Chemical Crystallography Before X-rays
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Chemical crystallography before X-rays describes how chemical
crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...
developed as a science up to the discovery of
X-rays An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
by
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Wilhe ...
in 1895. In the period before X-rays, crystallography can be divided into three broad areas: geometric crystallography culminating in the discovery of the 230
space group In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a repeating pattern in space, usually in three dimensions. The elements of a space group (its symmetry operations) are the rigid transformations of the pattern that ...
s in 1891–4, physical crystallography and chemical crystallography. Up until 1800 neither crystallography nor chemistry were established sciences in the modern sense; as the 19th century progressed both sciences developed in parallel. In the 18th century chemistry was in a transitional period as it moved from the mystical and philosophical approach of the alchemists, to the experimental and logical approach of the scientific chemists such as
Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and that i ...
,
Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several Chemical element, e ...
and
John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. He also researched Color blindness, colour blindness; as a result, the umbrella term ...
. Before X-rays, chemical crystallographic research involved observation using a
goniometer A goniometer is an instrument that either measures an angle or allows an object to be rotated to a precise angular position. The term goniometry derives from two Greek words, γωνία (''gōnía'') 'angle' and μέτρον (''métron'') ' me ...
, a microscope, and reference to
crystal class In crystallography, a crystallographic point group is a three-dimensional point group whose symmetry operations are compatible with a three-dimensional crystallographic lattice. According to the crystallographic restriction it may only contain on ...
es, tables of crystal angles,
axial ratio Axial ratio, for any structure or shape with two or more axes, is the ratio of the length (or magnitude) of those axes to each other - the longer axis divided by the shorter. In ''chemistry'' or ''materials science'', the axial ratio (symbol P) i ...
s, and the ratio between molecular weight and density (''M/ρ''). In this period crystallography was a science supported by empirical laws (
law of constancy of interfacial angles The law of constancy of interfacial angles (; ) is an Empirical research, empirical law in the fields of crystallography and mineralogy concerning the shape, or morphology, of crystals. The law states that the angles between adjacent corresponding ...
,
law of rational indices The law of rational indices is an Empirical research, empirical law in the field of crystallography concerning crystal structure. The law states that "when referred to three intersecting axes all faces occurring on a crystal can be described by n ...
, law of symmetry) based on observations rather than theory. The history of chemical crystallography covers a broad range of topics including
isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping or morphism between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between the ...
, polymorphism, molecular chirality and the interaction with
mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...
, structural chemistry and
solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state phy ...
.


Symmetry

During the 19th century crystallography was progressively transformed into an empirical and mathematical science by the adoption of symmetry concepts. In 1832
Franz Ernst Neumann Franz Ernst Neumann (11 September 1798 – 23 May 1895) was a German mineralogist and physicist. He devised the first formulas to calculate inductance. He also formulated Neumann's law for molecular heat. In electromagnetism, he is credited for ...
used symmetry considerations when studying
double refraction Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefring ...
in crystals.
Woldemar Voigt Woldemar Voigt (; 2 September 1850 – 13 December 1919) was a German mathematician and physicist. Biography Voigt was born in Leipzig, and died in Göttingen. He was a student of Franz Ernst Neumann. Voigt taught at the Georg August Universi ...
, who was a student of Neumann, in 1885 formalized Neumann's principle as "if a crystal is invariant with respect to certain symmetry operations, any of its physical properties must also be invariant with respect to the same symmetry operations". Neumann's principle is sometimes referred to as the Neumann–Minnigerode–Curie principle based on later work by Bernhard Minnigerode (another student of Neumann) and
Pierre Curie Pierre Curie ( ; ; 15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, Radiochemistry, radiochemist, and a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. He shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, ...
.
Curie's principle Curie's principle, or Curie's symmetry principle, is a maxim about cause and effect formulated by Pierre Curie in 1894: The idea was based on the ideas of Franz Ernst Neumann Franz Ernst Neumann (11 September 1798 – 23 May 1895) was a German ...
"the symmetries of the causes are to be found in the effects" is a generalization of Neumann's principle. The relations between symmetry and physical and chemical properties were established throughout the 19th century: the notion of hemihedry ( Weiss, 1819;
Delafosse Delafosse or Delafose is a French language, French surname. Notable people with this name include: *Gabriel Delafosse (1796–1878), French mineralogist *Geno Delafose (born 1972), American Zydeco musician, son of John Delafose *John Delafose (19 ...
, 1840), the 7 crystal systems ( Mohs, 1822), the notion of point lattice ( Seeber, 1824), the 32 crystal classes ( Frankenheim, 1826; Hessel, 1830; Gadolin, 1869), molecular chirality (
Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which wa ...
, 1848), the 14 Bravais lattices ( Bravais, 1850), the 65 chiral groups that contain only proper symmetry operations – rotations, translations and roto-translations ( Sohncke 1879), and, finally, the 230 space groups ( Fedorov, 1891;
Schoenflies Arthur Moritz Schoenflies (; 17 April 1853 – 27 May 1928), sometimes written as Schönflies, was a German mathematician, known for his contributions to the application of group theory to crystallography, and for work in topology. Schoenflies ...
, 1891; Barlow, 1894).


16th century

In the first half of the 16th century
Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. H ...
proposed a theory of mineral formation as an analogy to fruit-bearing plants. In 1550
Gerolamo Cardano Gerolamo Cardano (; also Girolamo or Geronimo; ; ; 24 September 1501– 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, physician, biologist, physicist, chemist, astrologer, as ...
made an early attempt to explain the shape of crystals as the result of a close packing of spheres. In 1591
Thomas Harriot Thomas Harriot (; – 2 July 1621), also spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator to whom the theory of refraction is attributed. Thomas Harriot was also recognized for his con ...
studied the close packing of cannonballs (spheres). In 1597
Andreas Libavius Andreas Libavius or Andrew Libavius was born in Halle, Germany and died in July 1616. Libavius was a renaissance man who spent time as a professor at the University of Jena teaching history and poetry. After which he became a physician at the ...
recognized the geometrical characteristics of crystals and identified salts from their crystal shape.


