Arthur Greenberg

From Alchemy to Chemistry in Picture and Story

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

From Alchemy to Chemistry in Picture and Story gives readers an illustrated tour of how chemistry developed. Integrating the contents of his two earlier books, A Chemical History Tour and The Art of Chemistry, the author has included over 350 high-quality reproductions of figures from rare books spanning 400 years of chemical publications in his rare-book collection. The illuminating and entertaining essays that accompany each illustration explain the imagery's meaning and significance in the context of both historical scientific beliefs and modern chemical science. Several essays are new to this edition.

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Praise for From Alchemy to Chemistry in Picture and Story

"The timeline from alchemy to chemistry contains some of the most mystifying ideas and images that humans have ever devised. Arthur Greenberg shows us this wonderful world in a unique and highly readable book."
--Dr. John Emsley, author of The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison

"Art Greenberg takes us, through text and lovingly selected images, on a 'magical mystery tour' of the chemical universe. No matter what page you open, there is a chemical story worth telling."
--Dr. Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and coauthor of Chemistry Imagined

"Chemistry has perhaps the most intricate, most fascinating, and certainly most romantic history of all the sciences. Arthur Greenberg's essays--delightful, learned, quirky, highly personal, and richly illustrated with contemporary drawings (many of great rarity and beauty)--provide a kaleidoscope of intellectual landscapes, bringing the experiments,the ideas, and the human figures of chemistry's past intensely alive."
--Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings

From Alchemy to Chemistry in Picture and Story takes you on an illustrated tour of chemistry's fascinating history, from its early focus on the spiritual relationship between man and nature to some of today's most cutting-edge applications. Drawing from rare publications and artwork that span over five centuries, the book contains nearly 200 essays and over 350 illustrations--including 24 in full color--that tell the engaging story of the development of this fundamental science and its connection with human history.

Join Arthur Greenberg as he combines the "best of the best" from his previous works (as well as several new essays) to paint a colorful picture of chemistry's remarkable origins!

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley & Sons
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 14675154000
• 1. Auflage
• Seitenzahl: 712
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Dezember 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 286mm x 221mm x 41mm
• Gewicht: 1825g
• ISBN-13: 9780471751540
• ISBN-10: 0471751545
• Artikelnr.: 20801070

