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List of Historical Contributors and Developments Related to
The ATOMIC THEORY and for Systems Biophysics.
Section-I,__ the PRE-QUANTUM ERA:
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space;
everything else is opinion."
___Democritus (c. 460 - c.370 BCE)
A great deal of the Scientific Method as it might be related to the Theory of Atomism has its history in the sciences of chemistry and physics which, in many ways, are one and the same 'subject' [namely, the study of what the universe is made of and what holds it all together.]. This history has long been a fascination of mine since I got my first chemistry set in 1956 at the age of around eight. My father was a petroleum chemist in the late 1940s, and I received the chemistry set for Christmas that year along with a lot of other glassware and odd cast-off chemicals and reagents which my father added from the petroleum lab. I was able to make some sort of rubbery plastic 'blue-stuff' with the chemicals I was given. In fact it was a substance remarkably similar to what has recently been advertised for use as a 'stick resistant' bakeware product in TV infomercials, only this blue plastic-like stuff is more rigid than my 'blue stuff'. Chemistry was an exciting and fun activity for me, and not until I got to the university was I able to share this subject of constant fascination and discovery with others of 'like mind'.
At any rate, if the history of Chemistry can be in any way made into an abbreviate history... as a synthesis and as a unique alpha-numeric set (and paradigm strategy)...this is what I hope might be accomplished here. It is a list of pioneers, discoverers and inventors with a few parallel achievements and a few relevant non-chemist/physicist historical figures added. These are all considered to be important for the progress of what amounts to 'atomistic thinking'. Not everyone who has contributed can be mentioned, but hopefully the important facts and historical figures will be presented. In the tradition of my 'Ontogenic Essays Series', expect this page and the linked pages to be up-graded and edited-improved with new additions periodically.
A more detailed introduction to the theory of Atomism and comments on its history can be found at the Atomic-2 page. These pages concerning Chemistry and Physics are linked together by virtue of the fact that the micro-cosmography of the atoms can be thought of as united with the macro-cosmography of the cosmos itself since the tiniest building blocks of the universe are made in the evolution of pan-stellar genesis.
Indeed,..."We are all made of stars."
In general, the ontogeny and evolution of "Atomistic Thinking" among the species human might, I believe, be more or less summarized to have passed through a series of phases with all phases being uniquely divided into two main classes, namely the 'Pre-and-Post Quantum Phases'. The Pre-Quantum phases are discussed here, and the Quantum phases can be linked-to below:
Chemical Elements Known in their pure State from Pre-historical times:
Carbon and Sulfur .
Most likely, the pre-historic human would have known the pure element carbon from the charcoal residues of natural and man-made fires. Sulfur may have had its un-pleasant odor experienced from 'rotten-egg' gas and from sulfur springs. All of these chemical manifestations in a language-using proto-human would have probably been given specific names used within the tribe or clan.
Chemical Elements known in their pure form and in use circa BCE:
>5000: Copper
>3000: Silver
>3000: Gold
>2500: Iron
>2100: Tin
>1600: Antimony
>1500: Mercury
>1000: Lead
Chemical Elements from Medieval Times:
>Arsenic... Discovered in Circa 1250 CE(AD). by Magnus in Germany
>Zinc...... is known prior to 1500 CE.
>Bismuth... circa 1500 CE
First Post-Medieval Elements:
>Phosphorous.... discovered by Swede Brandt 1669 CE,
>Cobalt......... also by Brandt in 1735 CE.
>Platinum .......dates from prior to 1700 CE.
>Nickel......... Discovered by Cronstedt of Sweden in 1751 CE.
