The Art of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines, and Materials [Hardcover]

Arthur Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471071803 | ISBN-13: 978-0471071808 | Publication Date: December 9, 2002 | Edition: 1

A fascinating collection of the pictures, figures, and diagrams that chemists create to explain their craft

In A Chemical History Tour, Arthur Greenberg took readers on a wild romp through the history of chemistry, introducing the unique characters, sometimes bizarre theories, and novel experiments that ultimately produced the modern science. Now Greenberg returns with more tales of chemistry glory, lovingly chronicling the extraordinary artwork that alchemists and chemists have produced in their pursuit of understanding the nature of matter in The Art of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines, and Materials.

The Art of Chemistry employs 187 figures (including 16 full-color plates) to illuminate 72 essays on the mythical origins, wondrous experiments, and adventurous explorers in the annals of chemistry. Greenberg divides his delightful study into eight sections:

• Spiritual and Mythological Roots
• Stills, Cupels, and Weapons
• Medicines, Purges, and Ointments
• An Emerging Science
• Two Revolutions in France
• A Young Country and a Young Theory
• Specialization and Systemization
• Some Fun

Each section tracks chemistry's incremental progress from myth to modern science, featuring the figures and diagrams that early chemists used to explain their craft. Along the way, readers will meet the deadly basilisk and the fabulous phoenix that populated the lore of pre-modern chemistry, learn the contributions to chemistry of the American natural philosopher Benjamin Franklin, and encounter Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry and perhaps France's greatest economist.

Greenberg also examines our fundamental connections with science through two personal essays, one on an adolescent friend who improbably (but perhaps inevitably) became a world-renowned entomology professor and the other on his quest to discover his own chemical heritage. The Art of Chemistry is sure to inform and entertain anyone interested in our eternal quest to know the natural world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...The book has an undoubted charm. -- Times Higher Educational Supplement, 4 July 2003

"...The book is certainly entertaining, both visually and intellectually..." -- The Alchemist ChemWeb, 2 April 2003

"...The book is certainly entertaining, both visually and intellectually..." -- The Alchemist ChemWeb, 2 April 2003

"...a truly fascinating survey and inquiry...very highly recommended..." -- Library Bookwatch, January 2003

"...a very interesting mix of information...an interesting treatise on one facet of scientific progress." -- Science Books & Films, June 2003

"...highly entertaining and informative..." -- The Chemist, Summer 2003

"...recommended..." -- Library Journal Reviews, March 15, 2003

"This is a beautifully illustrated book…which is both informative and entertaining." (The Catalyst, October 2004)

"This book may give you cause to brag about your knowledge…" (Chemist, April 2004)

“Yes, Virginia, chemistry can be funny and Greenberg has given us a masterful presentation.   This book is recommended for academic and public library collections (and should be read by all chemistry majors).” (E-Streams, Vol. 7, No. 3)

"...a truly fascinating survey and inquiry...very highly recommended..." (Library Bookwatch, January 2003)

"...The Art of Chemistry is well written and peppered with Greenberg's witty comments...The more of the book I read, the more I kept on wanting to read..." (Nature, 20 February 2003)

"...a companion to Arthur Greenberg’s earlier book...again he offers us a selection from his unique collection of historical material. If you enjoyed the earlier book, which I did, you will enjoy this as well...lavishly illustrated...well written and peppered with...witty comments and cynical asides..." (Nature, Vol. 421, February 20, 2003)

..."If you want to be diverted and occasionally surprised, enquire within..."(Chemistry in Britain, March 2003)

"...The book is certainly entertaining, both visually and intellectually..." (The Alchemist – ChemWeb, 2 April 2003)

"...recommended..." (Library Journal Reviews, March 15, 2003)

"...Arthur Greenberg leads us on an eclectic and very personal romp…in 72 short essays accompanied by nearly 200 illustrations…we follow an erratic but fascinating route through the history of chemistry..." (New Scientist, February 1, 2003)

"...a rousing sequel to A Chemical History Tour...this large-format work packs in even more visual treats while romping through chemical history..." (Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 2002)