17th century

In 1611
Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...
studied the packing of spheres, in order to explain the hexagonal symmetry of snow crystals. Kepler demonstrated that in a compact packing each sphere has six neighbours in the same plane, three in the plane above, and three in the plane below, for a total of twelve touching spheres. Kepler concluded that /(3) = 0.74084 is the maximum possible density amongst any arrangement of spheres — this became known as the
Kepler conjecture The Kepler conjecture, named after the 17th-century mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, is a mathematical theorem about sphere packing in three-dimensional Euclidean space. It states that no arrangement of equally sized spheres filling s ...
. The conjecture was finally proved by Thomas Hales in 1998. By the second half of the 17th century the ideas of Paracelsus had been displaced by a more scientific approach to chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and the emerging field of crystallography. In his book ''
The Sceptical Chymist ''The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes'' is the title of a book by Robert Boyle, published in London in 1661. In the form of a dialogue, the ''Sceptical Chymist'' presented Boyle's hypothesis that matter consisted of cor ...
'' of 1661,
Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, Alchemy, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the foun ...
criticized the traditional composition of materials, as represented by the teaching of
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
and Paracelsus, and initiated the modern understanding of
chemical element A chemical element is a chemical substance whose atoms all have the same number of protons. The number of protons is called the atomic number of that element. For example, oxygen has an atomic number of 8: each oxygen atom has 8 protons in its ...
s using the words "perfectly unmingled bodies". Boyle argued that matter's basic elements consisted of various types of particles, termed "corpuscles", which were capable of arranging themselves into groups (molecules). Boyle was one of the earliest researchers to use the term crystal for crystalline substances apart from quartz. In 1665
Robert Hooke Robert Hooke (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath who was active as a physicist ("natural philosopher"), astronomer, geologist, meteorologist, and architect. He is credited as one of the first scientists to investigate living ...
attempted to explain crystal morphology based on the stacking of atoms. In his work ''Micrographia'' he reported on the regularity of quartz crystals observed with the recently invented microscope, and proposed that they are formed by spherules.
Nicolas Steno Niels Steensen (; Latinized to Nicolas Steno or Nicolaus Stenonius; 1 January 1638 – 25 November 1686 ) was a Danish scientist, a pioneer in both anatomy and geology who became a Catholic bishop in his later years. He has been beatified ...
rejected Paracelsus's proposed organic origin for crystals. Steno first observed the
law of constancy of interfacial angles The law of constancy of interfacial angles (; ) is an Empirical research, empirical law in the fields of crystallography and mineralogy concerning the shape, or morphology, of crystals. The law states that the angles between adjacent corresponding ...
when studying quartz crystals (''De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento'', Florence, 1669), and noted that, although the crystals of a substance differed in appearance from one to another, the angles between corresponding faces were always the same. Steno's work can be considered as the beginning of crystallography as an independent discipline. In 1678
Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Halen, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , ; ; also spelled Huyghens; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution ...
proposed a structural explanation of the
double refraction Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefring ...
of
calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
based on
ellipsoidal An ellipsoid is a surface that can be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface;  that is, a surface that may be defined as the ze ...
atoms. Huygens discovered the polarization of light by
Iceland spar Iceland spar, formerly called Iceland crystal ( , ) and also called optical calcite, is a transparent variety of calcite, or crystallized calcium carbonate, originally brought from Iceland, and used in demonstrating the polarization of light. For ...
, a transparent form of calcite, and published his results in his ''Traité de la Lumière''. Domenico Guglielmini's publications of 1688 (''Riflessioni filosofiche dedotte dalle figure de Sali'') and 1705 (''De salibus dissertatio epistolaris physico-medico-mechanica'') concluded that the earliest forms (he noted cube, rhombohedral parallelepiped, hexagonal prism, and octahedron) of various salt crystals are characteristic of each substance, are identical in form, indivisible, and have faces with identical inclinations to each other.


