Atomic theory reception

M.P. Crosland, The First Reception of Daltons Atomic Theory in France, in Card-well, Dalton the Progress of Science, 274-289. 

Dead-207 NMR spectroscopy does not provide the details of electronic structure that can be gleaned from PES or atomic transitions, but can—at least in theory—provide complementary information about the Pb(II) coordination environment in solution. Dead-207 NMR spectroscopy is an excellent probe for the lead coordination environment due to the characteristics of the ° Pb isotope (I = j) Excellent receptivity (11.7 times greater than that of C), high natural abundance (22.6%), and large chemical shift range (>16,000 ppm) (172, 173). Although ° Pb NMR spectroscopy has been used extensively to characterize alkyl Pb(IV) derivatives and solid-state Pb(II) compounds, relatively few studies have been conducted of soluble Pb(ll) coordination compounds (171-183). Nonetheless, those studies that have been conducted to date on Pb(II) coordination compounds in solution reveal that the ° Pb chemical shift is particularly... 

Snelders, H. "The Reception of J. H. van t Hoff s Theory of the Asymmetric Carbon Atom." Journal of Chemical Education 51 (1974) 2-7. 

The papers in this book thus shed light on a multitude of responses to the periodic system. The smallness of the chemical community, for example, played a role in the Scandinavian countries reaction to the system. Consequently, even among chemists who had a practical orientation and who did not pay much attention to theory in general, one particular researcher with an interest in theory—such as Julius Thomsen, a pioneer of thermochemistry in Denmark—could change the situation. Thomsen offered a neo-Proutean speculation of internally structured atoms, which Mendeleev denied, but his ideas inspired Niels Bohr s development of anatomic theory in 1913. In Norway, by contrast, one chemistry textbook that happened to deny the periodic system and that was dominant in secondary education, delayed the system s reception there until as late as 1970. 

The periodic system was discovered in the process of writing a textbook. This fact led to the assumption that it was quickly adopted in textbooks for schools and universities. However, this was not confirmed for the case of Germany. The reception process was hindered by general discussions about the best didactic approach for the structure of a textbook and, especially, confusion on the placement of dissimilar elements and irregularities in the atomic weight. The periodic system was presented in popular journals in connection with the origin of the elements, possible transmutation, and the descent theory. It was associated with efforts to explain the evolution of inorganic matter. 

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