1998/01/01 by Anthony S. Travis · 2 citations
Chemistry · Arts and Humanities · Medicine · #History and advancements in chemistry #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #Historical and Scientific Studies
paper · doi:10.1007/978-1-349-26443-8_5
openalex publication_date 1998/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Historians of science and technology who have pursued the mid nineteenth century development of chemistry have elaborated two distinct views of this process. Historians of science have focused on the growing knowledge of organic molecules, as exemplified by Friedrich August Kekulé’s theory of the basic structure of aromatic compounds, the six-carbon benzene ring. Historians of technology and economics have interpreted the creation of large factories dedicated to the production of an increasingly diversified range of chemicals made from coal tar products as a case of integration and economy of scale. One assumption, however, which underlies both approaches, is that formal chemical knowledge was established first and later applied to industry. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.