Classic Papers (alphabetical)

	Selected Classic Papers
	from the
	History of Chemistry

Alphabetical list by author. See main classics paper page for biographical links and further information.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Corbin Allardice and Edward R. Trapnell (1949): first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (at IAEA)
Aristotle: On Generation and Corruption, Book II, on elements (at Internet Classics Archive at MIT).
Svante Arrhenius: 1887 paper on electrolyte solutions (English translation by Harry C. Jones at Google Books)
Svante Arrhenius: 1889 paper on temperature dependence of reaction rate. View page images of original (in German).
Svante Arrhenius, on the greenhouse effect (1896), transcribed excerpts. View page images of original.
Francis Aston (1919): mass spectra, isotopes. View page image of original paper.
Francis Aston on mass spectra of isotopes of neon (1920). View page images of full original.
Francis Aston on mass spectra of isotopes (1920) (at ChemTeam site). View page images of full original.
Amedeo Avogadro, Journal de Physique (1811). View page images of original paper in French.
Francis Bacon (1620): Before caloric and the kinetic theory, Bacon reviewed a wide range of thoughts and observations about heat. View page images of the entire book.
Johann Balmer: from 1885 paper on regularities in wavelength of lines of the hydrogen spectrum. View page images of the original paper (in German).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Henri Becquerel, discovery of radioactivity 1896. View page images of the original papers (24 February and 2 March) in French.
Marcellin Berthelot and Léon Péan de Saint-Gilles: equilibrium in etherification, 1862.
Marcellin Berthelot on atoms, equivalents, and notation (1877): response to an article by Marignac.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787). View page images of the original book or of the dictionary portion (in French).
Jöns Jacob Berzelius on the atomic hypothesis and some difficulties with it (1813-14).
Jöns Jacob Berzelius on chemical symbols and formulas (1814). View his table of elements, with symbols.
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Vannoccio Biringuccio, De la pirotechnia (1540), treatise on metals and metallurgy (at Museo Galileo)
Niels Bjerrum: 1909 paper on solutions of strong electrolytes (at ChemTeam site)
Joseph Black (1756). Excerpt on reactions involving carbonates and their release of "fixed air" (carbon dioxide). View page images of the full text.
Joseph Black: 1803 (posthumous) paper on heat distinguished between heat and temperature and described specific heat and latent heat.
Niels Bohr: 1913 excerpt on hydrogen spectrum. View page images of the entire essay (English translation).
Niels Bohr: his model of the atom, 1913 (page images at Hathi Trust).
Niels Bohr: 1921 excerpt on the "correspondence principle" of quantum theory. View page images of the entire essay (English translation).
Niels Bohr: electron configurations and atomic structure (1921, at ChemTeam site).
Niels Bohr and Dirk Coster: excerpt on electron configurations and atomic structure backed by X-ray spectra (1923).
Niels Bohr: liquid drop model of fission (1939, at ChemTeam site).
Roger Boscovich: excerpts from a 1763 treatise on atoms as point-like centerss of force (at ChemTeam site)
Robert Boyle: The Sceptical Chymist (1661), page images at University of Pennsylvania; HTML excerpts here; annotations [pdf] here.
Robert Boyle on Boyle's law (1662) at ChemTeam site.
Robert Boyle, on combustion (1672).
Frederick S. Brackett: 1922 paper contains a new series of hydrogen spectral lines (now known as the Brackett series), at Google Books.
Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George Murphy: 1932 paper announcing detection of a heavy isotope of hydrogen, ²H (reprinted with permission of the American Physical Society).
Antonius van den Broek: on numbering the elements (1911 and 1913) (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original 1911 paper.
J. N. Brønsted: 1923 paper on acids and bases (at ChemTeam site)
Harriet Brooks: 1904 description of a volatile radioactive product from radium, at UCLA.
Robert Brown on Brownian Movement (1829, at ChemTeam site.) View page images of original.