18th century

In 1723 Moritz Anton Cappeller published ''Prodromus Crystallographiae'', the first treatise on crystal shapes. The introduction of the term
crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...
is attributed to Cappeller. In 1735
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
, who is known for his system of classification of biological species in his ''Systema Naturae'', also classified minerals and stated that "their transparency is derived from their atomical construction". In 1745
Guillaume-François Rouelle Guillaume François Rouelle (; 15 September 1703 – 3 August 1770) was a French chemist and apothecary. In 1754 he introduced the concept of a base into chemistry as a substance which reacts with an acid to form a salt. He is known as ''l'Aîné ...
carried out a microscopic analysis of sea salt and proposed that the crystals were composed of cubic particles. In 1758
Roger Joseph Boscovich Roger Joseph Boscovich (, ; ; ; 18 May 1711 – 13 February 1787) was a Croatian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, theologian, Jesuit priest, and a polymath from the Republic of Ragusa.atomic theory Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries. Initially, it referred to a hypothetical concept of ...
which stated that particles of matter were linked by attractive and repulsive forces and that the solid so formed was compressible rather than rigid; this would become relevant in the 19th century when Haüy theorised that crystals were constructed from identical units stacked up without spaces. The idea of a polyhedral molecular unit of
crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...
was promoted by
Pierre-Joseph Macquer Pierre-Joseph Macquer (9 October 1718 – 15 February 1784) was an influential French people, French chemist. He is known for his ''Dictionnaire de chymie'' (1766). He was also involved in practical applications, to medicine and industry, such as ...
in his handbook ''Dictionnaire de chymie'' of 1766. In 1767 :de:Christian Friedrich Gotthard Westfeld wrote that calcite crystals could be built from
rhombohedra In geometry, a rhombohedron (also called a rhombic hexahedron or, inaccurately, a rhomboid) is a special case of a parallelepiped in which all six faces are congruent rhombus, rhombi. It can be used to define the rhombohedral lattice system, a Ho ...
. In 1773
Torbern Bergman Torbern Olof Bergman (''KVO'') (20 March 17358 July 1784) was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist noted for his 1775 ''Dissertation on Elective Attractions'', containing the largest chemical affinity tables ever published. Bergman was the first ...
, a leader in the field of chemical analysis, described the crystal forms of calcite and stated that all the forms could be built up from the cleavage rhombohedron. Bergman developed a classification of minerals based on chemical characteristics (extending the work of Linnaeus), with subclasses organized by their external shapes, and defined seven primary crystal forms. With Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle's ''Essai de cristallographie'' published in 1772 and ''Cristallographie'' published in 1783 the scientific approach to crystal structure began. Romé de l'Isle described over 500 crystal forms and accurately measured the interfacial angles of a great variety of crystals, using the
goniometer A goniometer is an instrument that either measures an angle or allows an object to be rotated to a precise angular position. The term goniometry derives from two Greek words, γωνία (''gōnía'') 'angle' and μέτρον (''métron'') ' me ...
designed by his student Arnould Carangeot. Romé de l'Isle noted that the angles are characteristic of a substance, thus generalizing the law of constancy of angles postulated by Steno. Romé de l'Isle considered that the shape of a crystal is a consequence of the packing of elemental particles, and defined six primitive forms. In 1781
René Just Haüy René Just Haüy () FRS MWS FRSE (28 February 1743 – 1 June 1822) was a French priest and mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy after he was made an honorary canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre Dame. Due to his innovative work on cryst ...
(often termed the "Father of Modern Crystallography") discovered that crystals always cleave along crystallographic planes. Based on this observation, and the fact that the inter-facial angles in each crystal species always have the same value, Haüy concluded that crystals must be periodic and composed of regularly arranged layers of tiny polyhedra (''molécules intégrantes''). This theory explained why all crystal planes are related by small rational numbers (the
law of rational indices The law of rational indices is an Empirical research, empirical law in the field of crystallography concerning crystal structure. The law states that "when referred to three intersecting axes all faces occurring on a crystal can be described by n ...
). In 1784 René-Just Haüy published ''Essai d'une théorie sur la structure des cristaux, appliquée à plusieurs genres de substances cristallisées'' in which he stated his law of decrements: a crystal is composed of molecules arranged periodically in three dimensions without leaving any gaps. Haüy's molecular crystal structure theory assumed that ''molécules intégrantes'' were specific in shape and composition for every compound. Haüy developed a mathematical theory of crystal structure that turned out to be remarkably accurate and gave crystallography a legitimate place among the sciences.


