WELCOME to The Catalyst!
Sidebar

Chemistry Resources For The Secondary Education Teacher On The WWW

CHEMISTRY HISTORY


(All links to external sites will open in a separate browser window)

Atomic Structure Timeline
A nice site outlining major highlights in the discovery of atomic structure.
http://www.watertown.k12.wi.us/hs/teachers/buescher/atomtime.asp

C&EN's 75th Anniversary Issue
"...C&EN has existed throughout a period of remarkable growth and vitality in the chemical enterprise - a period during which chemistry has changed the face of the world. This special issue is devoted to capturing the substance and flavor of those 75 years." There is some very good chemistry history in this issue of Chemical & Engineering News. Noteworthy links are below.
http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/980112/master.html

Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) seeks to advance the heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences by operating an historical research library; discovering and disseminating information about historical resources; encouraging research, scholarship, and popular writing; publishing historical materials; conducting oral histories; creating exhibits; and taking other appropriate steps to make known the achievements of chemical and molecular scientists and engineers and of related sciences, technologies, and industries. The foundation engages in a wide range of educational activities and programs aimed at the general public, students, and scholars. The CHF was established by the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. To get an idea about the work the CHF produces, check out the Chemical Achievers, a part of the Educational Services portion of their website.
http://www.chemheritage.org/

ChemTeam Photo Gallery
This page of the ChemTeam site is a menu listing the images they have of people and things relevant to discoveries in chemistry.
http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Gallery/GalleryMenu.html

Classic Chemistry
The principal purpose of Carmen Giunta's Classic Chemistry site is to post the texts of several classic papers from the history of chemistry. This site also contains pointers to a few other chemistry-related sites and a "This Week in the History of Chemistry" section, including links to sites about the listed person or events.
http://webserver.lemoyne.edu/faculty/giunta/

The Discovery of the Electron
This site describes the history of the electron and its discoverer, J. J. Thomson.
http://www.aip.org/history/electron/

Dmitriy Mendeleev Online
This web site is a part of the Moscow State University web site, and presents a "comprehensive overview about the great Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev."
http://www.chem.msu.ru/eng/misc/mendeleev/welcome.html

Elementistory
This Periodic Table gives historical data related to the elements.
http://smallfry.dmu.ac.uk/chem/periodic/elementi.html

Elementymology & Elements Multidict
This site contains a page that summarizes (by country) the date of discovery and discoverer for each chemical element. There is also information on the origin of the names of the chemical elements, and a multilingual dictionary of element names in over 40 languages.
http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/

History of the Periodic Table
A very nice page describing the history of the periodic table.
http://www.periodictable.com/pages/AAE_History.html

History of Science
This site is broken down into different periods of chemistry history. Each different period contains a good amount of information and an additional, separate page of detailed information for most of the people mentioned. (From the Michigan Technological University)
http://chemistry.mtu.edu/PAGES/HISTORY/HomePage.html

Home Page of Avogadro
This page is dedicated to Amadeo Avogadro and gives a wonderful little background on the man, his contributions to chemistry, and the number named in honor of him.
http://avogadro.che.hw.ac.uk/avoga.html

HyperChemistry on the Web - A Brief History of Chemistry
This site contains information concerning the history of chemistry dating back to prehistoric times. It breaks this history down into four major segments.
http://library.thinkquest.org/2690/hist/history.html

Linus Pauling Centenary Celebration
The Pauling Heritage Committee at Oregon State University has provided these pages of information about the man and his accomplishments.
http://pauling.library.orst.edu/index.htm

Maria Sklodowska-Curie
This site is dedicated to Maria Sklodowska-Curie and contains a large amount of information, links, and much more.
http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/sci/msc.htm

A Periodic Table of the Elements at Los Alamos National Laboratory
This periodic table of the elements provides historical information about each of the elements.
http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/

Prominent Figures in Physics
This page provides biographical information on a number of important physicists throughout history. Included in this list are physicists who have impacted the field of chemistry.
http://www.newlisbon.k12.wi.us/physicists/home.html

Radioactivity: Historical Figures
A web article which focuses on four of the primary scientists responsible for the discovery of radioactivity. A related article at the same site (The Discovery Of Radioactivity: The Dawn Of The Nuclear Age) provides additional information on the discovery of radioactivity.
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/historical_background.html
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/radioactivity.html

SCETI: Robert Boyle's Sceptical Chymist (1661)
This site contains a virtual facsimile of an original copy of Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist.
http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?textID=boyle_chymist&PagePosition=1

Sci-Philately: A Selective History of Science on Stamps
This interesting site contains a truely unique journey through the history of each scientific discipline, complete with pictures of many stamps.
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/exhibits/stamps/

Glenn T. Seaborg

  • The Life of Glenn T. Seaborg
    The Glenn T. Seaborg Center is part of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northern Michigan University. They provide these pages of information about the man and his accomplishments.
    http://seaborg.nmu.edu/gts/
  • Glenn Seaborg - His Life and Contributions
    "This website chronicles the monumental life of Glenn Seaborg." It has a considerable amount of information, including a teacher's guide.
    http://www.lbl.gov/seaborg/

This Week in Chemical History

These links provide important chemically related historical events for the current week.
    Carmen Giunta's Classic Chemistry site
    Americal Chemical Society

1992 WWNFF History of Chemistry Institute
The 1992 History of Chemistry Institute at Princeton University was comprised of 50 participants from schools all across the USA. They were gathered to share ideas about getting more history into the high school chemistry curriculum. This site contains the fruit of their labors, including biographical essays on famous chemists and teacher-written activities for use in the classroom.
http://step.sdsc.edu/projects95/chem.in.history/introduction.html

The History of Chemistry: 1992 WWNFF Summer Institute
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation was responsible for the 1992 History of Chemistry Institute (above). They have now this information on their own site. This site also contains the results of the seminar, including biographical essays on famous chemists and teacher-written activities for use in the classroom.
http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/

100 Distinguished European Chemists
The Federation of European Chemical Societies initiated, as a Millennium Project, the celebration of Distinguished European Chemists spanning a period of over two hundred years, beginning with the end of the 18th century. This was their final list. Along with each name is a brief biography and details of their achievements.
http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/enc/fecs/100chemists.htm

[top]