Book Reading Update - Fontana History of Chemistry CH 5

Chapter 5 (Instructions for the Analysis of Organic Bodies)details the developments during the 20th century with Liebig playing a focal role.  The author relates how challenges in impurity, lab apparatus and reagents, and technical difficulties of analysis were primary players in the tentative and slow development of organic chemistry.  The lack of a clear concept of purity made the study of substances hard, and generalizations on the distinction between compounds, elements, and mixtures were difficult to make.  The author gave a brief chronological account of the development of analytical methods which led to a more concrete conceptualization of purity. Dalton’s atomic theory and laws of stoichiometry (established through accurate analytical methods) became an integral part of quantitative analysis.  Cheaper and more accessible apparatus was developed when students where encouraged (primarily by John Griffin) to carry out personal experimentation.  The progress and expansion of organic analysis accelerated when Liebig developed a “sure-fire” method of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen determination in organic substances.  Through the promotion of chemistry as an experimental science, development of more accessible lab apparatus, his own teaching competence, and the infusion of government support for teaching and laboratories Liebig at the University of Giessen established a model institution for the teaching of practical chemistry.  By the middle of the 20th century, analytical chemistry has become a "commercial commodity and one in which chemical careers could be made".