Early 19th century

From the late 18th century it became apparent that a crystal of a substance was composed of units, whether thought of as atoms, ions, molecules, or polyhedra, in a regular spatial arrangement, termed its
crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...
. The most notable early theory for crystal structures was that of
René Just Haüy René Just Haüy () FRS MWS FRSE (28 February 1743 – 1 June 1822) was a French priest and mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy after he was made an honorary canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre Dame. Due to his innovative work on cryst ...
. In 1801 Haüy, published his ''Traité de Minéralogie'' in four volumes, the last of which was an atlas of plates which was considered "among the most wonderful of the 19th century". It has been described as "a work of comprehensive insight, and much of it, written with literary fluency". In this work Haüy described how the law of rational indices establishes relationships between the orientations of the crystal faces, and explains that crystalline solids are formed by replicas of what would now be considered a
unit cell In geometry, biology, mineralogy and solid state physics, a unit cell is a repeating unit formed by the vectors spanning the points of a lattice. Despite its suggestive name, the unit cell (unlike a unit vector In mathematics, a unit vector i ...
. Haüy's theory called for fixed mineral species (based on their ''molécule intégrante''), fixed crystal morphology, and constant chemical composition. This was a mineralogical equivalent to the
law of definite proportions In chemistry, the law of definite proportions, sometimes called Proust's law or the law of constant composition, states that a given chemical compound contains its constituent elements in a fixed ratio (by mass) and does not depend on its source ...
in chemistry. John G. Burke (1966) and :de:Hans-Werner Schütt (1984) proposed Haüy's crystal structure theory as an example of a
paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...
in the sense of ''
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' is a 1962 book about the history of science by the philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the History of science, history, Philosophy of science, philosophy, and sociology ...
'' by Thomas S. Kuhn (1962). In 1822 Haüy published ''Traité de Cristallographie'' and updated version of his work of 1801. Haüy postulated, "to each specific substance with a well defined chemical composition, capable of existence in a crystalline form, there corresponds a shape that is specific and characteristic of that substance." In 1808
John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. He also researched Color blindness, colour blindness; as a result, the umbrella term ...
published his atomic theory of matter. In Dalton’s theory, there were four key assertions: "matter is made up of roughly spherical atoms, which were indivisible and indestructible; all atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties; compounds are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms; and chemical reactions involve the rearrangement of atoms". In his book ''A New System of Chemical Philosophy'', crystals are considered as a periodic arrangement of spherical atoms. However, Dalton stated that it was premature to form any theory of crystallization. Kuhn proposed Dalton's
atomic theory Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries. Initially, it referred to a hypothetical concept of ...
as an example of a
paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...
in which Dalton asserted that atoms can only combine in simple, whole-number ratios (
law of multiple proportions In chemistry, the law of multiple proportions states that in compounds which contain two particular chemical elements, the amount of Element A per measure of Element B will differ across these compounds by ratios of small whole numbers. For inst ...
). Under this new paradigm, any reaction which did not occur in fixed proportion could not be a chemical process. There was a contradiction between the crystallographic and chemical paradigms. Haüy's theory asserted that crystals were composed of polyhedral units stacked up in three dimensions without gaps; Dalton's theory, by contrast, implied that crystals were constructed by a periodic arrangement of spherical atoms in space. Haüy's theory was generally accepted by his fellow mineralogists in the period 1801–1815 but then came under attack from the German dynamist school led by
Christian Samuel Weiss Christian Samuel Weiss (26 February 1780 – 1 October 1856) was a German mineralogist born in Leipzig. Following graduation, he worked as a physics instructor in Leipzig from 1803 until 1808. and in the meantime, conducted geological studies of ...
. Weiss and his followers studied the external symmetry of crystals rather than their internal structure. In 1819, Weiss demonstrated the generality of the phenomenon of hemihedry (half of the vertices/edges/faces of a crystal act differently from the other half), thus challenging Haüy's holohedral approach (all vertices/edges/faces of a crystal act in the same manner). Haüy's crystal structure theory was criticised as over-simplistic by
William Hyde Wollaston William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable i ...
in 1809 and by
Henry James Brooke Henry James Brooke (1771–1857) was an English crystallographer. Life Brooke was the son of a broadcloth manufacturer, born in Exeter on 25 May 1771. He studied for the bar, but went into business in the Spanish wool trade, South American minin ...
in 1819. Haüy also tended to ignore experimental results that contradicted his structural theory, such as those achieved with the more accurate reflection
goniometer A goniometer is an instrument that either measures an angle or allows an object to be rotated to a precise angular position. The term goniometry derives from two Greek words, γωνία (''gōnía'') 'angle' and μέτρον (''métron'') ' me ...
invented by Wollaston in 1809. In 1813 Wollaston adopted Dalton's ideas and proposed using
sphere packing In geometry, a sphere packing is an arrangement of non-overlapping spheres within a containing space. The spheres considered are usually all of identical size, and the space is usually three-dimensional Euclidean space. However, sphere packing p ...
to model
crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...
s. In 1814
André-Marie Ampère André-Marie Ampère (, ; ; 20 January 177510 June 1836) was a French physicist and mathematician who was one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as ''electrodynamics''. He is also the inventor of ...
published a theory of the chemical combination of substances, based on Haüy's polyhedral forms. However, Ampère's work had little impact on contemporary chemists. In 1819
David Brewster Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of ...
classified crystals according to their optical properties, as isotropic, uniaxial, or biaxial. In a paper published in 1830 Brewster attempted to relate the phenomenon of
double refraction Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefring ...
to the arrangement of the molecules in crystals. If a crystal has three axes at right angles to each other then, if they are equivalent, the crystal is isotropic, if two are equivalent and the third different, the crystal is uniaxial, and if all three are different, the crystal is biaxial. In 1822
John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical work. ...
proposed a causal relationship between the handedness of quartz crystals (right- or left-handed) and the direction of their optical rotation. In 1840 :de:Friedrich Ludwig Hünefeld described the first crystallization of a protein; Hünefeld obtained lamellar crystals (later identified as
haemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobi ...
) by putting the blood of an earthworm between two slides.


Isomorphism

Originally,
René Just Haüy René Just Haüy () FRS MWS FRSE (28 February 1743 – 1 June 1822) was a French priest and mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy after he was made an honorary canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre Dame. Due to his innovative work on cryst ...
considered that each chemical compound had a characteristic crystalline form. However, based on his 1808 work with
aragonite Aragonite is a carbonate mineral and one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate (), the others being calcite and vaterite. It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation fr ...
and his earlier studies of
calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
, which are two different forms of
calcium carbonate Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a common substance found in Rock (geology), rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skel ...
(CaCO3), Haüy had to concede that substances with the same chemical composition but different molecular arrangements could have different crystalline forms. In 1819 Eilhard Mitscherlich discovered the law of isomorphism which states that compounds which contain the same number of atoms, and have similar structures, tend to exhibit similar crystal forms. Mitscherlich carried out the first systematic research on the dependence of crystal forms on their chemical nature. The discovery of isomorphism was the first major step in chemical crystallography and
Emil Wohlwill Wolf Emil Wohlwill (24 November 1835 in Seesen – 2 February 1912 in Hamburg) was a German-Jewish engineer of electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, ...
regarded Mitscherlich's work on isomorphism as a milestone in the history of the atomic-molecular theory. The discovery of the phenomena of isomorphism and polymorphism dealt a clear blow to Haüy's crystal structure theory. Mitscherlich’s findings were a central consideration of the atomic weight determinations in 1819 by
Jöns Jacob Berzelius Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius (; 20 August 1779 – 7 August 1848) was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius became a memb ...
, a leading proponent of Dalton’s atomic theory. Berzelius classified minerals by their chemical composition rather than by their crystal morphology, as was the established practice. Mitscherlich’s research, together with the work of
Alexis Thérèse Petit Alexis Thérèse Petit (; 2 October 1791 – 21 June 1820) was a French physicist. Petit is known for his work on the efficiencies of air- and steam-engines, published in 1818 (''Mémoire sur l’emploi du principe des forces vives dans le calcu ...
and Pierre-Louis Dulong that heat capacities of solids vary with temperature and inversely with atomic weight, led Berzelius to declare them as a positive confirmation of the atomic theory. A contemporary historical review of the development of isomorphism in the 19th century was written by Andreas Artsruni.


