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The Bakerian Lecture: On the Diffusion of Liquids, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 140, 1850, pp. 1-46. [1st edition extract: COLLOID CHEMISTRY, FOUNDATIONAL WORK]

Graham, Thomas

ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION EXTRACT OF THE FOUNDATIONAL WORK INTRODUCING THE CONCEPTS OF COLLOID CHEMISTRY. The Scottish chemist Thomas Graham “has generally been acknowledged as the founder of colloidal chemistry” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, V). Two minor supplementary observation papers were also published and are not included here.

Prior to this work, Graham’s concentration had primarily been on the diffusion of gases and on polybasic compounds. However in 1849, he began to apply “to liquids the exact method of inquiry he had applied to gases twenty years before, and he succeeded in placing the subject of liquid diffusion on about the same footing as that to which he had raised the subject of gaseous diffusion prior to the discovery of his numerical law. He showed that the rate of diffusion was approximately proportional to the concentration of the original solution, increased with rise in temperature, and was almost constant for groups of chemically similar salts at equal absolute (not molecular) concentrations and different with different groups. He believed that liquid diffusion was similar to gaseous diffusion and vaporization with dilute solutions, but with concentrated solutions he noted a departure from the ideal relationship, similar to that in gases approaching liquefaction under pressure” (DSB).

Graham proposed the name ‘colloid’; kola in Greek means glue. Item #642

CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Taylor & Francis. 4to. Extracted from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Volume 140, 1850. 11 x 8.75 inches. Complete. Clean and bright. Near fine condition in every way.

Price: $125.00