There is a story (perhaps more a myth) which is sometimes told and retold that tells about how in ancient times when people first began to fashion jewelry from hard substances like metals such as gold and silver that some observant soul first began to notice how, after many years, a ring or bracelet might start to wear away little by little. Very old rings for example which were cherished pieces of adornment for generations and generations and continually worn would slowly wear down. Now since these objects were clearly of such solid and hard material-substance, someone must have finally started to ask..."where did the missing metal go?" Such a common substance as charcoal might 'behave' similarly, but the gritty lost substance would be more easily accounted-for since the visible coal-dust could be readily seen with the naked eye. Perhaps something similar was going on with the metal only the particles are much tinier and essentially 'sub-visible'. And with this notion the idea that the metal was made up of smaller parts that could invisibly rub away ...i.e. that it was "atomic" must have been either invented or discovered. Now, as far as I know, there is no written form of this story from antiquity, and in fact I do not really recall how I first learned about it. But it seems to make sense;...maybe it was passed down from a time before writing itself! With a time-line of more than 2,500 years,...a more well "accounted for" history of atomism follows here:
LEUCIPPUS__(c. 490 -? BCE.):
A Greek Philosopher is the first known writer supposed to have considered the problem of dividing matter into smaller units.
DEMOCRITUS of ABDERA__ (460-370 BCE.)
Democritus was a pupil of Leucippus.
He is first to discuss the idea of "atomism" and he uses the word "atom," meaning "un-breakable." Claiming that all matter- substance consists of irreducible fundamental "particles," the concept of atomism is initiated. In his view, there was only "empty space" between the atoms. Most of the thinkers of the time felt that matter could be endlessly sub-divided. Plato (ca 427-347 BCE) did not accept the atomic view. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), a student of Plato consider all substance as a variation of a Quaternity of "The Alchemical Elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water,..." a view that persisted for centuries along with the Zodiacal-Astrological thinking of the Alchemists. A mystical "Fifth-Element," i.e. a "Quintessence" sort of balanced the superstitious things out.
In the Orient, the Taoists and proto-scientists of China had a similar quaternity and other numerological dividing patterns and strategies (The Hexagrams of the I Ching or "Book of Natural Changes" and Divination-Oracle Texts) to comprehend "The Ten-thousand Things" and the "Way of Heaven and Earth" always viewed as somehow symmetrically balanced by the natural forces (Chi) of Yang and Yin (Creative and Receptive Principle).
No writings survive from Democritus directly.
EPICURUS__(341-270 BCE)
None of the 300 or so Books written by Epicurus has survived. He apparently took up atomism as the core of his writings on Natural Philosophy.
TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS__(96-55 BCE)
In 56 BCE Lucretius published a long poetic work of six volumes (with the only known copy found in 1417 CE) entitled "De Rerum Natura," ("Of The Nature of Things"). This dealt with the popular topic of Epicureanism, and the atomism of Democritus is referred to. Lucretius more than anyone before is responsible for the survival of the idea of atomism from earlier times.
Half a century after the single copy was found in Medieval times and with the invention of printing this old Latin text was copied more and more and widely studied. More than 2050 years after its original date of publishing, De Rerum Natura can still be read today in translated precision.
"All things, were they not still together held, by matter eternal, shackled through its parts,
now more, now less. A touch might be enough to cause destruction. For the slightest force
would loose the weft of things wherein no part were of imperishable stock. But now
because the fastenings of primordial parts are put together diversely and stuff
is everlasting, things abide the same unhurt and sure, until some power comes on
strong to destroy the warp and woof of each: Nothing returns to naught; but all returns
at their collapse to primal forms of stuff."
.............De Rerum Natura, c. 56 BCE;__Book-I
c. 253 - 270 CE
PLOTINUS (204-270 CE) was one of the most erudite men of his time. Born in Egypt, he had settled in Rome by the year 244 CE. He is called the "founder of the Neoplatonic System." His prolific writings were edited and organized (posthumously by his pupil-biographer PORPHYRY ) into six groups of nine books each .... the Enneads.
These works are important because they establish the foundations of neoplatonism as a philosophical system and thus combine and transmit-link to the Medieval World much of the previous work of men like Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras. Hence some of the issues and ideas concerning atomism from antiquity appear in the Enneads. The writings of Plotinus are considered extremely influential in regards to philosophical development of the early Christian Church in Europe. The Enneads were translated from the older Greek into Latin in the year 1492 by MARSILIO FICINO. It is said that the translator Ficinio (born of the House of Medici, and one especially selected to translate the Greek texts) was so influenced by the Enneads of Plotinus that he considered Socrates and Plato as "as fore-runners of Christ." The works of Plotinus dominated western thought and Renaissance Neoplatonism for more than 1,000 years.
