Abstract
SOON after the classification of the chemical elements by Lavoisier, and the decomposition of the alkalis by Davy, the latter, in 1812, suggested that the “undecompounded substances” may be composed of hydrogen “with another principle yet unknown in the separate form”. If we identify this principle with the electron, we have in this speculation (not mentioned in the present Alembic Club Reprint) an anticipation of the modern theory of atomic structure as striking as the prediction of isotopes by Crookes in 1886, and of the packing effect by Marignac in 1860. The logical development of Davy's idea was found in the papers of Prout (1815–1816), which are reprinted in the present volume, suggesting that atomic weights are whole multiples of that of hydrogen, and that “we may almost consider the πρώτη ϋλη of the ancients to be realised in hydrogen”.
Prout's Hypothesis.
Papers by Dr. William Prout (1815–16), J. S. Stas (1860) and C. Marignac (1860). (Alembic Club Reprints, No. 20.) Pp. 58. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd; London: Gurney and Jackson, 1932.) 2s. 6d. net.
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Prout's Hypothesis . Nature 131, 152 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131152a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131152a0