Eduard Buchner (1897) on alcoholic fermentation without yeast cells, implicating an enzyme (at Athel Cornish-Bowden's website at the Laboratoire de Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Proteines). See page images of the original (in German).
Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen: bright-line flame spectra (at ChemTeam site). See page images of the original (in German).
Charles R. Bury (1921) on the arrangement of electrons in atoms (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in English).
Alexander Michailovich Butlerov: short excerpt of 1861 paper on structural theory of organic chemistry.
Alexander Michailovich Butlerov: 1864 paper on structural theory of organic chemistry.
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library). View biographical information on Banting.
Stanislao Cannizzaro (1858): outline of a course in chemical philosophy (at ChemTeam site). View page images of the original (in Italian).
Sadi Carnot: Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire (or "of heat" as this translation has it), 1824. View page images of the original (in French).
Henry Cavendish on the "phlogisticated" part of the atmosphere. View page images of original.
James Chadwick: 1932 letter and detailed paper proposing the neutron (at ChemTeam site).
Sydney Chapman, excerpted from "A Theory of Upper-Atmospheric Ozone", by Sydney Chapman, Memoirs of the Royal Meteorological Society 3 (26) 103-25 (1930). Copyright ©1930. Posted with the permission of the Royal Meteorological Society.
Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1814) on a new fat called margarine.
Rudolf Clausius, "On the Motive Power of Heat" (1850). View page images of original (in German), part 1 and part 2.
Rudolf Clausius: 1857 paper on the kinetic theory of gases; derives expressions for the pressure of a gas based from analysis of collisions for average molecular speeds. View page images of the original (in German).
Rudolf Clausius: excerpt from 1865 paper on entropy that coins the term states the second law of thermodynamics. View page images of the original (in German).
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton: 1932 paper on the disintegration of lithium by fast protons: artificial transmutation (Nature).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences , volumes 1-261 (1835-1965)--most of them, at least. This resource is available as page images at the Bibliothèque national de France. Entire volumes are posted, so this resource spans the range of sciences.
Niels Bohr and Dirk Coster: excerpt on electron configurations and atomic structure backed by X-ray spectra (1923).
Archibald Scott Couper: 1858 paper on structural formulas. View page images of original in English or slightly expanded, in French.
James Watson and Francis Crick (1953): structure of DNA.
Paul Crutzen, "The influence of nitrogen oxides on the atmospheric ozone content", by Paul J. Crutzen, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 96, 320-325 (1970). (Copyright ©1970. Posted with the permission of the author, the Royal Meteorological Society, and the Journal.)
Marie Sklodowska Curie on radioactivity (1898). View page images of original (in French).
Pierre and Marie Sklodowska Curie: 1898 announcement of polonium. View page images of original (in French).
Pierre and Marie Sklodowska Curie and G. Bémont: 1898 announcement of radium. View page images of original (in French).
Marie Sklodowska Curie: Radio-Active Substances (translation of doctoral thesis, 1903, at Internet Archive).
John Dalton on gases of the atmosphere (read 1802). View page images of the original.
John Dalton: article read in 1803 including Dalton's first table of atomic weights. View page images of the original.
John Dalton, excerpts from A New System of Chemistry (1808) on heat and matter. View page images of the book.
John Dalton, excerpts from A New System of Chemistry (1808) on atomic hypothesis.
Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer: 1927 paper on the diffraction of electrons (at Physical Review).
Humphry Davy: excerpt on heat and friction (1799). View page images of the original.
Humphry Davy isolates sodium and potassium (1808, at ChemTeam site). View page images of the original.
Humphry Davy early paper on chlorine and its compounds (1811, at Google Books).
Humphry Davy: 1812 excerpt searching for analogies among elements. View page images of the original book.
John Davy: 1812 paper describes preparation of phosgene and possibly urea (several years before Wöhler). View page images of original.
Peter Debye: excerpt of 1920 paper explaining the origin of cohesive forces in a van der Waals gas (at ChemTeam site).
P. Debye & E. Hückel on colligative properties of electrolyte solutions (1923, at ChemTeam site)
Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner: 1829 paper on triads of analogous elements.
