HIST 16 |
| Fascinating that a text beginning (Page 3, Chapter I, Introduction) with the statement “Inorganic chemistry is not General Chemistry” should have anticipated the future and established the format, for decades to come, of a blossoming realm of scientific understanding, but such is the history of chemistry. Early inorganic chemistry was simply descriptive whereas Moeller's emerging new inorganic chemistry sought the orderly understanding of the non-organic matter of the universe as it exists at sub-plasmic temperatures. In a two part format his book presented the principles of the field in a rational and foundational form and then proceeded to examine the known inorganic chemical substances, largely in terms of the principles. At a time when even the generalities, never mind the principles, were limited in number and scope, Dr. Moeller presented an understandable description of much of known matter in a rational and orderly manner. The textbooks of Advanced Inorganic Chemistry that followed built on his format, adding topic after topic, always beginning with ever expanding principles and then switching focus to the exciting molecules of modern inorganic chemistry. Remarkably, Professor Moeller anticipated the encyclopedic expansion of both structure/dynamic principles and knowable substances and provided the matrix for their understanding |
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Landmark Chemistry Books of the Twentieth Century: Authors from the University of Illinois
1:30 PM-4:45 PM, Sunday, March 25, 2007 Hyatt Regency McCormick -- 20C, Oral
Division of the History of Chemistry |