| Description |
1 online resource (xxvi, 375 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Synthesis |
|
Synthesis (University of Chicago. Press)
|
| Contents |
Ether/or -- Springtime for chemistry? -- The education of Alexander Williamson -- Interpreting chemical atoms -- Williamson and Graham -- Grasping the ether -- The experimental dissection of organic molecules -- Excursus: isolated radicals? -- The spread of Williamsonian theory -- The architect of molecules -- The education of August Kekulé -- Kekulé in London -- Excursus: the road to Valence -- Molecular dreams -- Building an unseen structure -- The start of a teaching career -- Early work in Heidelberg -- The theory of polyatomic radicals -- The theory of atomicity of the elements -- Molecular epistemology -- A barometer of the science -- Writing a textbook -- Formulas, models, reality -- Excursus: a case in point -- Erlenmeyer and Kekulé -- Constant or variable atomicity? -- The heuristics of molecular representation -- Couper -- Loschmidt -- Butlerov -- Crum Brown -- Excursus: heurism in action -- The fate of the new graphic formulas -- Molecules as metaphors -- Natural types -- Absolute formulas -- Excursus: looking through the stereoscope -- Molecular democracy or autocracy? -- The revenge of Jupiter's children -- Aromatic apparitions -- First approaches to the problem -- Enter the hexagon -- Benzene through the phenakistoscope -- Excursus: ring around the rosie -- Metachemistry? -- Dimensional molecules -- Early stereospatial speculations -- The spiral staircase -- The pyramid -- Imagination in science: point/counterpoint -- Chemists, physicists, and the microworld -- Kopp's world -- The making of a chemist-historian -- In amongst the molecules -- The response -- The thirsty chemists -- Kekulé's dreams -- The festivities in Berlin -- Kekulé's speech -- The aftermath -- The eureka experience and the unconscious mind -- The scientific image-ination -- Mental images and science -- Mental images and history -- Transdictive images in physics and in chemistry |
| Summary |
Nineteenth-century chemists were faced with a particular problem: how to depict the atoms and molecules that are beyond the direct reach of our bodily senses. In visualizing this microworld, these scientists were the first to move beyond high-level philosophical speculations regarding the unseen. In Image and Reality, Alan Rocke focuses on the community of organic chemists in Germany to provide the basis for a fuller understanding of the nature of scientific creativity. Arguing that visual mental images regularly assisted many of these scientists in thinking through old problems and new possib |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Kekulé, August, 1829-1896.
|
|
Kopp, Hermann, 1817-1892.
|
| SUBJECT |
Kekulé, August, 1829-1896 fast |
|
Kopp, Hermann, 1817-1892 fast |
| Subject |
Chemistry, Organic -- History -- 19th century
|
|
Science -- Methodology -- History
|
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Imagination.
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Visualization.
|
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SCIENCE -- Chemistry -- General.
|
|
Chemistry, Organic
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Imagination
|
|
Science -- Methodology
|
|
Visualization
|
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
|
|
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| LC no. |
2009025749 |
| ISBN |
9780226723358 |
|
0226723356 |
|
