Ostwald energetic chemistry

F. Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932), Professor at the Umiversity of Leipzig, Germany (1887-1906). Organized physical chemistry as a major discipline of science, Nobel Prize in 1909 (work on equilibria and reaction rates). The rule states that initial, small crystals disappear in time and energetically favorable, large ones appear [Z Phys Chem 22 289 (1897)]. 

Like every form and expression of appropriation, opinions differed among the members of the chemistry community as to the use of mathematics. The chemist Edward Frankland predicted that the future of chemistry was to lay in its alliance with mathematics. The chemist Paul Schiitzenberger believed that mathematics would become an instrument as useful to the chemist as the balance (Coulson 1974, 10). Van t Hoff could not have been more mathematical in his systematic study of chemical thermodynamics. Ostwald s extensive use of mathematics would have been much more influential had it not been undermined by his insistence on energetics. Lewis was not less skilled in mathematics. Even Joseph Larmor and Joseph John Thomson before him tried to propose a mathematical framework for dealing with chemical problems. But there was also strong resistance against such programs. 

Deltete, 2007] R. J. Deltete. Wilhelm Ostwald s energetics, Foundations of Chemistry, 9 3-56,... 

This essay traces the development of Ostwald s energetic theory and some applications of it to problems in physical chemistry. The last sections investigate his understanding of the relationship between energy... 

What is this energetic material What are these energies Are they substances Presumably yes. Are they Stoffel Presumably not, since Ostwald wanted a chemistry (indeed, a natural science) ohne Stoffe . Could they perhaps be immaterial stuffs Hard to say, but Ostwald does emphatically insist that there are no nonmaterial matters )Es giht keine irnrnateriellen Materien) and gives the (for him, fictitious) aether as an example [1902, 201]. At the same time. 

Deltete, 2009[ R. J. Deltete. Georg Helm s Chemical Energetics, Centaurus (submitted), 2009. [Deltete, 2010[ R. J. Deltete. Thermodynamics in Wilhelm Ostwald s Physical Chemistry, Philosophy of Seience, 77 888—899, 2010. 

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