Pierre-Louis Dulong & Alexis-Thérèse Petit: 1819 on heat capacities of elements. View page images of original (in French).
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas and Justus von Liebig (1837): compound radicals in organic chemistry. View page images of original (in French).
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas on acetic acid and trichloroacetic acid (1839) and chemical types. View page images of original (in French).
Jean-Baptiste Dumas: 1859 paper on classification of elements. View page images of the original (in French).
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit: several liquids boil at constant temperatures (1724). View page images of original (in Latin).
Kasimir Fajans: 1913 paper on the radioactive displacement law and isotopes (at ChemTeam site).
Michael Faraday on the liquefaction of chlorine (1823, at ChemTeam site.) View page images of original.
Michael Faraday: excerpt of 1834 paper "On Electro-chemical Decomposition" (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Michael Faraday: on the condition of the Thames (1855, at ChemTeam site).
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of A Candle. This series of lectures, delivered in 1860, is at Google Books.
Enrico Fermi: 1934 note suspects (incorrectly) production of transuranic elements by bombarding thorium and uranium with neutrons, later explained as nuclear fission (at ChemTeam site).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Jean-Baptiste Fourier, on the temperature of the Earth and planetary space. View an English translation by R. T. Pierrehumbert of an 1827 paper by Fourier, page images of the original (en français) or page images of a slightly different earlier (1824) version (also en français).
Edward Frankland: complete 1852 paper on organometallic compounds includes statement of the concept of valence. View page images of original.
Benjamin Franklin on marsh gas.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787). View page images of the original book or of the dictionary portion (in French).
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch: 1939 paper on fission, at ChemTeam site.
Otto Frisch: on fission (1939, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac: 1802 excerpt on expansion of gases with temperature. View page images of original (in French).
Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac on combining volumes (read 1808). View page images of original (in French).
Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac and Louis Thénard (1809): on "oxygenated muriatic acid" (now known as chlorine). View page images of original large paper or of section about chlorine (in French).
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: "backscatter" of alpha particles (1909, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Hans Geiger: from 1910 paper on scattering of alpha particles from gold foil, at ChemTeam site. View page images of original.
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: 1913 paper comparing backscatter of alpha particles to Rutherford's nuclear model (1913, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Charles Gerhardt: 1853 excerpt on organic types. View page images of full original (in French).
Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer: 1927 paper on the diffraction of electrons (Physical Review).
Josiah Willard Gibbs: voluminous two-part article from the 1870s on equilibrium in heterogeneous systems. View page images of part 1 and part 2. The general criteria in terms of energy and entropy are given early on, here.
Josiah Willard Gibbs [pdf]: preface to Statistical Mechanics, published in 1902. (At American Institute of Physics.) This paper [pdf] is at the American Institute of Physics website. View page images of the entire volume.
Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage on law of mass action (1864) (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in Norwegian).
Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage: researches on affinity, describing law of mass action in 1867. View page images of the original (in French).
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1772) argues that there is nothing absurd about the weight of phlogiston.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787). View page images of the original book or of the dictionary portion (in French).
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann: 1939 papers reporting, at first tentatively then more definitely fission of uranium (at ChemTeam site).
M. L. Oliphant, P. Harteck, and Ernest Rutherford: 1934 note and more detailed paper from the Rutherford lab describe fusion ('transmutation') of deuterium (at ChemTeam site).
Heinrich Hlasiwetz and Josef Habermann (1873): analysis of proteins (caesin, in this excerpt). View page images of the entire original (in German).
Hermann von Helmholtz: lecture on Faraday and electricity (1881, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original
Jan Baptista van Helmont: three short excerpts from the border of alchemy and chemistry. View page images of the original book (in Latin) .
John Herapath: excerpt of 1821 paper on kinetic theory of gases. View page images of entire original.
Germain Henri Hess: excerpt of 1840 paper on heats of reaction (Hess's law), at ChemTeam site. View page images of entire original (in French).
