by:
Heilbronner, Edgar
Miller, Foil A.

Publisher:
Wiley-VCH
Published:March, 1998
ISBN:3906390179
Format:Hardcover
Pages:278

Description: From Book News, Inc.
Heilbronner (member, Gottingen Academy of Science) and Miller, a former professor of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, discuss the history of chemistry as it can be found on postage stamps and other philatelic items. In spite of the fact that the choice of scientific topics is dictated by the philatelic material available, much of the field is surveyed, with chapters on the ancient beginnings of chemistry, alchemy and the chemistry of the Middle Ages, the discovery of the elements, spectroscopy, X-ray structure analysis, and technical chemistry. The authors assume a deeper knowledge of chemistry than that held by the average general reader. Color reproductions of stamps are on every page.Copyright # 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR--This text refers to the

Paperback edition.

Product Description:
This is not a history of chemistry which uses stamps instead of the usual illustrations, but a collection of short essays and comments on such chemistry as can be found on postage stamps and other philatelic items. In other words, the choice of topics is dictated by the philatelic material available, with the necessary consequence that important parts of chemical history will be missing for the simple reason that they have not found their way onto postage stamps. Thus, the reader may find detailed comments on lesser known chemists, such as Wilhelm August Lampadius who has been honoured with two stamps by the German Post Office, but hardly anything on such luminaries as Robert Bunsen, who have not been deemed worthy of a commemorative issue.