Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear FissionThis book is a classic in the field of popular science. Standard reading since the 1930s, it is one of the few historeis of chemistry to concentrate on the lives of the great chemists. Through these dramatic and human stories, it gives an authoritative and entertaining account of the great discoveries and advances in this scientific field. After many printings in three previous editions, this book has been newly revised by the author for this fourth edition. Beginning with Trevisan and his lifelong search for the "philosopher's stone," the author narrates the lives and discoveries of such towering figures as Paracelsus and his chemical treatment of disease; Priestley looking for phlogiston and finding oxygen and carbon dioxide, Lavoisier creating a new language of chemistry; Dalton and his Atomic Theory; Avogadro and the idea of molecules, Mendeleeff arranging the table of elements under his Periodic Law; the Curies isolating radium; Thomson discovering the electron; Moseley and his Law of Atomic Numbers; Lawrence and the construction of the cyclotron; and more. Probably the most dramatic chapter in the book, the account of the development of nuclear fission, ends the story of chemistry at its most monumental achievement. A final chapter discusses some of the consequences of nuclear fission, the discovery of nuclear fusion, and the recent work with subatomic particles. Bernard Jaffe is the author of many other science books and several science textbooks. Upon the original publication of this book, Mr. Jaffe received the Francis Bacon Award for the Humanizing of Knowledge. The American Chemical Society's History of Chemistry Division honored him in 1973 with its Dexter Award for "distinguished achievement in the history of chemistry." |
Contents
BERNARD TREVISAN 14061490 | 1 |
THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS 14931541 | 13 |
JOHN JOACHIM BECHER 16251682 | 25 |
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 17331804 | 37 |
HENRY CAVENDISH 17311810 | 55 |
ANTOINE LAURENT LAVOISIER 17431794 | 69 |
JOHN DALTON 17661844 | 84 |
JOHN JACOB BERZELIUS 17791848 | 100 |
Χ FRIEDRICH WOEHLER 18001882 | 129 |
DMITRI IVANOVITCH MENDELÉEFF 18341907 | 150 |
SVANTE ARRHENIUS 18591927 | 164 |
MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE 18671934 | 181 |
JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON 18561940 AND ERNEST RUTHERFORD 18711937 | 197 |
IRVING LANGMUIR 18811957 | 237 |
ERNEST ORLANDO LAWRENCE 19011958 | 265 |
THE MEN WHO HARNESSED NUCLEAR ENERGY | 283 |
Other editions - View all
Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission Bernard Jaffe Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
Academy acid alchemists alchemy alpha particles American Arrhenius atom bomb atomic energy atomic number atomic weights Avogadro Becher Bernard Trevisan Berzelius body Bohr bombardment burning Cannizarro carbon Cavendish Cavendish Laboratory century chemical chemist chemistry chlorine compounds Curie cyclotron Dalton discovered discovery earth electric electron electron volts elements England experimental experiments Fermi field fire fission flask France gases German glass gold heat helium honor hundred hydrogen ions isotopes laboratory Langmuir later Lavoisier Lawrence Liebig light machine magnetic Marie mass mathematical matter Mendeléeff ment mercury metal million molecules Moseley nature neutrons nitrogen Nobel Prize nuclear nucleus Ostwald oxygen Paracelsus Paris philosopher phlogiston physicist physics Pierre pile positively charged Priestley problem produced professor proton pure radioactive radium rays reaction Russian Rutherford scientific scientists solution strange substance sulfur theory Thomson thousand tion tube United University uranium Woehler wrote X-rays young