Heinrich Hlasiwetz and Josef Habermann (1873): analysis of proteins (caesin, in this excerpt). View page images of the entire original (in German).
Jacobus van't Hoff on tetrahedral carbon (1874, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in French).
Jacobus van't Hoff on stereochemistry: page images of brief 1875 monograph La Chimie dans l'espace: original (in French). Van 't Hoff further developed these ideas in Dix Années dans l'histoire d'une théorie (1887, in French; English translation, 1891, as Chemistry in Space; revised and enlarged as The Arrangement of Atoms in Space, 1898).
Jacobus van't Hoff on osmotic pressure (1887). View page images of original (in German).
August Wilhelm von Hofmann: 1851 excerpt on amines and organic ammonium compounds. View page images of entire original.
Franz Hofmeister (1902): excerpt on structure of proteins, in particular the peptide bond. View page images of entire original (in German).
P. Debye & E. Hückel on colligative properties of electrolyte solutions (1923, at ChemTeam site)
Jan Ingenhousz on photosynthesis (1779). View page images of entire book.
James Prescott Joule: note on mechanical equivalent of heat (1845, at ChemTeam site).
James Prescott Joule: excerpt including an estimate of the speed of a gas molecule (read 1848). View page images of entire original.
G. N. Lewis and Michael Kasha (pdf): 1944 paper on phosphorescence and triplet electronic states (at Turro group's History of Photochemistry page)
August Kekule: excerpt of 1865 paper on the structure of aromatic compounds (at Rod Beavon's chemistry site). View page images of entire original (in German).
William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin of Largs): principles of an absolute thermodynamic scale of temperature (1848). View page images of original.
William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin of Largs): 1852 formulation of the second law of thermodynamics and absolute temperature scale.
William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin of Largs): an application of heat transfer to geology (read in 1865), leading Thomson to believe the earth is relatively young. View page images of original.
Baron Kelvin of Largs (William Thomson): 1902 excerpt speculating on how electrical charges might underlie properties of atoms. View page images of original.
Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen: bright-line flame spectra (at ChemTeam site). See page images of the original (in German).
Walther Kossel: on bonding, periodic table, and atomic structure (1916, at ChemTeam site.)
Chandrasekhara V. Raman & K. S. Krishnan: 1928 paper on the Raman effect (posted by Jim Holler).
Irving Langmuir on low-pressure heterogeneous catalysis (1915). View page images of original (in English).
Irving Langmuir on the octet theory (1919, at ChemTeam site, papers 1 and 2). View page images of original 1 and 2.
Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush on polarity, ionization, and hydrogen bonding (1920, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Antoine Lavoisier on calcination (original 1775 text as well as the final 1778 revisions). View page images of 1775 and 1778 originals (in French).
Antoine Lavoisier: Excerpts from three papers (1775-1777) on properties of oxygen (at ChemTeam site). View page images of originals 1, 2, and 3 (in French).
Antoine Lavoisier, explanation of combustion in general (1775). View page images of original (in French).
Antoine Lavoisier on water (1783). View page images of original (in French).
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787). View page images of the original book or of the dictionary portion (in French).
Antoine Lavoisier: Preface to Elements of Chemistry (1789). See page images in English or of original French at Google Books.
Antoine Lavoisier: Table of elements from Elements of Chemistry (1789). See page images in English or of original French at Google Books.
Antoine Lavoisier: on caloric and the three states of matter from Elements of Chemistry (1789). See page images of the book in English or original French at Google Books.
Antoine Lavoisier: Oeuvres, (Paris, 1862-1893, 6 vols.): searchable electronic edition at CNRS (French national center for scientific research); page images at Panopticon Lavoisier
Joseph Achille LeBel on tetrahedral carbon (1874, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in French).
Henri Louis le Chatelier (1884): enunciates his principle concerning chemical equilibrium. View page images of original (in French).
Henri Louis le Châtelier (1888): more on his principle concerning chemical equilibrium. View page images of original (in French).
Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran: 1877 excerpt on discovery of gallium (at ChemTeam site). View page images of entire original (in French).
Theodore W. Richards & Max E. Lembert: 1914 paper on atomic weights of lead found different atomic weights for lead of radioactive origin compared to "ordinary" lead; authors cautiously interpret the results as consistent with the concept of isotopes. View page images of original.
John Edward Lennard-Jones: 1929 paper on molecular orbital descriptions of diatomic molecules, including paramagnetism of oxygen (at ChemTeam site).
G. N. Lewis: 1916 paper on the electron pair bond (transcribed text at ChemTeam site, page images at Pauling Archives).
G. N. Lewis and Michael Kasha (pdf): 1944 paper on phosphorescence and triplet electronic states (at Turro group's History of Photochemistry page)
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas and Justus von Liebig (1837): compound radicals in organic chemistry.
Justus Liebig: Familiar Letters on Chemistry (1843).
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
Johann Josef Loschmidt (1865): on size of air molecule (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in German).
Lucretius, excerpts from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Full text at Internet Classics Archive; excerpts at ChemTeam site.
Pierre-Joseph Macquer: 1766 dictionary entries on aggregation (akin to modern atoms and molecules) and principles (akin to elements). View page images of complete original and a contemporary English translation.
Jean Charles de Marignac (1860): commentary on the paper by J. S. Stas about Prout's hypothesis.
Jean Charles de Marignac on atoms, equivalents, and notation (1877): original article; a brief reply to a response by Berthelot.
Edme Mariotte (c. 1620-1684) on the relationship between air pressure and volume.
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: "backscatter" of alpha particles (1909, at ChemTeam site).
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: 1913 paper comparing backscatter of alpha particles to Rutherford's nuclear model (1913, at ChemTeam site).
James Clerk Maxwell: introduces Maxwell's "demon" (1872). View page images of entire original book or of the specific passage.
James Clerk Maxwell, on physical atomic-molecular theory (1873). View page images of original.
James Clerk Maxwell, on the kinetic molecular theory and its support for the molecular nature of matter (1875). View page images of original.
Julius Robert Mayer: on the conservation of energy. View page images of original (in German) and of English translation.
John Mayow: air contains at least two portions, one of which nurtures flame and supports respiration (1674). Read the entire Tractatus quinque medico-physici.
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch: 1939 paper on fission, at ChemTeam site.
Dmitrii Mendeleev, first periodic table (1869). See page images at Google Books.
Dmitrii Mendeleev, 1871 periodic table.
Dmitrii Mendeleev, (1871): excerpt on periodic law and predicted elements Annalen, suppl. VIII, 133 (1871). Link to page images (in German).
Dmitrii Mendeleev: excerpt from 1871 paper focuses on properties of the predicted element eka-boron, now known as scandium (at Rod Beavon's chemistry site).
Dmitrii Mendeleev, on periodic law (1889). View page images of original.
Dmitrii Mendeleev: An Attempt Towards A Chemical Conception Of The Ether, an early 20th-century speculation envisioning the ether as the lightest of the inert gases (at Google Books).
Leonor Michaelis and Maud Leonora Menten: 1913 paper on enzyme kinetics (invertase).
Julius Lothar Meyer, periodic table and figure of atomic volumes, excerpts from 1870 paper on periodicity of the elements (at Rod Beavon's chemistry site), and original paper (in German) at Google Books (1870).
Leonor Michaelis and Maud Leonora Menten: 1913 paper on enzyme kinetics (invertase).
Robert Millikan: 1913 excerpt on the elementary electrical charge and Avogadro's constant (at Google Books).
Henry Moseley on X-ray spectra and atomic number (1913, 1914) (excerpts transcribed by John Park). View page images of originals (1913 and 1914).
Gerardus Johannes Mulder (1839): excerpt on elemental analysis of proteins, coins term protein. View page images of entire original (in German).
Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George Murphy: 1932 paper announcing detection of a heavy isotope of hydrogen, ²H (reprinted with permission of the American Physical Society).
