Ranke, Leopold

Ranke, Leopold (1795-1886), leading German historian who dehned the task of the historian as the quest for objectivity . Nietzsche s early untimely meditation of 1874 on the uses and abuses of history for life can be read as a polemic against what he saw as the stultifying influence of Ranke s historicism on German intellectual life. 

According to some authorities, the first metal ammine to be isolated in the solid state was the reddish yellow hexaamminecobalt(III) oxalate [Co(NH3)6]2(C204)3, described in 1822 by Leopold Gmelin (1788-1853).16 Gmelin also discovered several new double salts potassium ferricyanide, or potassium hexacyanoferrate(III), K3[Fe(CN)6l>17 the cobalticyanides or hexacyanocobaltates(III), M3[Co(CN) ],18 and the platinocyanides or tetracyanoplatinates(II), M2[Pt(CN)4].19All these substances certainly deserve to rank among the earliest known coordination compounds. 

Objectivity is not a strong feature of the Leopold Matrix. Each assessor is free to develop his own ranking system on the numerical scale ranging from 1 to 10. 

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