Auguste Laurent and the Prehistory of Valence
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Book Description
This study focuses on the French chemists of 1830-1858, and their roles in the development of organic chemistry and its eventual connectin with atomic and valence-bond theory, and uncovers new complexities in the thought processes that led to the concept of valence. The exploration of Laurent's early career reveals that this French chemist had proposed a hyposthesis to explain phenomena due to valence fifteen years before August Kekulé's Exposition of the classic valence-bond theory in 1858. Laurent put forward a hypothesis supposing the dividibility of atoms at a time when such a theory was far removed from the possiblity of experimentation. Within the positivist philosophy which prevailed at the time, few besides him would have dared to advance such a hypothesis. Laurent's hypothesis influenced certain advances in his chemistry, and that of his close associate, Charles Gerhardt, and eventually these advances helped turn most chemists to atomism.
Auguste Laurent and the Prehistory of Valence,Marya Novitski,Taylor & Francis,3718652358,19th century,Chemistry,Chemistry (General),Chemistry - Physical & Theoretical,France,History,History: World,Science,Valence (Theoretical chemistry,Valence (Theoretical chemistry),Europe,European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland),Gerhardt, Ch,History of science,Laurent, Auguste,Organic chemistry,Science / General
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