Mentioned with another title Transmutations: "...explores how artists and scientists have depicted the principles, practitioners, and apparatus of chemistry...an episodic and very idiosyncratic history of chemistry..." (American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Spring 2003)

"...suitable as a gift for either a chemist or a...student...or as a reference book for a chemistry teacher...a useful visual compendium…captures the joy of collecting chemical images..." (Journal of Chemical Education, June 2003)

"...a very interesting mix of information...an interesting treatise on one facet of scientific progress." (Science Books & Films, June 2003)

"...The book has an undoubted charm". (Times Higher Educational Supplement, 4 July 2003)

"....It has been a pleasure to read this book and then browse extensively through it.  It is not only a read for ancients like me, it could also inspire more young people to believe that chemistry makes and interesting life's work and study..." (Chemistry & Industry, 21 July 2003)

"...highly entertaining and informative..." (The Chemist, Summer 2003)

"...the reader follows the author...with interest and pleasure...due not only to the clever way in which this immense amount of historical material has been arranged, but also to his talent as a storyteller. To learn something important in a short time and in an amusing way-what more could one wish for?" (Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, Vol. 42)

"...there is material here in plenty for the chemist and bibliophile as well as for the 'amiable historian'...Idiosyncratic, self-indulgent, and even corny, Greenberg believes chemistry to be fun. It is much to be hoped that The Art of Chemistry like A Chemical History Tour, will find its way into school and college...and encourage a new generation of students to laugh all the way to the lab." (Chemical Heritage, Vol. 21, No. 3, Fall 2003)

"Greenberg's book should be in every library...available not only to chemists but to anybody who is interested in the history of science...it should find an honored place on the coffee table of every chemist.... The author is to be congratulated having painstakingly researched and lucidly written this fascinating book..." (Synthesis and Reactivity in Inorganic and Metal-Organic Chemistry, Vol. 33, No. 9)

"Although the primary reason for buying this book is its artistic content and artwork, the forward motion to explain the transformation of myths, superstitions, and their application to the arts and medicine into modern science as we know it will captivate readers." (Clinical Chemistry, Vol. 49, No. 12)

..."If you want to be diverted and occasionally surprised, enquire within..." -- Chemistry in Britain, March 2003

From the Back Cover

A fascinating collection of the pictures, figures, and diagrams that chemists create to explain their craft

In A Chemical History Tour, Arthur Greenberg took readers on a wild romp through the history of chemistry, introducing the unique characters, sometimes bizarre theories, and novel experiments that ultimately produced the modern science. Now Greenberg returns with more tales of chemistry glory, lovingly chronicling the extraordinary artwork that alchemists and chemists have produced in their pursuit of understanding the nature of matter in The Art of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines, and Materials.

The Art of Chemistry employs 187 figures (including 16 full-color plates) to illuminate 72 essays on the mythical origins, wondrous experiments, and adventurous explorers in the annals of chemistry. Greenberg divides his delightful study into eight sections:
* Spiritual and Mythological Roots
* Stills, Cupels, and Weapons
* Medicines, Purges, and Ointments
* An Emerging Science
* Two Revolutions in France
* A Young Country and a Young Theory
* Specialization and Systemization
* Some Fun

Each section tracks chemistry's incremental progress from myth to modern science, featuring the figures and diagrams that early chemists used to explain their craft. Along the way, readers will meet the deadly basilisk and the fabulous phoenix that populated the lore of pre-modern chemistry, learn the contributions to chemistry of the American natural philosopher Benjamin Franklin, and encounter Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry and perhaps France's greatest economist.