1530-1543 CE
NICOLAS COPERNICUS (1473-1543)
Copernicus wrote a work entitled "De Revolutionibus" which could not get published until just before his death in 1543. His work claimed that the Earth revolved around the central Sun. The real end to the old Aristotelian-Ptolemaic model of he Universe would not come until Galileo (in 1609) could demonstrate that Jupiter had tiny moons orbiting thus proving that every thing did not revolve around a divinely centered Earth. Later this idea of a "Solar System" with small orbiting worlds would greatly inspire atomistic thinking trying to explain how electrons might move relative with respect to a much greater central mass of the atomic nucleus.
1676 CE
OLE (OLAUS) CHRISTENSEN ROEMER (1644-1710)
Roemer is first to discover that the speed of light is fast but finite. He makes comparative measurements of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter to calculate a velocity of light at 140,000 miles per second. This value is off by 46,000 miles per second, but Roemer's calculations are a remarkable first estimate. It would not be until 1865 that any precise measurements would be made with Maxwell's electro-magnetism studies.
1714 CE
GABRIEL DANIEL FAHRENHEIT (1686-1736) makes use the first use of the chemical element mercury in a thermometer
1729 CE
JAMES BRADLEY (1693-1762)
Bradley was a friend and contemporary of Edmond Halley and Isaac Newton and Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford.
In 1729 he discovers the aberration of light and determined the velocity of light more accurately than Roemer had done fifty years earlier. Bradley's discovery of the aberration of light is conclusive proof of the Copernican Hypothesis. Bradley also discovered in 1748 the inconstancy of the inclination of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic.
1766 CE
HENRY CAVANDISH (1731-1810) discovers, isolates and studies hydrogen in 1766. Cavendish also establishes the fact that water is a "compound" of hydrogen and oxygen and hydrogen can "burn" to form water (1784). Hydrogen is a non-metallic univalent element that is normally a colorless and odorless highly flammable diatomic gas. Hydrogen is the simplest and lightest and most abundant element in the universe. Cavendish also calculates a reasonable density and mass of Earth in 1798.
1772 CE
DANIEL RUTHERFORD (1749-1819)
Identified Nitrogen in 1772.
1774 CE
JOSEPH PRIESTLY (1733-1804)
With Scheele in Uppsala Discovered and studied Oxygen in 1774. See 1781.
c.1774 CE
CARL WILHELM SCHEEL (1742-1786).
Scheel was a Swedish chemist who discovered hydrofloric, tartaric, benzoic, lactic, citric, malic and many other important organic and inorganic acids. Between 1774-1783, he isolated chlorine, baryta, oxygen (apparently with Priestly) and glycerine. He also worked with chemical pigments of arsenite and copper. Independently of Priestley, he showed in 1777 that the atmosphere consists chiefly of two gases, one supporting combustion, the other preventing it. Scheel's research papers were translated by Dobbin in 1931. and ANTOINE LAVOISIER (1743-1794) discover that air as a mixture of gases,... (especially oxygen) required for breathing. The stuff that the wind consists of or 'air' is composed mostly of nitrogen.
1781 CE
[]__ 1781; JOSEPH PRIESTLY (1733-1804) creates water by igniting hydrogen and oxygen.
Joseph Priestley was an English chemist who isolated many gases and discovered oxygen (independently of Scheele). Priestly was also a Presbyterian minister. In visits to London, he met with Benjamin Franklin who gave him books to study for his History of Electricity (1767), the year he began his chemical studies.
[]__ 1781; WILLIAM NICHOLSON and ANTHONY CARLISLE use electrolysis (using a "voltaic pile") to separate water into its component atomic parts: hydrogen and oxygen. By 1800, this was instrumental in establishing the fact that water could be ‘dissociated' by electrical energy into smaller component parts.
[]__ 1781; JOHN DALTON (1766-1844) introduces the concept of an atomic chemistry,...
The science of matter and the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties, behaviors and reactions.
