Chemistry and Physics Article

"I am among those who think that science has great beauty." -Marie Curie

While an exceptional science collection can encompass an almost limitless range of books, new collectors often choose to begin their collections in two fields: chemistry and physics. Chemistry and physics are the archetypes. They are the fields in which the scientific method was used first and most successfully. They are the field in which the most famous names in science - Boyle, Newton, Einstein - did their experiments and made their world-changing breakthroughs.

Chemistry is the "central science," the connector, linking every other natural science through its experiment-based analysis of the structure of objects and the properties of matter.

Though chemistry largely began in Ancient Egypt, most chemistry collectors' libraries begin with a 17th-century scientist named Robert Boyle. His 1662 law on gases, known as Boyle's law, is a crucial part of the field, even today. Beyond his findings, Boyle's lab procedure opened the door to others. He showed his contemporaries how to be chemists. Joseph Priestley followed in 1772 with his Observations on Different Kinds of Air, an important follow-up to Boyle's research. In 1784, Cavendish deduced that water was made from hydrogen and oxygen and continued the experimental trend.

However, Boyle's true successor was John Dalton, the finest chemist of the early 19th century. He wrote a number of important papers, but perhaps none so important as an unassuming 1805 article called, "On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids," which contained the first description and list of 21 atomic weights. In 1808, he wrote a book called A New System of Chemical Philosophy, which provided a brilliant and clear atomic theory of matter.

A century later, Rutherford and Soddy proved that radioactivity was an atomic phenomenon, grounded in atomic theory, and modern chemistry was born.

It was Dalton's and Rutherford's work that allowed for the entanglement of physics and chemistry. Finally, chemistry offered physics a theoretical basis. From that time forward, many of the best chemists had a second home in physics. No matter what the focus of a science collection, chemistry is a seamless fit.

As chemistry has Boyle, physics has Newton. Newton was a devoted scientist, researching in areas such as optics and producing crucial work. His most important contribution came when he challenged the mechanical tradition established by Descartes. Newton set out to find a way to describe universal motion through mathematics. The result was articulated in three laws of motion and one law of gravitation, set forth in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy the most important physics book of the 17th century.

In fact, the next monumental physics discoveries would not come until the 18th and 19th century when physicists set out to conquer the subject of electricity. Within the space of a few decades, Joseph Priestley, Benjamin Franklin, and Michael Faraday all set out to explain what electricity was and how to harness its power. Their writings on the subject are among the most collectible books in science. It was James Maxwell's A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, published in 1873, that presented the idea that light and electricity were the same in their ultimate nature. The theory proved crucial to physics and would be the keystone for nearly every theory that followed.

Many collectors choose to focus solely on Einstein, with a huge body of work in two languages that spans all price ranges and subject areas including physics, philosophy, and politics. From the first articulation of the general theory of relativity in Annalen der Physick to his thoughts on world peace, Einstein presents unique and interesting collecting opportunities. He was also responsible, perhaps more than any other scientist of the 20th century, for advancing the progress of physics. No physics collection could be complete without Einstein.

However, the 20th century in physics also included quantum theory, greater understandings of radioactivity, and application of physics theory through the development of space flight and the atomic bomb. Böhr, Heisenberg, Fermi, and Born all produced the sort of crucial work that made the century come to life. They left it to the theoretical physicists of the next generation - Feynman, Hawking, and others - to carry it on.

As a collector, the potential in physics and chemistry is endless. Books, journal articles, and offprints contain a history of progress, a roadmap of where science has been and where it could go.