Steps in the development of general chemical kinetics

How far should one go in search of the sources of science The past is a well of ineffable depth wrote Thomas Mann beginning his novel Joseph and his Brothers. As far as chemical kinetics is concerned, it is far from being true. Certainly, one can trace its remote sources (as far back as Empedocles and Aristotle), but the origin of this science is quite certain it is the 1850s-1870s. The basic concepts of chemical kinetics as a science were formulated at that time on the basis of liquid-phase organic reactions. 

Studies of the enhancement of chemical reactions should promote the interpretation of the concept of reaction rate and the conduct of special experiments. Probably, one may even say that catalytic investigations have catalyzed the development of chemical kinetics. Williamson said There exist many evidences that chemical processes need time, but this commonly accepted fact is not taken into account in treating various phenomena .  

Williamson seems to have been the first to use the chemical term dynamics with respect to some processes in one of the currently most widespread meanings (non-steady-state processes). The title of Williamson s work, in 1851, was simply Some considerations on chemistry dynamics exemplified by the etherification theory. 

The first quantitative relationship for the reaction rate (by the way, also catalytic) was, apparently, first obtained by Wilhelmi in his studies of the effect of acids on cane sugar. The relationship was of the form 

Wilhelmi s study was evaluated by Ostwald who said We must consider Wilhelmi as a founder of the chemical reaction rate [2, p. 28]. But Ostwald admitted that Wilhelmi s study had remained absolutely ignored though it was published in a rather widespread Annals of Physics by Poggen-dorff.. . It remained unknown for the later researchers working on similar problems.. . Only after this field of science had already been so developed that some people began to think about its history did this basic Wilhelmi study come to light [2, p. 28], 

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