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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Letter from Meyer Wilderman, on his paper 'Chemical dynamics and statics in light' to Joseph Larmor

Reference number: RR/15/402

Date: 05 April 1902

Description

Sectional committee: not stated

Sends Larmor the letter from Professor [Jacobus Henricus] Van 't Hoff and a translation of the same [appended here]. When he left his manuscript with Larmor, he shortened part of it in accordance with Van 't Hoff's instruction. Asks for the return of Van 't Hoff's original letter as it is of great value to him.

Appended to this letter is the translation of Van 't Hoff's letter, dated 14 August 1901. Van 't Hoff perused Wilderman's paper as far as time allowed him and his objection is that the mathematical deductions go much further than the experiments. He would publish only that which is confirmed by experiment. Van 't Hoff shared the conception Wilderman proposes, that the action of a constant source of light consists in the gradual variation of the potentials of the substances which are sensitive for the same, till potential reaches a definite value. For dilute purposes this ultimately leads to the result that the constant of equilibrium becomes of another value as Wilderman pronounced. If Van 't Hoff had to investigate he would in the first instance look to the connection between the variation of the constant of equilibrium and the intensity of light. Also draws Wilderman's attention to the work of Luther in this region.

[Published in Philosophical Transactions A, 1902].

Reference number
RR/15/402
Earliest possible date
05 April 1902
Physical description
Letter on paper
Page extent
3 pages
Format
Manuscript

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Citation

Letter from Meyer Wilderman, on his paper 'Chemical dynamics and statics in light' to Joseph Larmor, 05 April 1902, RR/15/402, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_15_402/letter-from-meyer-wilderman-on-his-paper-chemical-dynamics-and-statics-in-light-to-joseph-larmor, accessed on 02 December 2024

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