Polymorphism

In crystallography, polymorphism is the phenomenon where a compound can crystallize into more than one
crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...
; in the case of elements the term
allotropy Allotropy or allotropism () is the property of some chemical elements to exist in two or more different forms, in the same physical State of matter, state, known as allotropes of the elements. Allotropes are different structural modifications o ...
is sometimes used. An example of polymorphism is
titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound derived from titanium with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or Colour Index Internationa ...
(TiO2), which occurs in four known natural polymorphic forms (minerals with the same composition but different structure):
brookite Brookite is the Orthorhombic crystal system, orthorhombic variant of titanium dioxide (TiO2), which occurs in four known natural Polymorphism (materials science), polymorphic forms (minerals with the same composition but different structure). The ...
(
orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic Lattice (group), lattices result from stretching a cubic crystal system, cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, res ...
), akaogiite (
monoclinic In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three Vector (geometric), vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in t ...
),
anatase Anatase is a metastable mineral form of titanium dioxide (TiO2) with a Tetragonal crystal system, tetragonal crystal structure. Although colorless or white when pure, anatase in nature is usually a black solid due to impurities. Three other Pol ...
(
tetragonal In crystallography, the tetragonal crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Tetragonal crystal lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along one of its lattice vectors, so that the Cube (geometry), cube becomes a rectangular Pri ...
) and
rutile Rutile is an oxide mineral composed of titanium dioxide (TiO2), the most common natural form of TiO2. Rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite. Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at vis ...
(
tetragonal In crystallography, the tetragonal crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Tetragonal crystal lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along one of its lattice vectors, so that the Cube (geometry), cube becomes a rectangular Pri ...
). Eilhard Mitscherlich discovered polymorphism ("dimorphism") in his studies of
sodium phosphate A sodium phosphate is a generic variety of salts of sodium () and phosphate (). Phosphate also forms families or condensed anions including di-, tri-, tetra-, and polyphosphates. Most of these salts are known in both anhydrous (water-free) and ...
(1821) and
sulphur Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical ...
(1823). In the 1830s the development of the microscope enhanced observations of polymorphism and aided
Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim (29 June 1801 – 14 January 1869) was a German physicist, geographer, and crystallographer. Life and education Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim was born in 1801 in Brunswick. His family was Jewish. Ismar Schorsch, '' L ...
’s studies. Frankenheim was able to demonstrate methods to induce crystal phase changes, for example the use of solvents or physical scratching, and formally summarized his findings on the nature of polymorphism. Soon after, the more sophisticated polarized light microscope came into use, and it provided better visualization of crystalline phases allowing crystallographers to distinguish between different polymorphs. The hot stage was invented and fitted to a polarized light microscope by
Otto Lehmann Otto Lehmann may refer to: * Otto Lehmann (physicist) (1855–1922), German physicist * Otto Lehmann (movie producer) (1889–1968), German movie producer {{Hndis, Lehmann, Otto ...
in about 1877. This invention helped crystallographers determine melting points and observe polymorphic transitions. The first polymorphic organic substance,
benzamide Benzamide is an organic compound with the chemical formula of C7H7NO. It is the simplest amide derivative of benzoic acid. In powdered form, it appears as a white solid, while in crystalline form, it appears as colourless crystals. It is slightly ...
, was discovered by
Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements be ...
and
Justus von Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...
in 1832. In 1870 Paul Groth defined wikt:morphotropy as the state of two crystals whose similar physical structure is due to similar chemical composition. Groth examined the change in symmetry of a crystal as a result of the replacement of a hydrogen atom by another univalent atom or radical. Morphotropy is also referred to as isogonism in which each vertex is surrounded by the same kinds of face in the same or reverse order, and with the same angles between corresponding faces. In 1897
Wilhelm Ostwald Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald (; – 4 April 1932) was a Latvian chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst and Svante Arrhenius. ...
introduced
Ostwald's rule In materials science, Ostwald's rule or Ostwald's step rule, conceived by Wilhelm Ostwald, describes the formation of Polymorphism (materials science), polymorphs. The rule states that usually the less Chemical stability, stable polymorph crystalli ...
, to describe the formation of polymorphs. The rule states that usually the less
stable A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...
polymorph crystallizes first. Ostwald's rule is not a universal law but a common tendency observed in nature.