John Dalton was an English chemist and physicist who formulated atomic theory and the law of partial pressures of mixed gases. He also gave the first description of red-green color blindness (syndrome was named "Daltonism" in 1794), and recorded more than 200,000 meteorological observations as well as working in botany and entomological studies and collections.
[]__ 1781; SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822)
makes the world-startling discovery of the new planet Uranus. (see year 1800). His son (Sir John Frederick William) was also a noted astronomer and pioneer in celestial photography who discovered more than 525 nebulae and clusters in the mid 1800s. (See 1848)
1782 CE
[]__ 1782; LUIGI GALVANI (1737-1885)
Galvani discovered "animal electricity." This is the first indication of a connection or inter-connection between biological material and electric charge. Making frog muscle twitch with an electrical spark, he mistakenly believes a source of muscle-power and electrical current resides in the muscle-tissues proper while under-estimating a role for innervations or distinct nerve-tissue functions. By 1791 Galvani had showed that muscle tissues twitched when they made contact with two different metals such as brass and iron. Biological electrochemistry had its origins in Galvani's experiments. [ Later, the bio-electrical properties of Electrophorus electricus, the "amazonian electric eel" is found to be able to generate more than 600-1000 volts of electricity! This is enough electrical energy to kill a horse! The discharging system of the electric cells was first explained by a Martins-Ferreira, Altamirano and Keynes in 1953.]
1787 CE
[]__ 1787; JACQUES ALEXANDRE CESAR CHARLES (1746-1823)
In December of 1783 he was the first brave soul ever to make an ascent in a hydrogen-filled balloon.
He discovered in 1787 the manner in which gas volume changed-expanded with temperature ("Charles' Law") and thus indicated the possible existence of "absolute zero" temperature. As professor of Physics at Paris he invented several scientific instruments.
1789 CE
[]__ 1789; ANTOINE LAURENT LAVOISIER (1743-1794) publishes his 'Traite elementaire de Chimeie' (Dissertation concerning the Chemical Elements).
Known as the founder of modern chemistry and " the greatest chemist of all time," Lavoisier introduced quantitative methods into chemistry, demonstrating the Law of Conservation of Mass. ...This was later refined by Relativity into a Law of Conservation of both mass and energy (E=MC2). Lavoisier also worked out the composition of the atmosphere, and explained the phenomenon of combustion as a chemical combination or 'reaction' with oxygen. Through his correct interpretation of the work of Joseph Priestly who correlated the gas oxygen with biological respiration, Lavoisier is credited with the discovery of elemental oxygen,... hence the studies of both Priestly and Lavoisier might constitute a quantitative origin of a first-ordered science of 'Biophysics'. In order to finance his scientific studies, Lavoisier (who had a degree in public Law) took up the occupation of 'farmer-general' of taxes and became director of the French government's gun-powder mills. During this time he was instrumental in making efforts to apply the science of chemistry to agricultural practices. Despite a lifetime of work in service for the state, and for inquiring into the social problems and functions of taxation, hospital's and prison's operations (all for which he was a non-activist reformer), Lavoisier was accused of being an elitist 'farmer of taxes' and was eventually be-headed at the guillotine in 1794.
[]__ 1789; ANTOINE LAURENT DE JUSSIEU (1748-1836)
Nephew of botanist Bernard Jussieu (1699-1777) who created the botanical garden at Trianon for Louis XV and established a system of botanical classification..
Antoine, also a botanist, in 1789 modified and elaborated The Linnaean Taxonomic System established by his uncle at the Jardin des Plantes which he re-organized as the "Museum National d' Histoire Naturelle." The new system Genera Plantarum (1778-89) was to be "more abstract" and dependent upon physiological criteria rather than sensory visual clues. The idea that objects can be sometimes better classified based upon information which does not always "meet the eye" seems to have an origin with the French Botanists at this time.
1799 CE
JAN IGENHOUSZ (1730-1799)
Showed in 1799 that plants took up carbon dioxide and released oxygen. The term "photosynthesis" is used.
