A usable past

creating disciplinary space for physical chemistry

Diana Kormos Barkan

pp. 175-202

in: Mary J. Nye, Joan L. Richards, Roger H. Stuewer (eds), The invention of physical science, Berlin, Springer, 1992

Abstract

The traditional narrative of the founding years of physical chemistry begins during the late 1880s, when the profession became established as part of modern physical science primarily through the determined efforts, and achievements, of a troika of scientists: Wilhelm Ostwald, Jacobus Hendricus van "t Hoff and Svante Arrhenius. By the turn of the century, physical chemistry grew into a lively, well-populated and well-organized scientific discipline. Recently, the historiography of physical chemistry has been criticized because it has purportedly relied too heavily on the self-image of turn-of-the-century physical chemists, who saw themselves as distinctive specialists. It has been said that in general the history of physical chemistry has been written "by the public relations writers of the winning side."¹

Cited authors

Ostwald Wilhelm