University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Kazan School of chemistry: A re-interpretation

Brooks, Nathan M.

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bhc2019v044p092.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128006

Description

Title
The Kazan School of chemistry: A re-interpretation
Author(s)
Brooks, Nathan M.
Issue Date
2019-09-15
Keyword(s)
  • History
  • Chemistry
Abstract
For a considerable portion of the nineteenth century, chemistry teaching and research at the small and geographically isolated Kazan University outshone that in all other Russian institutions. Chemists working at Kazan University discovered the element ruthenium, discovered the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline (which would become essential to the synthetic dye industry), firmly established and delineated the structural theory of organic chemistry, developed important synthetic methods using organozinc reagents, and many other important advances in chemistry. As early as the 1860s, some observers began speaking of a "Kazan School of Chemistry." The classic expression of this view was stated by A. E. Arbuzov, himself a Kazan chemist, in various articles published in the 1930s and after. In Arbuzov’s formulation, the Kazan School of Chemistry began with N. N. Zinin (sometimes including K. Klaus) in the 1830s and continuing in an apostolic succession until the present day. However, as I will argue in this paper, this formulation can work only if the term "school" is rather loosely applied. If we employ a more rigorous definition of school, such as those described by Morrell and Geison, then the Kazan School of Chemistry only began around 1860 with A. M. Butlerov.
Publisher
Division of the History of Chemistry
ISSN
1053-4385
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
article
Language
eng
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128006
DOI
https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2019v044p092
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2019 Division of the History of Chemistry

Owning Collections

Bulletin for the History of Chemistry: Volume 44, Number 2, 2019 PRIMARY