Hantaro Nagaoka (1904): excerpts from Saturnian model of atomic structure, at ChemTeam site. View page images of entire original.
Walter Nernst: 1914 paper distinguishes between energy and what we call free energy with the assistance of his "new heat law" (third law of thermodynamics). View page images of the original (in German).
J. A. R. Newlands, classification of elements and law of octaves (1863, 1864, 1865, and 1866). On the discovery of the periodic law: and on relations among the atomic weights, an 1884 monograph, collects all of Newlands' papers on the subject.
Isaac Newton, from the end of his Opticks (1704). (Read the rest of the book.)
Lars Nilson: excerpts (1879, 1880) on the discovery of scandium (at ChemTeam site). View page images of originals (in French) of 1879 and 1880 papers.
Ida Noddack: 1934 note critiques Fermi's conclusion that he had produced transuranic elements by bombarding thorium and uranium with neutrons.
M. L. Oliphant, P. Harteck, and Ernest Rutherford: 1934 note and more detailed paper from the Rutherford lab describe fusion ('transmutation') of deuterium (at ChemTeam site).
Wilhelm Ostwald on dilution law (1888, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in German).
Wilhelm Ostwald on catalysis (1894, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (abstract 98) (in German).
Wilhelm Ostwald: on catalysis, from 1901 paper. View page images of original (in German).
Paracelsus: excerpt from Coelum Philosophorum, on alchemy and metals (16th century, at ChemTeam site). View page images of entire book (English translation).
Louis Pasteur: 1860 lecture on optical rotation, crystal structure, and molecular asymmetry. View page images of original (in French) as well as subsequent lectures.
Louis Pasteur (1861) on alcoholic fermentation and beer yeast. View page images of original (in French).
Louis Pasteur (1863): germs are implicated in putrefaction. View page images of original (in French).
Louis Pasteur (1876): physiological theory of fermentation (at Internet Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham). View page images of entire book (English translation or original French).
Wolfgang Pauli: 1925 paper on the fourth quantum number (at the ChemTeam site).
Linus Pauling (1931): "The nature of the chemical bond" (first paper in a series) describes hybrid orbitals (at Pauling archive, Oregon State University).
Linus Pauling (1932): on the continuum between covalent and ionic bonds (at Pauling archive, Oregon State University).
Linus Pauling (1932): Pauling's electronegativity scale and its relationship to bond energies (at Pauling archive, Oregon State University).
Jean Perrin collects cathode rays (1895, at ChemTeam site). View page images of original French and of contemporary English translation.
Marcellin Berthelot and Léon Péan de Saint-Gilles: equilibrium in etherification, 1862.
Jean Perrin (1909): excerpt on Brownian movement, including an estimation of Avogadro's number.
Pierre-Louis Dulong & Alexis-Thérèse Petit: 1819 on heat capacities of elements.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, volumes 50-67 (1757-77: page images at the Internet Library of Early Journals, Bodelian Library, Oxford University
Max Planck (1920): on the quantum of action.
Agnes Pockels: on surface properties of water (at Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics site, UCLA). View page images of original.
Joseph Priestley on making carbonated water (1772, at Google Books.)
Joseph Priestley on dephlogisticated air (1775). View page images of original section, entire volume.
Joseph Priestley (1789) on burning hydrogen in oxygen. View page images of original.
Joseph Priestley: Considerations on the Doctrine of Phlogiston and the Decomposition of Water, 1796. View page images of original.
Joseph Louis Proust (1799): excerpt on definite proportions of copper carbonate. View page images of entire original (in French).
Joseph Louis Proust (1806): excerpt reserves the word compound for materials with definite proportions. View page images of entire original (in French).
William Prout, on "Prout's hypothesis" (1815-16). View page images of original and of erratum, both published anonymously.
William Prout (1827): excerpt on analysis, classification, and organization of bio-organic materials. View page images of original.
Chandrasekhara V. Raman & K. S. Krishnan: 1928 paper on the Raman effect (posted by Jim Holler).
