The Methods of Chemical Nomenclature

Authority and Authorship in the Method of Chemical Nomenclature , Ambix, 44 (2002),... 

International Commission for the Reform of Chemical Nomenclature, 17 396 International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis (ICUMSA), 23 470-471, 472. See also ICUMSA tables... 

Lavoisier wrote several books, including Treatise on Chemical Elements, 1789, in which he further defined the nature of elements, and Method of Chemical Nomenclature, 1787, describing his idea for a chemical naming system, which eventally served as the basis for the naming system of modern chemistry. 

The language of science, Lavoisier, maintained in his Methode de Nomenclature Chimique, was itself an analytical instrument. The system of chemical nomenclature that he devised gave us for every substance, in a word or two, a clean indication of its chemical nature and composition. That even after more than two centuries of further discovery since he devised this system, it has survived until today, with very little modification, is but a testament to his exceptional vision. Lavoisier s influence on the course of modern chemistry indeed cannot be overemphasized. 

Verbal communication had necessitated the development of chemical nomenclature, and its standardization made indexes of the chemical literature possible. The earliest tracking systems depended on conventional substructure methods with edge-punched cards. 

Morveau, Louis Bernard Guyton de (1737-1816) French chemist and pohtician he is credited with producing the first systematic method of chemical nomenclature. 

In Methods of Chemical Nomenclature (1787), he invented the system of chemical nomenclature still largely in use today. 

Development of computer methods for the interconversion of chemical nomenclatures to and from molecular formulae, connection tables, and structural diagrams followed and seems to continue to follow two separate paths. On the one hand there are a great many reports, mainly from university sources, dealing with translation of systematic names into structural diagrams, and on the other hand there is relatively limited literature on translation of structural diagrams directly into systematic chemical names. Although these are two opposite directions of the same conversion, they have in practice very little in common as far as algorithms and applicable methods are concerned. 

With respect to the structure of this monograph one finds that the purpose of the second chapter is to develop by ideal rocket theory, and to discuss, the rocket performance parameters and, in particular, the significance of these parameters. The third chapter is a review of the pertinent chemical thermodynamics. Of importance are the thermochemical nomenclature, the discussion of the equiUbrium constant and the handling of condensed phases, the methods of determining the combustor... 

Watt s publications in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1784 were important in themselves, and also because they opened a wider world of chemical contacts to him. His visit to Paris in 1786 brought him within the ambit of a number of important French chemists. These included Lavoisier himself, but arguably the most important of them from Watt s perspective was Berthollet. For it was Berthollet who not only confided his methods of chlorine bleachingbut also discussed with Watt, in their correspondence, larger questions of chemical nomenclature and process. 

Carbon was officially classified as an element near the end of the 18th century. In 1787, four French chemists-Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Claude Louis Berhollet, and Antoine Francois Fourcroy—wrote a book outlining a method for naming chemical substances, A Method for Chemical Nomenclature. The name they gave to carbon was carbone, which was based on the earlier Latin term for charcoal, charbon. 

This Chapter provides a brief historical overview of chemical nomenclature (Section IR-1.2) followed by summaries of its aims, functions and methods (Sections IR-1.3 to IR-1.5). There are several systems of nomenclature that can be applied to inorganic compounds, briefly described in Section IR-1.5.3.5 as an introduction to the later, more detailed, chapters. Because each system can provide a valid name for a compound, a flowchart is presented in Section IR-1.5.3 which should help identify which is the most appropriate for the type of compound of interest. Section IR-1.6 summarises the major changes from previous... 

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