Molecular chirality

In 1811
François Arago Dominique François Jean Arago (), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: , ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries and politician. Early l ...
constructed a
polariscope A polarimeter is a scientific instrument used to measure optical rotation: the angle of rotation caused by passing linearly polarized light through an optically active substance. Some chemical substances are optically active, and linearly pola ...
and used it to discover that
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
crystals would rotate the plane of polarization of polarized light. Shortly after
Jean-Baptiste Biot Jean-Baptiste Biot (; ; 21 April 1774 – 3 February 1862) was a French people, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, ma ...
found a similar
optical rotation Optical rotation, also known as polarization rotation or circular birefringence, is the rotation of the orientation of the plane of polarization about the optical axis of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain materials. Circul ...
effect for solutions, for example
tartaric acid Tartaric acid is a white, crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably in grapes but also in tamarinds, bananas, avocados, and citrus. Its salt (chemistry), salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of ta ...
, and concluded that the effect was a inherent property of certain molecules. In 1830
Jöns Jacob Berzelius Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius (; 20 August 1779 – 7 August 1848) was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius became a memb ...
discovered that tartaric and racemic acids have the same elementary composition, and concluded that a difference in the arrangement of the atoms in the molecules creates compounds with different chemical properties; in the same paper Berzelius suggested the term “isomerism” for the phenomenon. In 1831 Mitscherlich was asked by Berzelius to study the tartrates in order to determine the differences between two
isomers In chemistry, isomers are molecules or polyatomic ions with identical molecular formula – that is, the same number of atoms of each element – but distinct arrangements of atoms in space. ''Isomerism'' refers to the existence or possibili ...
, tartaric acid and racemic acid. By 1832,
Jean-Baptiste Biot Jean-Baptiste Biot (; ; 21 April 1774 – 3 February 1862) was a French people, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, ma ...
had discovered that tartaric acid from grape juice was dextrorotatory and that racemic acid was optically inactive. In 1844 Mitscherlich found that the solution of sodium ammonium tartrate was optically active, but that of sodium ammonium paratartrate was optically inactive. The work of Biot and Mitscherlich was the starting point for research by the French chemist
Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...
, a doctoral student of
Gabriel Delafosse Gabriel Delafosse (16 April 1796 – 13 October 1878) was a French mineralogy, mineralogist who worked at the National Museum of Natural History, France, Natural History Museum in Paris and for sometime at the University of Paris. He contributed t ...
and a colleague of
Auguste Laurent Auguste Laurent (14 November 1807 – 15 April 1853) was a French chemist who helped in the founding of organic chemistry with his discoveries of trichloroethylene, anthracene, phthalic acid, and carbolic acid. He devised a systematic nomenc ...
. In 1848
Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...
gave the general relation between crystal morphology and rotatory polarization. Pasteur solved the mystery of polarized light acting differently with chemically identical crystals and solutions by discovering the phenomenon of molecular asymmetry, that is that molecules could be
chiral Chirality () is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek language, Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is dist ...
and exist as a pair of
enantiomer In chemistry, an enantiomer (Help:IPA/English, /ɪˈnænti.əmər, ɛ-, -oʊ-/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''ih-NAN-tee-ə-mər''), also known as an optical isomer, antipode, or optical antipode, is one of a pair of molecular entities whi ...
s. Pasteur's method was to physically separate the crystals of a
racemic mixture In chemistry, a racemic mixture or racemate () is a mixture that has equal amounts (50:50) of left- and right-handed enantiomers of a chiral molecule or salt. Racemic mixtures are rare in nature, but many compounds are produced industrially as r ...
of sodium ammonium tartrate into right- and left-handed crystals, and then dissolve them to make two separate solutions which rotated polarized light in opposite directions. Pasteur's research was in part informed by considerations of molecular symmetry. Pasteur also proposed two other methods for the isolation of optically active enantiomers from racemic mixtures: by the use of optically active bases, e.g.
strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...
, or by means of living organisms, e.g.
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
or
yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...
s. William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) introduced the word "chiral" in 1904 to describe handed figures. Objects that do not exhibit optical isomerism are said to be "achiral", that is their image in a plane mirror can be made congruent with itself. The term
chirality Chirality () is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is distinguishable fro ...
has almost completely displaced the term "dissymmetry" which was used by Pasteur.


Liquid crystals

In 1888
Friedrich Reinitzer Friedrich Richard Reinitzer (25 February 1857 in Prague – 16 February 1927 in Graz) was an Austrian botanist and chemist. In late 1880s, experimenting with cholesteryl benzoate, he discovered properties of liquid crystals (named later by Otto ...
examined the properties of various derivatives of
cholesterol Cholesterol is the principal sterol of all higher animals, distributed in body Tissue (biology), tissues, especially the brain and spinal cord, and in Animal fat, animal fats and oils. Cholesterol is biosynthesis, biosynthesized by all anima ...
which now belong to the class of materials known as cholesteric liquid crystals. Previously, other researchers had observed distinct colour effects when cooling cholesterol derivatives just above the
freezing point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state of matter, state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase (matter), phase exist in Thermodynamic equilib ...
, but had not associated it with a new phenomenon. Reinitzer found that
cholesteryl benzoate Cholesteryl benzoate, also called 5-cholesten-3-yl benzoate, is an organic chemical, an ester of cholesterol and benzoic acid. It is a liquid crystal material forming cholesteric liquid crystals with helical structure. It can be used with cholest ...
does not melt in the same way as most substances, but has two
melting point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state of matter, state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase (matter), phase exist in Thermodynamic equilib ...
s. At it melts into a cloudy liquid, and at it melts again and the cloudy liquid becomes clear. The phenomenon is reversible. Reinitzer sought assistance to understand the phenomenon and, on 14 March 1888, he wrote to
Otto Lehmann Otto Lehmann may refer to: * Otto Lehmann (physicist) (1855–1922), German physicist * Otto Lehmann (movie producer) (1889–1968), German movie producer {{Hndis, Lehmann, Otto ...
. They exchanged letters and samples. Lehmann examined the intermediate cloudy fluid, and reported seeing
crystallite A crystallite is a small or even microscopic crystal which forms, for example, during the cooling of many materials. Crystallites are also referred to as grains. Bacillite is a type of crystallite. It is rodlike with parallel Wikt:longulite ...
s. Reinitzer's colleague Victor von Zepharovich also indicated that the intermediate "fluid" was crystalline. Reinitzer published his results, with credit to Lehmann and von Zepharovich, on 3 May 1888. By that time, Reinitzer had discovered and described three important features of
liquid crystal Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal can flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a common direction as i ...
s (the term was coined by Lehmann in a 1904 monograph): the existence of two melting points, the reflection of circularly polarized light, and the ability to rotate the direction of polarized light. Reinitzer did not pursue the study of liquid crystals further, although in 1908 he had to defend his role in their discovery when Lehmann claimed the priority. The research was continued by Lehmann who started a systematic study, first of cholesteryl benzoate, and then of related compounds which exhibited the double-melting phenomenon. He was able to make observations in
polarized light , or , is a property of transverse waves which specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the wave. One example of a polarize ...
, and his microscope was equipped with a hot stage (sample holder equipped with a heater) enabling high temperature observations. The intermediate cloudy phase clearly sustained flow, but other features, particularly the signature under a microscope, convinced Lehmann that he was dealing with a solid. By the end of August 1889 he had published his results. Lehmann's paper prompted work by Ludwig Gattermann who in 1890 published a paper on the synthesis of azoxyphenol ethers, such as ''para''-azoxyanisole, which exhibited the same double-melting behaviour. Lehmann's interpretation of his results was controversial, and was not accepted by
Gustav Heinrich Tammann Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann ( – 17 December 1938) was a prominent Baltic German chemist-physicist who made important contributions in the fields of glassy and solid solutions, heterogeneous equilibria, crystallization, and metallurg ...
,
Georg Hermann Quincke Georg Hermann Quincke FRSFor HFRSE (; November 19, 1834 – January 13, 1924) was a German physicist. Biography Born in Frankfurt-on-Oder, Quincke was the son of prominent physician ''Geheimer Medicinal-Rath'' Hermann Quincke and the elder br ...
, and
Walther Nernst Walther Hermann Nernst (; 25 June 1864 – 18 November 1941) was a German physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid-state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped ...
. In 1905 :de:Rudolf Schenck's research addressed and largely resolved the objections of Tamman, Quincke and Nernst. Lehmann's work was continued and significantly expanded by the German chemist Daniel Vorländer who from the beginning of the 20th century had synthesized most of the liquid crystals known. In 1910–1922 research on liquid crystals, led by
Georges Friedel Georges Friedel (19 July 1865 – 11 December 1933) was a French mineralogist and crystallographer. Life Georges was the son of the chemist Charles Friedel. Georges' grandfather was Louis Georges Duvernoy who held the chair in comparative an ...
, was carried on in France. In the period before X-rays liquid crystals were seen as merely a curiosity by scientists, and the field did not yield applications until the second half of the 20th century. Liquid crystals are now known to have one- or two-dimensional periodicity, with rod or layer symmetry respectively.