Other Elements Discovered in the 1700's CE:
1774: Manganese... found by Granh in Stockholm
1780: Chromium.... by Vauquelin in Paris
1781: Molybdenum...by Hjelm in Upsalla
1783: Tellurium..... by von Reichenstein in Romania
1783: Tungsten...... ("Wolfram") by Fausto de Elhuyar with his brother in Spain
1789: Zirconium .... by Klaproth of Berlin
1789: Uranium....... also by Klaproth
1791: Titanium... by Gregor and Klaproth
1794: Yttrium.... by Gadolin in Finland.
1797: Beryllium.. by Vauquelin in Paris.
1800 CE
[]__ 1800; WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822)
Born in Germany in 1738 he visited England in 1755 as an oboist in the Hanover Guards Band. In 1766 he became an organist and music teacher at Bath. Later he took up Astronomy. Herschel had made a reflecting telescope in 1773 with which he made the world-startling discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781. In 1782 he was appointed astronomer to King George III. With his sister the two studied the solar system and the Milky Way Galaxy. He described to the rotation of Saturn's Rings and made catalogues of stars. Herschel's son (1792-1871) continued much of his father's work discovering 525 nebulae and clusters and developing-pioneering celestial or astronomical photography. Herschel was as the first to detect astronomical infrared radiation; he also described the motion of the solar system in the galaxy.
[]__ 1800; ALESSANDRO VOLTA (1745-1827)
Volta invents the chemical battery and produces the first continuous electric current to be latter put to use by scientists such as Humphrey Davy.
1802 CE
THOMAS YOUNG (1773-1829)
Young expounded the "Doctrine of Interference" which established the wave theory of light.
He also worked on Haemodynamics (blood flow) as a Physician and made fundamental contributions to the deciphering of the inscriptions of the Rosetta Stone as an influential Egyptologist-Archaeologist.
1807 CE
HUMPHREY DAVY (1778-1829)
As a young medical assistant in 1797 Davy experimented with the newly discovered gases and discovered the anaesthetic effect of laughing gas (nitrous-oxide). In 1813 he published "Elements in Agricultural Chemistry." He isolated the new elements sodium and potassium in 1807 and also barium, strontium, calcium and magnesium using the new methods of electrolysis and electric Volta's current. In 1812 we was knighted. One of Davy's main contributions to Science was his ways to inspire and "sell" science ideas to the budding Industrialist of his time.
1808 CE
[]__ 1808; JOHN DALTON (1766-1844)
Establishes the atomic nature of matter first suggested by Democritus, ... 2150 years earlier.
[]__ 1808; ETIENNE LOUIS MALUS (1775-1812)
A military engineer in Napoleon's army, he discovered polarized light in 1808. This made it necessary to view light as consisting of tiny transverse waves moving up and down perpendicular to the direction of the "ray."
1809 CE
JOSEPH LOIS GAY-LUSSAC (1778-1850)
In 1809 worked out the law of combining volumes, showing that gases combined in small whole numbers of volumes; this gave support to the atomic theory of matter being worked out in Great Britain. Gay-Lussac worked with Alexander von Humboldt and in 1805 their famous report was presented to the French Academy of Sciences stating that Oxygen and Hydrogen combine in a ratio of one to two to form water.
1811 CE
[]__ 1811; AMEDEO AVAGADRO (17746-1856)
Avagadro's Hypothesis or Law :
"Equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules at the same temperature and pressure."
It was not until about 1859 before Avogadro's Hypothesis was significantly "introduced" to the world via the work of the Italian Chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826-1910) who essentially coordinated the differences between "organic versus in-organic chemistry" and the role that molecular weights has in chemical combining.
Avogadro's law offers the first distinction between "Atoms and Molecules" and contributed significantly to precision in chemical quantitative methods.
"Avogadro's Number" is with today's best experimental determination: 6.022 141 99 x 1023 atoms per mole. The number can be used to calculate photons, atoms or molecules as they react.
[]__ 1811; JOHAN JAKOB BERZELIUS (1779-1848)
He introduced the classical system of chemical symbols in 1811, in which elements are abbreviated by one or two letters to make a distinct abbreviation from their Latin name.
