E. J Holmyard: Inorganic Chemistry
J R Partington: A Text-Book of Inorganic Chemistry
Note on P W Atkins (later)
What are things made of? Two Surveys Before The Second World War 12 Nov 2012Two English books on inorganic chemistry, Holmyard's published by Edward Arnold, Partington's by Macmillan. First publication dates were around 1920. There seems to have been competition between these books (and presumably the authors), and I suspect Holmyard may have based his book on Partington's. Some of the diagrams are identical, though reversed left-to-right. Partington's is far longer—four times, at a guess—but the greater detail may be off-putting. Holmyard is interesting in being pro-Muslim, regarding Islamic science as something genuine in its own right. Partington is more conventional: ancient Egypt and Babylonia, Greece, Rome, Middle Ages, then people like Boyle, up to Lavoisier, Dalton, Bunsen and so on.
On P W Atkins, a Professor who wrote on physical chemistry, I inserted a comment in science revisionism on ethics—Atkins was a gullible believer in the 'Jewish' 'Holocaust', and also said nothing about explosives and burning people alive. At the time of Holmyard and Partington, much of this did not apply.
I recommend, though with some reservations, such books to anyone who would like some grasp of the ways elements and compounds were discovered and investigated—in short, what things are made of. My reservation comes from the fact that individual reading is often less efficient than group teaching; I wouldn't like readers to give up in despair.
'Organic' chemistry is the study of carbon compounds; because carbon atoms form chains, there are far more carbon compounds than all other compounds put together. 'Inorganic' chemistry examines all the other elements, including some simple carbon compounds such as carbonates and carbon dioxide; by the 1920s the periodic table had mostly been formed, so elements could be grouped together by similarities, which of course makes for economical presentation. Holmyard's book rigorously separates generalities from chemical specifics. He has a chapter each on the atomic theory and its history, gas laws (important in establishing molecular structure), atomic weights, formulas, and assorted subtleties—heat dissociation, electrolysis and ions, osmotic pressure, equilibriums and buffers, catalysts, colloids, the phase rule, ingenious ways of e.g. determining molecular weights and so on, by methods such as melting point changes. His style is salty and clear. In passing, he explains chemical equipment; much of this has been superseded by machines, but the principles are the same. Partington has rather more: spectroscopy, hand centrifuge, Brownian movement, conductivity, photography, phosphorescence...
'I have not hesitated to mention uncommon substances where they are likely to thrill the youthful imagination, and I have included many biographical and historical facts, the psychological value of which ... in fixing the attention, assisting the memory and arousing .. enthusiasm .. is well known to every teacher' writes Holmyard, who of course wrote before the present-day dumbed-down education programmes.
If you'd like to know about bronze and iron, lead and tin from the ancient world, the sweet but dangerous lead acetate, calcium chemistry and mortar, the discovery of oxygen and its replacement of the phlogiston theory, the uses of sulphur and how it was purified, the discovery of zinc, the Bessemer converter and iron and steel, chlorine and water purification, German inventions such as nitrogen-fixing by making ammonia for fertiliser (which prolonged the First World War), the structure of diamonds, what washing soda and sodium bicarbonate are... These books are products of their time: the hand typesetting, monochrome pictures, mineral extraction methods, diagrams of equipment, methods of analysing substances, are themselves of historical interest.