Late 19th century

From the 1830s Haüy’s molecular crystal structure theory started to be combined with the atomic theory of the chemists to produce a view of a crystal as the regular arrangement of atoms or molecules in space. In 1849 Auguste Bravais related the symmetry of the crystal, considered as one of 14 space lattices, to that of its constituting molecules and formalized the reticular interpretation of hemihedry given by
Gabriel Delafosse Gabriel Delafosse (16 April 1796 – 13 October 1878) was a French mineralogy, mineralogist who worked at the National Museum of Natural History, France, Natural History Museum in Paris and for sometime at the University of Paris. He contributed t ...
. In 1852 Delafosse attempted to relate the structure of the molecule to the external shape of the crystal. During the 1850s and 1860s a "quiet revolution" took place in structural chemistry according to Alan J. Rocke, a historian of chemistry. The main features of the revolution were the clarification of the concept of
atomic weight Relative atomic mass (symbol: ''A''; sometimes abbreviated RAM or r.a.m.), also known by the deprecated synonym atomic weight, is a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical element in a giv ...
(
Stanislao Cannizzaro Stanislao Cannizzaro ( , , ; 13 July 1826 – 10 May 1910) was an Italian chemist. He is famous for the Cannizzaro reaction and for his influential role in the atomic-weight deliberations of the Karlsruhe Congress in 1860. Biography Ca ...
), the definition of the idea of valence (then known as atomicity), and new chemical structural ideas, such as the
benzene Benzene is an Organic compound, organic chemical compound with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar hexagonal Ring (chemistry), ring with one hyd ...
structure of a ring of alternating double and single carbon bonds (
August Kekulé Friedrich August Kekulé, later Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz ( , ; 7 September 1829 – 13 July 1896), was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekulé was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially ...
). These developments in chemistry were largely independent of the mathematical and geometrical direction of crystallography in the period 1850–1895 which had little concern with the practicalities of atomic and molecular arrangement. In 1874
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Jr. (; 30 August 1852 – 1 March 1911) was a Dutch physical chemistry, physical chemist. A highly influential theoretical chemistry, theoretical chemist of his time, Van 't Hoff was the first winner of the Nobe ...
and
Joseph Le Bel Joseph Achille Le Bel (21 January 1847 in Pechelbronn – 6 August 1930, in Paris, France) was a French chemist. He is best known for his work in stereochemistry. Le Bel was educated at the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1874 he announced his ...
independently proposed the tetrahedral arrangement of the atoms bound to carbon in organic molecules. Van't Hoff's theory validated and explained Pasteur's results with tartrate crystals, and
Johannes Wislicenus Johannes Wislicenus (; 24 June 18355 December 1902) was a German chemist, most famous for his work in early stereochemistry. Biography The son of the radical Protestant theologian Gustav Wislicenus, Johannes was born on 24 June 1835 in Kleine ...
' work with isomeric lactic acids, and was fundamental to the further development of
stereochemistry Stereochemistry, a subdiscipline of chemistry, studies the spatial arrangement of atoms that form the structure of molecules and their manipulation. The study of stereochemistry focuses on the relationships between stereoisomers, which are defined ...
. Until the use of X-rays there was no way to determine the actual crystal structure of even the simplest substances such as salt (NaCl). For example in the 1880s, William Barlow proposed several crystal structures based on
close-packing of spheres In geometry, close-packing of equal spheres is a dense arrangement of congruent spheres in an infinite, regular arrangement (or Lattice (group), lattice). Carl Friedrich Gauss proved that the highest average density – that is, the greatest fract ...
some of which were validated later by X-ray crystallography; however the available data were too scarce in the 1880s to accept his models as conclusive. In the period between the discovery of X-rays (1895) and X-ray diffraction (1912) Barlow and
William Jackson Pope Sir William Jackson Pope (31 March 1870 – 17 October 1939) was an English chemist. Biography William Jackson Pope was born on 31 March 1870 in Hoxton to William (a saddler) and Alice (née Hall). His parents were staunch and active Wesleyan ...
developed the principles of packing, and showed how to deduce the structures of some simple compounds. In the 1930s
Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling ( ; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. ''New Scientist'' called him one of the 20 gre ...
was impressed that Barlow had assigned many crystal structures of metals (copper, silver, and gold to cubic close packing, and magnesium, zinc, and cadmium to hexagonal close packing) and salts (sodium, potassium and caesium chlorides) which were subsequently proved to be correct by X-ray crystallography. William Johnson Sollas emphasised the importance of different atomic sizes in constructing simple crystals, and correctly concluded that the sodium and chlorine atoms in salt would be of different sizes. In 1887
Johannes Wislicenus Johannes Wislicenus (; 24 June 18355 December 1902) was a German chemist, most famous for his work in early stereochemistry. Biography The son of the radical Protestant theologian Gustav Wislicenus, Johannes was born on 24 June 1835 in Kleine ...
published a study of
stereoisomerism In stereochemistry, stereoisomerism, or spatial isomerism, is a form of isomerism in which molecules have the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms (constitution), but differ in the three-dimensional orientations of their atoms in ...
in unsaturated compounds. Groth made a systematic classification of minerals based on their chemical composition and crystal structure and published his results in his 5-volume ''Chemische Kristallographie'' in 1906–1919, which contained crystalline morphology and physical property data on nearly 10,000 substances. In 1913 Walter Wahl summarised the known connections between chemical composition and crystalline form as isomorphism (Mitscherlich), morphotropism (Groth), and enantiomorphism (Pasteur and van 't Hoff). In his preface to Andreas Fock's ''An introduction to chemical crystallography'' Pope summarised the state of chemical crystallography in 1895 as follows: After 1912 crystallography would develop dramatically with the widespread adoption of
X-ray diffraction X-ray diffraction is a generic term for phenomena associated with changes in the direction of X-ray beams due to interactions with the electrons around atoms. It occurs due to elastic scattering, when there is no change in the energy of the waves. ...
to determine
crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...
s.