He published a table of atomic weights in 1826 which was in good agreement with modern values (although some weights are off by a factor of 2 or ˝), but included confusion as to the differences between atoms and molecules.
c. 1814 CE
AUGUSTIN JEAN FRESNEL (1788-1827)
Fresnel was a French physicist, born in Broglie. He was head of the department of public works in Paris. He worked out the mathematics of Malus' (see 1808) discoveries in regards to the wave-like or undulatory nature of light. Fresnel invented a lens system for navigation light-houses (The Fresnel-compound lens) which reduced luminance inefficiency from its previous more than 80 per cent inefficiency to about 17 percent. Fresnel was able to produce circularly polarized light by means of a special prism called today the 'Fresnel rhomb'.
1815 CE
JEAN BAPTISTE BIOT (1774-1820)
Showed in 1815 that polarized light (invented the "polariscope") could "rotate" in organic solutions, this lead the way to new methods of chemical analysis.
1800-1810 CE
Chemical Elements Elucidated in the period 1800 to 1810:
1801: Vanadium..... discovered by del Rio in Mexico.
1801: Niobium........ Hatchett in London.
1802: Tantalum....... Ekeberg of Upsalla.
1803: Rhodium and
........ Palladium ........ Wollaston in London.
1803: Osmium and
.........Iridium........... Tennant in London.
1803: Cerium............ Berzelius and Hisinger in Sweden.
1807: Potassium and
........ Sodium............ Davy in London.
1808:
......Strontium .... Crawford of Edinburgh,
......Ruthenium..... Sniadecki of Poland
......Boron ........ Davy, Thenard and Lussac,
..... Calcium and
......Barium ...... Davy.
Chemical Elements Discovered between 1810 to 1899 in relative order are:
Iodine, Thorium, Lithium, Selenium, Cadmium, Silicon ( all before 1824),
Aluminum, Bromine ( before 1826),
Lanthanum, Erbium, Terbium, Caesium ( before 1860),
Rubidium, Thallium, Indium, Gallium (before 1875),
Holmium, Ytterbium, Scandium, Samarium, Thulium, Gadolinium, and
Praseodymium, Neodymium, Germanium, Fluorine ( all before 1886),
Dysprosium, Argon ( before 1894),
Helium (1895), Krypton, Neon, Xenon ( before 1898),
Polonium(1898-Marie Curie), Radium (1898), Actinium
1900: Radon.
Hydrogen Peroxide, and many biological molecules are discovered including an association of glucose in diabetes;__ biological and and nutritional studies take on the scientific method. Bichat is the founder of the Science of Histology with a book published in 1800. Cuvier (1769-1832) classifies certain extinct fossils. Lamarck is the founder of the science of invertebrate zoology. In 1809 he was first to suggest a mechanisms for "biological evolution."
1824 CE
SADI CARNOT
Carnot tentatively elucidates an early form of the "Second Law of Thermodynamics" and introduces some of the mathematical methods needed for a rigorous physical analysis while he applies scientific principles to improving the efficiency of the popular invention of the time, the steam engine. To some, Carnot is considered the founder of the Science of Thermodynamics. The work on the Second Law is continued in the 1850's by Lord Kelvin and Rudolf Clausius.
1829 CE
Scottish chemist THOMAS GRAHAM (1805-1869) works on the diffusion of gasses and notes that the rate of diffusion of a gas,... which depends on the velocity of the molecules,...is inversely proportional to the square-root of its density (and density, in turn, depends on the molecular weight). This observation becomes Graham's Law in physical chemistry. For this, he is considered to be one of the principle founders of physical chemistry. He also worked on the chemical properties of colloids and their separation by dialysis.
1833 CE
MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday is often considered to be the creator of Classical " Field Theory."
As Chemistry chair at the Royal Institution, Faraday was first to isolate benzene and first to synthesize the first chlorocarbons. His greatest contributions, however, covered a period of over forty years with the publication of his "Experimental Researches on Electricity " and the " "Philosophical Transactions. " With these works he elucidated a theory of electro-magnetic induction (1831) and the laws of electrolysis (1833). Faraday is often referred to as the greatest of all experimental physicists.
