History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2): From 1850 to 1910Thorpe, T. E. (Thomas Edward)
History
History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2): From 1850 to 1910
Thorpe, T. E. (Thomas Edward)
Chemistry -- History
Although, in the above statement, we have been mainly concerned with
aqueous solutions, it should be said that the theory of ionisation
is applicable to other solvents, organic and inorganic. Moreover,
it should be added, the theory has not been universally accepted as
accounting for all the phenomena of solution. Many substances form
definite hydrates which can be isolated, and it is a moot point
whether such hydrates are capable of existing in aqueous solution, as
contended by Mendeléeff, Pickering, Kahlenberg, Armstrong, and others.
Such hydrates are, however, unstable compounds, affected by temperature
changes, and dissociable on dilution in accordance with the law of
concentration (mass action). Further, there is evidence, largely based
on the work of Kohlrausch, H. C. Jones, and Lowry, to show that the
ions in aqueous solutions of electrolytes are themselves hydrated.
Limitations of space preclude further attempts to deal with the
development of physical chemistry during the last half-century, and
many important matters must remain practically unnoticed.
The subject of thermo-chemistry is mainly the creation of the last
half-century, elaborated by the labours of Hess, Andrews, Thomsen,
Favre and Silbermann, and Berthelot. The work of Wenzel and Berthollet
on the influence of molecular concentration on chemical change has
been greatly extended by Berthelot, Guldberg and Waage, Julius
Thomsen, Van ’t Hoff, Harcourt and Esson, and Le Chatelier; and the
theory of mass action and the nature of reversible processes are now
capable of definite expression, and can be proved independently by
thermo-dynamical and kinetic reasoning. The phenomena of catalysis
and the action of enzymes and of fermentation in general have
received attention from many investigators. The phenomena of gaseous
transpiration have been studied by Graham, Maxwell, and O. E. Meyer.
Thermal dissociation has been experimentally observed by Deville,
Troost, and others, and mathematically investigated by Willard Gibbs
and Van der Waals; and its analogy to electrolytic dissociation
has been established. The nature of gaseous explosions has been
investigated by Berthelot, Le Chatelier, Abel, and Dixon. Important
work has been done by Gladstone, Lorentz, Landolt, Nasini, Brühl,
and others, on the connection between the nature and constitution of
substances and their optical characters. Similar work has been done by
Sir William Perkin as regards their magnetic rotation, and by Thorpe
and Rodger with reference to their viscosity. The theory of phases,
originating with Gibbs and developed by Van der Waals and Roozeboom,
has been greatly extended. Sir J. J. Thomson and Sir J. Larmor have
elaborated an electrical theory of the atom. Barlow and Pope have
traced the relation between valency and volume, and the accurate
measurements of Groth and of Tutton have extended our knowledge of the
crystallographic relations of correlated substances.
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