Research community

Before the 20th century crystallography was not a well-established academic discipline. There were no academic positions specifically in crystallography. Workers in the field normally carried out their crystallographic research as an ancillary to other employment(s), or had independent means. The leading workers in the field of chemical crystallography were employed as follows: * Professors ** Mathematics or science: Arago, Berzelius, Biot,
Curie Curie may refer to: *Curie family, a family of distinguished scientists: :* Jacques Curie (1856–1941), French physicist, Pierre's brother :* Pierre Curie (1859–1906), French physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Marie's husband :* Marie Curi ...
, Frankenheim,
Lehmann Lehmann is a German surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 75.3% of all bearers of the surname ''Lehmann'' were residents of Germany, 6.6% of the United States, 6.3% of Switzerland, 3.2% of France, 1.7% of Australia and 1.3% of Poland. ...
,
Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...
, Mitscherlich, Ostwald,
Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which wa ...
, Reinitzer, Wöhler ** Mineralogy:
Delafosse Delafosse or Delafose is a French language, French surname. Notable people with this name include: *Gabriel Delafosse (1796–1878), French mineralogist *Geno Delafose (born 1972), American Zydeco musician, son of John Delafose *John Delafose (19 ...
, Groth, Haüy,
Neumann Neumann () is a German language, German surname, with its origins in the pre-7th-century (Old English) word ''wikt:neowe, neowe'' meaning "new", with ''wikt:mann, mann'', meaning man. The English form of the name is Newman. Von Neumann is a varian ...
, * Other employment: Brewster (editor), Romé de l'Isle (cataloguer), Sohncke (meteorological service), Wollaston (physician) * Independently wealthy: Barlow, Herschel, Huygens In the nineteenth century there were informal schools of crystallography researchers in France (Arago, Biot, Curie, Delafosse, Haüy, Pasteur), Germany (Frankenheim, Groth, Lehmann, Liebig, Mitscherlich, Neumann, Reinitzer, Sohncke, Wöhler) and England (Barlow, Brewster, Herschel, Wollaston). Until the founding of ''Zeitschrift für Krystallographie und Mineralogie'' by Paul Groth in 1877 there was no lead journal for the publication of crystallographic papers. The majority of crystallographic research was published in the journals of national scientific societies, or in mineralogical journals. The inauguration of Groth’s journal marked the emergence of crystallography as a mature science independent of geology.


See also

*
History of atomic theory Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries. Initially, it referred to a hypothetical concept of ...
*
History of molecular theory In chemistry, the history of molecular theory traces the origins of the concept or idea of the existence of Covalent bond, strong chemical bonds between two or more atoms. A modern conceptualization of molecules began to develop in the 19th centu ...
*
Physical crystallography before X-rays Physical crystallography before X-rays describes how physical crystallography developed as a science up to the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895. In the period before X-rays, crystallography can be divided into three broad are ...
*
Timeline of chemistry This timeline of chemistry lists important works, discoveries, ideas, inventions, and experiments that significantly changed humanity's understanding of the modern science known as chemistry, defined as the scientific study of the composition of ...
* Timeline of crystallography


Citations


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Crystallography, state=collapsed Crystallography History of chemistry History of crystallography