William Ramsay on noble gases in periodic table (1897). View page images of original.
William Ramsay & Frederick Soddy: 1903 investigation on radium emanation and the evolution of helium from radium and its emanation. View page images of original.
François-Marie Raoult: 1884 paper on freezing point depression. View page images of original (in French).
François-Marie Raoult: 1887 paper on the lowering of vapor pressure. View page images of original (in French).
Lord Rayleigh, on puzzling anomalies in the density of nitrogen (1892). View page images of original.
Lord Rayleigh on discovery of argon. View page images of original.
Johann Christian Reil: excerpt from "On the Vital Force" (1796). View page images of original (in German).
Jean Rey excerpts on calcination of tin and lead (1630). View page images of English translation (Alembic Club, 1895) and of 1777 French edition.
Theodore W. Richards & Max E. Lembert: 1914 paper on atomic weights of lead found different atomic weights for lead of radioactive origin compared to "ordinary" lead; authors cautiously interpret the results as consistent with the concept of isotopes. View page images of original.
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush on polarity, ionization, and hydrogen bonding (1920, at ChemTeam site).
Wilhelm Röntgen, discovery of X-rays (1895). View page images of monograph reprint of original (in German) or of contemporary English translation.
Count Rumford (Benjamin Thomson) excerpt on heat and boring cannons (1798, at ChemTeam site). View page images of entire original.
Ernest Rutherford: 1899 excerpt distinguishes alpha from beta radiation (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Ernest Rutherford: 1900 paper introduces radioactive half-life (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Ernest Rutherford & Frederick Soddy: 1902 paper proposes (in final section) radioactive transformation. View page images of original.
Ernest Rutherford and T. Royds: 1909 paper identifying the alpha particle.
Ernest Rutherford: 1911 abstract proposing nuclear model of the atom (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1911 paper proposing nuclear model of the atom (page images at Google Books).
Ernest Rutherford: 1914 paper on the nuclear model of the atom (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1919 paper describing the disintegration of nitrogen nuclei under bombardment by alpha particles.
Ernest Rutherford: 1920 lecture on nuclear structure. View page images of original.
M. L. Oliphant, P. Harteck, and Ernest Rutherford: 1934 note and more detailed paper from the Rutherford lab describe fusion ('transmutation') of deuterium (at ChemTeam site).
Carl Wilhelm Scheele prepares and describes chlorine (excerpt, 1774). View page images of complete original (in Swedish).
Carl Wilhelm Scheele: excerpts on gases from Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire (1777), including recognition that common air is not a single substance and preparation and properties of "fire-air" (oxygen). View page images (in German) of original (Black letter type) or of a late 19th-century edition, or of an 18th-century English translation.
John Slater (1931): introduces hybrid orbitals in the context of tetrahedral carbon compounds (at the Pauling archive, Oregon State University)
William Ramsay & Frederick Soddy: 1903 investigation on radium emanation and the evolution of helium from radium and its emanation. View page images of original.
Ernest Rutherford & Frederick Soddy: 1902 paper proposes (in final section) radioactive transformation. View page images of original.
Frederick Soddy (1913): displacement law and "non-separable" elements. View page images of the original.
Frederick Soddy: 1913 paper introduces the term "isotopes". View page images of the original.
Frederick Soddy (1913): discusses isotopes and the displacement law. View page images of the original.
Sören Sörensen: pH scale (excerpt 1909) (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in German).
Georg Ernst Stahl: three short passages from the father of phlogiston.
Jean Servais Stas on atomic weights and Prout's hypothesis (1860).
Edmund Clifton Stoner: 1924 paper on electron configurations (at ChemTeam site).
George Johnstone Stoney (1894): electric charge comes in discrete packages; proposes the term "electron" (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann: 1939 papers reporting, at first tentatively then more definitely fission of uranium (at ChemTeam site).
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Thénard (1809): on "oxygenated muriatic acid" (now known as chlorine). View page images of original large paper or of section about chlorine (in French).
