry' s Lively History from Alchemy to the Atomic Aqe
Cathy Cobb
and
Harold Goldwhite
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data On file
ISBN 978-0-306-45087-7
ISBN 978-1-4899-2770-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-2770-5
© 1995 Cathy Cobb and Harold Goldwhite Originally published by Plenum US in 1995.
10987654321 All rights reserved No part of this book rnay be reproduoed, stored in a retrieval system, oe transmitted in any 100n or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfihning, rerording, or othelwi.se, without written ~ from the Publisher
Dedication: To Marie, as always Acknowledgments: James Bohning and Marjorie Gapp of the Chemical Heritage Foundation; and the staff of the John F. Kennedy Library and Creative Media Services, California State University, Los Angeles, for assistance with illustrations. H. G., 1995 Dedication: To Monty, Mathew, Benjamin, and Danie!. I couldn't have done it without you, and without you there would have been no reason to try. Acknowledgments: The staff of the Augusta College Reese Library, Augusta, Georgia; the Augusta College Office of Public Relations; the faculty and staff of the Department of Chemistry and Physics, Augusta College; and the staff of the Library of the University of South Carolina at Aiken, Aiken, South Carolina. Thanks: I would like to thank the people who taught me chemistrymy mentors Marshal Cronyn and Richard Martin-and the people who taught me how to write: Savage Williamson, the first editor who ever had the faith, and Barbara Jordan, who taught me the value of a good quote. I would like to thank the Plenum editors for all their hard work, excellent guidance, and patience, especially Melicca McCormick, Linda Regan, and Deirdre Marino-Alessandri. I would like to thank my father, mother, Judi, Marshal Cronyn, and Dave Karraker (for wading through the text in various crude forms and offering invaluable suggestions and support), my friends Gary and Mara, Paula, Debbie, Alice, Barbara, Daphne, and Doris (who have always believed in my wildest schemes, though I have never known why) , and the people who trusted me with their valued books, Drs. Harold Kelly, Ann Wilbrand, Kutty Pariyadath, Monty Fetterolf, and Sam Meyers.
c. c., 1995
The chemists are a strange da