Kekule in London

On his way from Chur to London, Kekule stopped in Munich to visit Liebig, and there he met a former student of Friedrich Wohler s named 

Kekul6 to Planta, 13 December 1851, AKS. Five years later he wrote to the same recipient, Ich hatte mich dazu entschlossen, mein Lieblingsfach Theorie an den Nagel zu hangen und auf dem Weg der Praxis selbst praktisch zu werden. Mein Schicksal wollte das nicht (9 February 

Anschutz, 1 29-38 2 943, 950. Kekul6 related his extended decision-making process in letters to Planta of 13 December 1851,12 January, 26 June, 5 July, 8 July, 5 August, and 31 August 1852, in AKS. 

Reinhold Hoffmann provided Anschutz with extensive reminiscences of their London experiences during most of the year 1854 (Hoffmann fell ill and returned to Germany that fall). He related that Kekule was not thrilled with Stenhouse or his job at St. Bartholomew s, but Kekule was accustomed to picking up Hoffmann at the Birkbeck laboratory, University College, on his way home in the late afternoon, and so he quickly became well acquainted with Williamson. 

Under Kekule s leadership, the three young Germans were united in the effort to push to the limits of knowledge, Hoffmann reported. 

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The development of the chemical industry did not, of course, spring wholly from the work of theoreticians such as Kekule. William Henry Perkin (1838-1907), working at the age of 18 in the laboratory of August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the Royal College of Science in London, had been put to work on the synthesis of the drug quinine from aniline, the latter a coal-tar product that had been isolated by Hofmann. Perkin failed to synthesize quinine, but as a result of his... 

Ingold, C. K., Nucleophilic Octahedral Substitution, in Theoretical Organic Chemistry, Kekule Symposium, London, 1958, 84-102, Butter worth s Scientific Publications, London, 1959. 

Verkade, P. E. August Kekule. In Theoretical Organic Chemistry. Papers presented to the Kekule Symposium organized by the Chemical Society (London, September, 1958). pp. ix-xvii. Butterworth London (1959). 

What is so special about carbon that it should form so many compounds The answer to this question came to August Kekule in 1854 during a London bus ride. 

In 1958 the Chemical Society organized the "Kelcule Symposium" in London. The papers presented at the meeting were published under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Section of Organic Chemistry, under the title "Theoretical Organic Chemistry" [1]. Indeed Kekule regarded his contribution [2] as theoretical, and as it was concerned with "the chemical namre of carbon" it was certainly organic. 

If Kekule s development reached maturity in London, as Hoffmann averred, it was partly, he wrote, under the influence of such discussions. The essence of the theory of chemical structure "developed from such seeds," and it required Kekul6 to take only "a small step" to develop his ideas to the full theory as announced in 1857-58.21 After Hoffmann left London, Kekule wrote Planta in October 1854, commenting how much he missed his cousin s discussions filled with "theoretisch-chemische... 

Much later, Kekule stated on three separate occasions that he had privately developed his structure theory during his years in London, though he only published the theory in two articles of 1857-58, after moving to Heidelberg. In both of those published papers he disclaimed originality, at least "for the most part," for the leading ideas within... 

Let us put ourselves in Kekule s shoes, in London in the summer of 1855. The science was rapidly changing, even month by month. In March 1855 Odling had orally presented his paper on hydrocarbon radicals, and it is likely that Kekule was an interested observer. In April Wurtz s article on the constitution of the glyceryl radical was printed. Then in June and July Wurtz published his work on the "mixed" radicals (containing his subatomic speculation) in the Comptes rendus of the Acad mie des Sciences and the Annales de chimie et de physique, respectively we know that these articles appeared in print immediately and so would have been available to Kekule before his departure from London in September 1855. 

Let us examine further details of the anecdote, to help assess its verisimilitude. Kekule said there that while in London he lived in Clapham Road for "quite a while," but we have no independent confirmation of this. In fact, we noted above that in 1854 he was sharing a flat with Reinhold Hoffmann miles away, in College Place. But Hoffmann departed in September 1854, and Kekule, having lost his roommate, may then have had to scout for less expensive lodgings. A recent search in the London Public Records Office did not reveal Kekule s residences but did unearth the fact that in 1854 Kekule s wealthy half-brother, Charles, was living at 3 Clapham Road, on the Common. So after Hoffmann s departure Kekule may well have moved into, or near, his brother s residence. We also know that Hugo Muller (the third member of the "triple... 

Kekule s apparent hesitancy in publishing his benzene theory was partly connected to events in his personal life. After their wedding, the couple spent four weeks in Switzerland, where Kekule showed his bride the site of his youthful postdoctoral stay in Chur then in the fall they attended the International Exposition in London, where Stephanie Kekule won the hearts of August s English friends. A son was born to the couple prematurely on 1 May 1863. Unfortunately, after the successful delivery, Stephanie developed puerperal fever, declined, and died on 10 May. Kekule was crushed with grief. He named his little son Stephan, after Stephanie. On the 31st he reported to Stas that "je ne suis pas un moment tranquille" and that he was completely unable to work. ... 

Dayan, Anthony. "The Circumstances of Kekule s Molecular Dream in London in 1854." Bulletin for the History of Chemistry 31, no. 1 (2006) 28-30. 

Kekule s first important work was carried out in London in the laboratory of Stenhouse in St. Bartholomew s Hospital. He found that phosphorus penta-sulphide gives thioacetic acid (the first known organic thioacid) with acetic... 

Kekule s indebtedness to Odling, who had virtually used the marsh gas type in 1855 (see p. 464) and with whom Kekul6 was acquainted in London, is very probable. ... 

Kekul, with whom Dewar worked in Ghent in the summer of 1867. In 1869 he became lecturer, later professor, in the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh. In 1875 he was appointed Jacksonian professor of natural philosophy in Cambridge, and in 1877 (when he became F.R.S.) also Fullerian professor of chemistry in the Royal Institution in London, where practically all his later research was carried out. He was knighted in 1904. ... 

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