Greenberg also examines our fundamental connections with science through two personal essays, one on an adolescent friend who improbably (but perhaps inevitably) became a world-renowned entomology professor and the other on his quest to discover his own chemical heritage. The Art of Chemistry is sure to inform and entertain anyone interested in our eternal quest to know the natural world.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (December 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471071803
• ISBN-13: 978-0471071808
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 1 x 11.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,079,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding essays on the history and nature of chemistry, January 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines, and Materials (Hardcover)

The Art Of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines And Materials by Arthur Greenberg (Department of Chemistry, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire) is an impressive, scholarly compilation of 72 outstanding essays on the history and nature of chemistry, ranging from myths about the origins of this fascinating area of science, down to great watershed experiments performed by dedicated pioneers in the field of chemistry. An informed and informative history which is superbly illustrated with 187 figures (including 16 full-color plates), The Art Of Chemistry is a truly fascinating survey and inquiry into the origins of a science that has substantially contributed throughout the years toward human advancement and civilization. The Art Of Chemistry is a very highly recommended addition to any academic Science History collection.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Laughs---Chemical Heritage magazine, March 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines, and Materials (Hardcover)

Colin Russell once made a television film for the UK's Open University in which he demonstrated some of Edward Frankland's work in a mock-up laboratory built in the studio. Under the powerful studio lights, and in the film itself, the glass apparatus gleamed seductively, leading me to reflect on the wonderfully photogenic nature of chemistry. The visual appeal and power of alchemical paintings, symbols and emblems was elegantly captured by John Read over 50 years ago in his splendid book, The Alchemist in Life, Literature and Art (1947). As far as the ideas and practice of chemistry are concerned, however, the economics of publishing has usually dictated that narrative should dominate over art. There have been attempts at greater pictorial generosity. The scholarly pre-war A Pictorial History of Chemistry (1939) by the pharmaceutical historians F. Ferchl and A. Suessenguth has long been a collector's item, but more recently the organic chemist and bibliophile, Arthur Greenberg, produced the light-hearted A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science (2000). (See rev. CH 19, Spring 2001) Primed by the deserved success of the latter, Greenberg again whets our visual appetites with a companion piece that provides another well-stocked gallery of pictures drawn from title-pages, tables and diagrams, cigarette/baseball cards and art works. These are used to illustrate three predominant features of the discipline's intellectual and experimental development -its myths, its medical connections, and its primary concern with materials.
Although one of the author's aims is didactic - to help non-scientists understand how science works and to show how chemistry was done before it became largely hidden in black boxes - the predominant purpose (as with the former volume) is to entertain. The format and style are identical to the Chemistry History Tour: 188 illustrations (19 in color) and 72 essays. However, whereas previously the essays were elaborate captions to explain the pictures, in this sequel the illustrations serve to illuminate the essays that form a delightful "random walk through chemistry's imagery." The generously-sized reproductions have been selected from his own library, as well as that of fellow bibliophile, Roy G. Neville, and the Othmer Library of CHF. The essays, roughly signposted from chemistry's spiritual and mythological past through the twentieth century, are essentially playful and satirical, and sometimes earthy in humor.
As with his previous book, there is material here in plenty for the chemist and bibliophile as well as for the "amiable historian" (Greenberg's wily term for the critical historian). In my own case, I was intrigued by his perceptive remark about a slower process of metamorphosis replacing stories of the instantaneous transformation of people and things in the twelfth century. I noted a primitive fume cupboard in a print from Johann Kunckel's Ars vitraria experimentalis (1679). There is a valuable comparison between affinity and periodic tables. It is challenging to have Greenberg's opinion that in 1853 Jules Pelouze and Edmond Fremy published the most beautiful textbook of chemistry ever written (Notions générale de chimie) in contrast to the awfully dull Chemia Courtata ("compressed chemistry", 1875) by the Montreal pharmacist A. H. Kollmyer. He also gives a much more complete discussion than I have seen before of the clairvoyant occult chemistry of the theosophists Anna Besant and Charles Leadbeater. As an old fan of Prout's hypothesis, I was also educated by Greenberg's observation that the speculation would never have been possible if the ratio of protonium to deuterium were 80:20 and not 99.98:0.014. Finally, I can't wait to find a copy of a novel new to me: Edwin Herbert Lewis, White Lightning (1923) whose 92 chapters are named after the elements and sequelled in order of their atomic numbers.
Idiosyncratic, self-indulgent and even corny, Greenberg believes chemistry to be fun. It is much to be hoped that The Art of Chemistry, like A Chemical History Tour, will find its way into school and college libraries and encourage a new generation of students to laugh all the way to the lab.