Louis-Jacques Thénard: 1819 paper announces discovery of hydrogen peroxide. View page images of original paper (in French) or contemporary English translation.
Silvanus Thompson on X-rays and phosphorescence (1896). View page images of original.
Benjamin Thomson (Count Rumford) on heat and boring cannons (1798, at ChemTeam site).
J. J. Thomson, discovery of the electron (1897). View page images of original.
J. J. Thomson: 1899 paper giving mass of electron (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
J. J. Thomson: excerpt on "plum pudding" model (at ChemTeam site). View page images of entire original.
J. J. Thomson: 1906 excerpt on the number of electrons in an atom (at ChemTeam site). View page images of full original.
J. J. Thomson: Nobel Prize Address, (1906).
J. J. Thomson: on the positive rays of electric discharge tubes (1913). View page images of full original .
Thomas Thomson: excerpts from A System of Chemistry (1807) that represent the first public explanation of Dalton's atomic ideas (at ChemTeam site).
Thomas Thomson: 1808 paper on oxalic acid and oxalates relevant to law of multiple proportions and atomic hypothesis (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original.
Thomas Thomson, "On the Daltonian Theory of Definite Proportions in Chemical Combinations" (1813). View page images of entire original.
William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin of Largs): principles of an absolute thermodynamic scale of temperature (1848). View page images of original.
William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin of Largs): 1852 formulation of the second law of thermodynamics.
William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin of Largs) (1865): an application of heat transfer to geology. View page images of original.
Baron Kelvin of Largs (William Thomson): 1902 paper speculating on how electrical charges might underlie properties of atoms. View page images of original.
Evangelista Torricelli on the barometer (1644).
Moritz Traube (1858): excerpts on the chemical nature of ferments and putrefaction. View page images of entire original (in German).
Mikhail Tswett: excerpts from two 1906 papers on chromatographic method and plant pigments. View page images (in German) of entire original papers one and two.
John Tyndall, 1861 paper on the absorption and radiation of heat by gases.
Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George Murphy: 1932 paper announcing detection of a heavy isotope of hydrogen, ²H (reprinted with permission of the American Physical Society).
S. E. Virgo: 1933 review article on Loschmidt's number. (at Thomas Furtsch's site, Tennessee Technological University)
Alessandro Volta: on the battery, 1800 (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original published letter (in French) or contemporary English translation.
Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage on law of mass action (1864) (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in Norwegian).
Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage: researches on affinity, describing law of mass action in 1867. View page images of the original (in French).
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton: 1932 paper on the disintegration of lithium by fast protons: artificial transmutation (Nature).
James Watson and Francis Crick (1953): structure of DNA.
Richard Watson: 1789 paper on the properties of phlogiston. [transcribed by Joel Benington, St. Bonaventure University]. View page images of the original essay or book of essays.
James Watt on water, 1784. View page images of original published letter.
William Whewell: excerpt from 1840 chapter expressing positivist skepticism about atomic theory. View page images of original chapter or volume.
Ludwig Wilhelmy (1850): chemical kinetic rate law of acid-catalyzed inversion of sucrose. Read the entire original paper (in German).
Alexander Williamson: synthesis of ether and structure of ethers and alcohols (1850 and 1851). View page images of original 1850 paper and full 1851 lecture.
Clemens Winkler: two excerpts (1886) on the discovery of germanium (at ChemTeam site). View page images of the first and second papers (in German).
Friedrich Wöhler: synthesis of urea (at ChemTeam site). View page images of original (in German).
William Hyde Wollaston: 1808 analytical paper relevant to law of multiple proportions and atomic hypothesis (at Google books).
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz on amines and their relation to ammonia (1849).
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz on the Karlsruhe Congress, 1860.
Pieter Zeeman on Zeeman effect (1897) (at ChemTeam site). View page images of the German report and contemporary English translation.

Back to the classic papers page.

Back to the top of the Classic Chemistry site

Selected Classic Papers

from the

History of Chemistry