Technikatörténeti szemle 19. (1992)

KÖNYVISMERTETÉS - Papers of the First „MINERALKONTOR” International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Veszprém, 12-16 August, 1991)

A. M. SMOLEGOVSKJJ* TO THE HISTORY OF INORGANIC CRYSTAL CHEMISTRY Crystal chemistry of today is one of the most progressive sciences that gready influences scientific and technical progress. In spite of the obvious interest to its history, dictated by the role which it has played and continues to play in the development of mineralogy, geochemistry and solid physics as well as the inability to reconstruct the chemical thinking of the 20th century without taking into consideration the influence of crystal chemistry ideas, the history of crystal chemistry is one of the least studied in the system of historico-chemical sciences. In this report we shall try to shed light on some general questions of crystal chemistry history and formulate the general development regularities of crystal chemistry of inorganic oxygen compounds. About the history of the term ..crystal chemistry" Apparently, this term appeared first in C. F. Rammelsberg's monography „Lehrbuch der Krystahkunde, oder, Anfangsgriinde der Krystallographie, Krystahphysik, und Krystahochemie", published in 1852 (1). Under the term crystal chemistry the author obviously meant chemical crystallography, i. e. the trend which later became known due to the classical work of P. Groth (2). Close-to-the-modern usage of this term we first find in the article by E. S. Fedorov „Main law of crystal chemistry", which appeared in 1916 (3). The determinant factor for the approval of the term in the scientific literature has become the publication of ..Crystal Chemistry" by V. M. Goldschmidt (4), O. Hassel (5) and Ch. W. StuTwell as well as ..Introduction to Crystal Chemistry" by R K. Evans (7). Of great importance was also the fact that G. R. Bokij was the first to give systematic course of lectures on crystal chemistry at the Moscow University. With the foundation of the Chair of crystallography and crystal chemistry (at the geological faculty) and the Laboratory of crystal chemistry (at the chemical faculty) the term crystal chemistry has acquired the disciplinary meaning as well. About crystal chemistry development periods We suggest the following division into periods of the crystal chemistry development. Period I (before the use of X-ray analysis) — from beginning of the 19th century to 1912. •Institute for History of Natural Sciences and Technology, Moscow, Staropansky lane 1/5