Autorenporträt

Arthur Greenberg is Professor of Chemistry and former Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. He has authored or edited several books, including A Chemical History Tour, The Art of Chemistry, and The Amide Linkage, all published by Wiley.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface xiii
Suggestions for Further Reading and Touring xix
Acknowledgments xxiii
Section I. Practical Chemistry: Mining, 1 Metallurgy and War The Birth of
Metals 1
The Essence of Matter: Four Elements (or Five); Three Principles (or Two);
or Three Subatomic Particles (or More) 3
Unifying The Infinite and the Infinitesimal 8
Seeding The Earth with Metals 10
Chymicall Characters 12
Practical Metallick Chemistry 15
A Promising President 38
These Are A Few of Our Nastiest Things 40
"The Sun Rains Gold; The Moon Rains Silver" 45
Catawba Indian Pottery: Four Colors and the Miracle of Survival 47
Section II. Spiritual and Allegorical Alchemy and Chemistry 51
Eastern and Western Spiritual Alchemy 51
The Philosopher's Stone Can No Longer Be Protected by Patent 54
Mystical and Majestic Numbers 55
Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine: The Impure King 57
Ratzo Rizzo and the Poet Virgil as Transmuting Agents? 59
Natural Magick: Metamorphoses of Werewolves and Metals 64
An Alchemical Bestiary 69
Dragons, Serpents, and Order Out of Chaos 80
Albert The Great and "Albert The Pretty Good" 83
A Canterbury Tale of Alchemy 88
The Ship of Fools 92
The First Modern Encyclopedia 94
Today's Specials: Oil of Scorpion and Lady's Spot Fade-In Cream 98
"Vulgar and Common Errors" 102
What Is Wrong with this Picture? 102
Protecting the Roman Empire's Currency from the Black Art 104
Who Is Athanasius Kircher and Why Are They Saying Those Terrible Things
About Him? 107
Alchemists as Artists' Subjects 111
Allegories, Myths, and Metaphors 113
The Wordless Book 119
Strange Doings in an Alchemist's Flask 126
Section III. Medicines, Purges, and Ointments 135
Geber and Rhazes: Alchemists from the Biblical Lands 135
Paracelsus 136
The Alchemist in the Pit of My Stomach 139
A Salty Conversation 141
The Magic of Distillation 143
Distillation By Fire, Hot Water, Sand, or Steamed Boar Dung 153
The Joy of Sextodecimo 159
The Compleat Apothecary 162
"Rare Effects of Magical and Celestial Fire" 168
Secrets of a Lady Alchemist 170
"Pray and Work" 173
A Good Old-Fashioned Purge 177
"Opening Metals"-The Art of Chymistry 184
The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony 186
Section IV. An Emerging Science 189
The Ancient War of the Knights 189
The First Ten-Pound Chemistry Text 191
A Tree Grows in Brussels 195
Curing Wounds by Treating the Sword with Powder of Sympathy 197
Do Anonymous Passersby Defecate At Your Doorstep? A Solution 198
A House Is Not a Home Without a Bath Tub and a Still 198
Skeptical about "Vulgar Chymical Opinions" 200
The Atmosphere is Massive 206
Boyle's Law 210
Enhancing Frail Human Senses 212
Gun Powder, Lightning, Thunder, and Nitro-Aerial Spirit 217
Who Would Want an Anti-Elixir? 221
A Harvard-Trained Alchymist 223
Lucifer's Element and Kunckel's Pills 225
The Emperor's Mercantile Alchemist 231
Phlogiston: Chemistry's First Comprehensive Scientific Theory 236
The "Modern" Phlogiston Concept 239
The Humble Gift of Charcoal 241
Beautiful Seventeenth-Century Chemistry Texts 243
What Are Effluviums? 248
The Surprising Chemical Taxonomies of Minerals and Mollusks 251
Chemical Affinity 258
Double-Bottom Cupels, Hollow Stirring Rods, and Other Frauds 265
There Is Truth in Chalk 265
Section V. the Chemical Revolution 269
Peas Produce Lots of Gas 269
Black's Magic 271
Cavendish Weighed the Earth but Thought He Had Captured Phlogiston in a
Bottle 273
In the Early Hours of the Chemical Revolution 277
Making Soda Pop 289
Fire Air (Oxygen): Who Knew What and When Did They Know It? 291
Nice To His Mice 296
Laughing Gas or Simply "Semi-phlogisticated Nitrous Air" 298
Eulogy for Eudiometry 301
Where Is The Invective of Yesteryear? 303
La Revolution Chimique Commence 305
Simplifying The Chemical Babel 308
Water Will Not "Float" Phlogiston 311
Ben Franklin-Diplomate Extraordinaire 319
Mon Cher Phlogiston, "You're Speaking Like An Ass!" 324
Lavoisier In Love 328
Requiem for a Lightweight 330
Okay, I Now Know What "Oxidation" Means, But What Is "Reduction"? 333
The Guinea Pig as Internal Combustion Engine 334
The Man in the Rubber Suit 336
"Poor Old Marat"? I Think Not 340
Poor Old Lamarck 346
Elective Attractions 349
The Phoenix Is a "Her"? 349
Chemistry in the Barrel of a Gun 355
A Boring Experiment 356
Laughing Gas for Everybody! 359
Some Last-Minute Glitsches Before the Dawn of the Atomic Theory 362
Atmospheric Water Molecules and the Morning Dew 364
Exclusive! First Printed Pictures of Dalton's Molecules 368
The Atomic Paradigm 371
"We Are Here! We Are Here! We Are Here!" 374
