Plot Synopsis
Jaffe introduces us to the alchemists of old, those men who worked feverishly over crucibles and retorts in the ultimately unsuccessful quest to transmute base metals to lead. Their efforts were not without vain - for Jaffe describes the methods and discoveries made along the way. Marching forward through time, Jaffe introduces the reader to both the famous - the likes of Lavoisier and Marie Curie - and the less famous, including Berzelius and Wohler. Crucibles is in essence a series of stand-alone chapters which each detail the life and work of a particular chemist and their contemporaries.
Brian's Review
As a chemistry student I've heard many of my professors go on about their favorite heroes of chemistry and of the giants of the field. Unfortunately, most of these individuals are of the last fifty years, a hundred at most. In truth, many of the great fundamental discoveries were made before this time and Jaffe delves deeply into personal stories of these early chemists. Originally published in 1930 (!) and subsequently updated to account for the 'modern' era (i.e. the 50's), Crucibles reads like a fiction novel with excellent prose and quirky details of the private lives of the most celebrated (and also unheard of) chemists.
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