130: I Have an Axe to Grind

The History of Chemistry

Mechanochemistry, using purely mechanical processes to run a reaction, is much less known in the chemical world, but has been around since the ancient Greek Theophrastus described a mechanochemical process. We describe the history of mechanochemistry from then through its rediscovery by Michael Faraday, and the first systematic attempts to understand it by Mathew Carey Lea. He got into a dispute with Walthère Spring over "first rights" to publication. The 20th century was when mechanochemistry was examined in great detail, both in the Soviet Bloc and then by Westerners in the later part of the century. We talk of various topics in mechanochemistry.

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