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Nuffield Foundation
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The Discovery of the Inert Gases
This is one of the 14 Background Books published for Stage III of the Nuffield Chemistry Sample Scheme. The books were highly illustrated and designed to be attractive. This book is historical and traces the discovery of the group of elements that we now call the ‘noble gases’.
There are three parts to this book:
*Part 1: Bunsen and Kirchhof
The development of the Bunsen burner, flame tests and the use of spectroscopy in chemical analysis leading to the discovery of new elements. The discovery of helium on the Sun.
*Part 2: Rayleigh and Ramsay
Routes to the discovery of argon.
*Part 3: More new gases
The discovery of helium on Earth. The separation and identification of krypton, neon and xenon. The characterisation of radon from radium. The discovery of fluorine compounds of xenon. Uses of the inert gases.
This book was published in 1968 but tells a good story that is still worth reading with good links to the study of the periodic table, atomic spectra and the study of how science works.
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