1845 CE
KARL REMIGIUS FRESENIUS (1818-1827)
A German chemist and professor at the Agricultural Institute from 1845, his revised tables for qualitative and quantitative analysis are still used today.
1847 CE
MAYER, HELMHOLTZ AND JOULE... Energy.
In 1847 the "Law of the Conservation of Energy" is established. This is generally attributed to the work of German scientists Julius Robert Mayer (1814-1878)and Herman Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894). Another important contributor is James Prescott Joule (1818-1889). This law is also known as "The First Law of Thermodynamics." And it may be considered to be the most fundamental of all scientific generalizations. Joule's work establishes the "Equivalence of Heat and Work" and a standard unit of conceptual physical "work" (or a measure of energy) is now called the "Joule."
1848 CE
[]__ 1848; Sir John Frederick WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1792-1871) becomes president of the Royal Astronomical Society and from 1850-1855 he is Master of the Mint. He pioneered celestial photography, carried out research on photo-active chemicals and studied the wave theory of light. He also translated for Johann Schiller and the epic of the Illiad .
[]__ 1848; LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)
Pasteur was the first to observe crystalline molecules rotating the plane of polarized light which demonstrated the fact of asymmetry of the molecular structure. Pasteur discovered the existence of "right-handed and left-handed molecules," and showed that certain microbes would utilize one type of a molecule while leaving behind the other type. This was an important step toward understanding the three-dimensional structure of molecules.
1849 CE
In 1849 ARMAND HIPPOLYTE FIZEAU (1819-1896) and JEAN LEON FOUCAULT (1819-1868) were the first to measure the speed of light in laboratory settings versus using astrophysical methods. Foucault was actually the first to demonstrate emphatically that the Earth really does indeed rotate on its axis in 1856.
1850 CE
RUDOLF JULIUS EMMANUEL CLAUSIUS (1822-1888) works out the "Second Law of Thermodynamics" (the honor was shared with Lord Kelvin). This demonstrates that the amount of usable energy which is capable of being converted to work is constantly decreasing. Thus the entropy of the Universe is increasing.
1857 CE
LOTHAR OF GWAR
Skeletal remains of the first "Neanderthal Man" are discovered in the Neanderthal valley of the German Rhineland. It is a skull with dominant supra-orbital-frontal crests (heavy eyebrow ridges) and seems both "simian" and human. It is the first "evidence" of human beings with marked physical characteristics considered "more primitive" from modern humans.
1858 CE
AUGUST KEKULE (1829-1896)
Kekule made major contributions to our understanding of molecular structures, carbon chain compounds and cyclic structures. A famous story about Kekule reports that once (ca 1865) while working hard on his ideas and theories concerning atom combinings in molecules, he had a dream, and in the dream the atoms formed chains and "snakes." According to Kekule, one of the snakes "...had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes." With this Kekule had discovered the cyclic ring structure of benzene (first isolated by Faraday ca 1827) and a great deal of commercially important organic chemistry was begun.
1859 CE
GUSTAV ROBERT KIRCHOFF (1824-1887)
Together with ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN (1811-1899), the two worked out the technique of "Spectroscopy." With this technique, an element or group of elements composing a compound or substance can have some if not all of its atoms identified as it is heated and radiates the characteristic wave-lengths of the atoms as they become energized and/or de-energized. Spectroscopy is now one of the most useful techniques available in chemistry, medicine and astrophysics. With spectroscopy a laboratory scientist can diagnose, for example, the occurrence of a poison in the blood and an astrophysicist can determine what elements that make up the corona of a distant star. Spectrographic methods may someday verify life on other planets (or at least certain carbon).
1863 CE
WILLIAM HIGGINS (1824-1910)
Higgins was the first astronomer to put spectroscopy to work, showing that some of the same elements which exist on Earth also exist in certain stars. In 1868 he also demonstrated the receding motion of the star Sirius as indicated in its Doppler-shifting spectrum.
1869 CE
In investigating the relationship between temperature and pressure with gases,...