Was Avogadro's Hypothesis A Premature Discovery? 377
Chemistry Is Not Physics 378
Section VI. Young Democracy and a New Chemistry 381
If You Do Find The Philosopher's Stone, "Take Care To Lose It Again"-
Benjamin Franklin 381
Saltpetre, Abigail. Pins, John 383
"It Is a Pity So Few Chemists Are Dyers, and So Few Dyers Chemists" 383
Two Early Visions: Oxidation Without Oxygen and Women as Strong Scientists
387
'Tis A Bonnie Chymistrie We Brrring Ye 390
"For It's Hot as Hell In Phila-del'-phi-a" 392
Adams Opposes Atoms 395
Twelve Cents for A Chemistry Lecture 397
Section VII. Chemistry Begins to Specialize, Systemize, and Help the Farm
and the Factory 403
The Electric Scalpel 403
Chemical Scalpels Through The Ages 405
Davy Rescues The Industrial Revolution 406
The Dualistic Theory of Chemistry 409
The Chemical Power of a Current of Electricity 411
Colorful "Notions of Chemistry" 414
A Primeval Forest of the Tropics 422
Taming The Primeval Forest 424
The Atomic Weight of Carbon and Related Confusions 427
Why's The Nitrogen Atom Blue, Mommy? 429
I Cannot Hold My Chemical Water-I Can Make Urea! 429
Two Streams in the Primeval Forest 433
Never Smile at a Cacodyl 435
Want a Great Chemical Theory? Just Let Kekulé Sleep on It 439
"My Parents Went to Karlsruhe and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee-Shirt!" 443
What Are Organic Chemists Good For? 444
Mendeleev's Early Thoughts About Relationships Between Elements 450
The Icon on The Wall 457
The Electric Oxygen 461
The People's Chemistry 467
Ink from Peanuts and the Finest Sugar in the South 470
Section VIII. Teaching Chemistry to the Masses 471
Geodes 471
Michael Faraday's First Chemistry Teacher 472
"Chemistry No Mystery" 476
The Chemical History of a Candle 479
Into the Heart of the Flame 481
Poof! Now You Smell It. Now You Don't 483
My Chem Professor Took The First Photograph of the Moon! 488
Chlorine Fairies? 490
"Rascally" Fluorine: A Fairy With Fangs? 493
A Mid-Semester Night's Dream 494
And Now Turn to Page 3 of Our Chemical Psalm Book 494
What Else Could a Woman Write About? 497
Section IX. Chemistry Enters the Modern Age 503
Riding Pegasus to Visit Chemistry in Space 503
Lævo-Man Would Enjoy the "Buzz" But Not the Taste of His Beer 506
Is The Archeus a Southpaw? 511
John Read: Stereochemist 512
Finding an Invisible Needle in an Invisible Haystack 513
But Argon is a Monoatomic Gas-And There are Others 516
Searching for Signs of Neon 517
Just How Many Different Substances Are in Atmospheric Air? 522
Atoms of the Celestial Ether 522
Non-Atomus 524
A "Grouch" or a "Crank"? 526
Why Is Prout's Hypothesis Still in Modern Textbooks? 534
Crystals Can Diffract X-Rays 536
Two Nobel Prizes? Not Good Enough for the Academie Des Sciences! 538
It's The Atomic Number, Dmitri! 542
The Periodic Helix of the Elements 543
X-Rays Measure The Distances Between Atoms or Ions 549
Where Did We Dig Up the Mole? 551
Xenon Is Slightly Ignoble and Krypton Is Not Invincible 552
The Atom As a Solar System 555
'Tis A Gift To Be Simple 558
Transmuting Quantum Mechanics Into Chemistry 559
Pauling's Cartoon Carnival 562
Here's To Long Life (L'Chaim)! 566
Mercury Can Be Transmuted to Gold 570
Modern Alchemists Approach Atlantis 572
The Chemistry of Gold Is Noble But Not Simple 575
The "Perfect Biological Principle" 576
So You Weren't Joking, Mr. Feynman 579
Nanoscopic "Heavens" 584
Moving Matter Atom-By-Atom 590
A Nanocar Rolling on a Gold-Paved Road 593
Femtochemistry: The Briefest Fleeting Moments in Chemistry 595
Section X. Some Brief Chemical Amusements 599
Clairvoyant Pictures of Atoms-A Strange Chymical Narrative 599
White Lightning in an Atom, a Kiss, or a Star 606
The Secret Life of Wanda Witty 611
"Trade Ya Babe Ruth for Antoine Lavoisier!" 613
Jive Molecules Doin' The Jitterbug 620
Epilogue 623
A Natural Scientist 623
Descended From Fallopian Test Tubes? 626
Index 633

Rezensionen

'...can be strongly recommended...it will put a smile on your face on the way to the lab.' (Chemistry World, July 2007)

"The fun that Greenberg evidently had in writing this mix of landmarks and light-hearted stuff is absolutely contagious." (Ambix, November 2008)

"My advice to everyone who is interested in the history of chemistry: give your old versions of Greenberg's books away and buy the new one." (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, July 2, 2007)

"...a book that the reviewer would have been delighted to have discovered as a student in high school or college..." (Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, Fall 2007)

"'A light-hearted tour through selected highlights of chemical history...has been admirably achieved in this generously illustrated book." (CHOICE, July 2007)

"...can be strongly recommended...it will put a smile on your face on the way to the lab." (Chemistry World, July 2007)