12: Modern Structural Inorganic Chemistry (1958)

Liversidge Research Lecture delivered before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 29th July, 1958. Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of New South Wales from J. Proc Roy. Soc. N.S.W., 1958, 92, 25-35."In the solid state chemistry is three-dimensional, and structural chemistry is concerned primarily with the arrangements of atoms, their motions relative to one another and the forces which exist between them. It deals with organization rather than with transient phenomena. Two ideas represent turning points in the history of chemistry, and it is significant that in each the third dimension was introduced.