Irish physicist THOMAS ANDREWS (1813-1885) establishes the existence of the phenomenon of critical temperature as a measure of heat at which liquefaction becomes just barely possible for certain chemical elements. Critical temperature is the temperature of the liquid-vapor critical point, that is, the temperature above which a gas cannot be liquefied by an increase of pressure;...i.e.,... above the critical temperature point, the element can exist only as a gas.
1873 CE
JAMES CLERK MAXWELL (1831-1879)
Considered on of the greatest theoretical physicists the world has known, Maxwell published his great " Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism " in 1873. This was essentially a rigorous mathematical treatment of Faraday's earlier work. Maxwell suggested that electro-magnetic waves could be made and studied in the physics laboratory and shortly there after HEINRICH HERTZ accomplished this in 1887. The work of Maxwell ("Maxwell's Equations") and Hertz is considered to have paved the way for Albert Einstein and Max Planck. Some have referred to Einstein's equations for gravitation as a "clone of Maxwell's equations" for electromagnetism, with masses attracting other masses via a "gravito-electric effect." [For more about this, refer to George Musser's article in the June, 2002 issue of Scientific American: "A Philosopher's Stone."
With Maxwell's "alpha-numeric set,"... the Science of Physics is forever stead-fastly linked to the mathematizing potential of the human intellect to paradigm the invisible energy-events encountered in the exploration of the world of Natural Phenomena, an activity first began perhaps centuries earlier with Euclid and the Pythagoreans and the elucidation of a quantity-idea called "The Hypotenuse."
1876 CE
SIR JOSIAH WILLARD GIBBS (1839-1903)
Gibbs contributes significantly to the Science of Thermodynamics and publishes his paper "On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876-78) introducing the concept of the "Phase Rule" to physical chemistry. The work establishes J.W. Gibbs as the Founder of the Science of "Physical Chemistry."
1895 CE
WILHELM KONRAD ROENTGEN (1845-1923)
In the early 1890's Roentgen was working with cathode rays in a manner which was more concerned with their effects upon chemicals rather than their technical description. He found that certain chemicals (barium plantinocyanide, e.g.) Would glow or "exhibit luminescence" with the cathode rays acting upon it. Roentgen published his first report on December 28, 1895 calling his rays "X-rays." He received the Nobel Prize in 1901 which was the first year such awards were given out. With this work on X-rays many scientist first began to seriously argue the wave-particle duality of the electromagnetic phenomena they were encountering.
c. 1891 - 1895 CE
STONEY-THOMPSON and the electron.
In 1891, the Irish physicist GEORGE JOHNSTONE STONEY (1826-1911) had suggested that the minimum electric charge that one could deduce from Faraday's laws be called an electron. Sir Joseph John ("J.J.") Thompson (1856-1940) liked the name and applied it to the particle itself rather than the charge proper and the name has since become popularized with electronics. In some respects then, the discovery of the electron is more credited to Thompson but it was Stoney who apparently first placed the term into scientific print and in reference to a unit of charge. As the Cavendish professor of Physics at Cambridge, Thompson's continued research involving Maxwell's electromagnetism and Roentgen work with " X-rays." Thompson was able to show that the cathode rays were fast moving particles and that their mass was nearly 2000 times that of the hydrogen ion. With these discoveries, the "greatest revolution in physics since Newton" was inaugurated by Thompson's lecture before the Royal Institution in 1897. Thompson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 and seven of his assistants have also been Nobel laureates.
Continued with Section-II:
DAWN OF THE QUANTUM ERA.
c. 1900 CE
With the arrival of the new decade and at a time when the atom of Democritus' imagining having been found more complex and sub-divisible than ever supposed or predicted ( yet mysteriously so, scientists barely knew about the "rays" emitted by elements such as uranium),...we enter a totally new era in the exploration of what the Universe is made of and what might hold it all together.
All is now beyond the domain of the "Precipitationistic Electro-Chemists," __ and instead belongs to the explorers of the extremely minute realm of the atom's very interiors,...
~to be continued~
LINKS:
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A Great "SIZE-OLOGY" web site:
CELLS ALIVE.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics:
Atomic and Molecular Physics Division .
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