Ferrocene: Ironclad History or Rashomon Tale?

What really happened? To recount a pivotal 20th century chemical discovery, the assignment of its structure to ferrocene, ain't easy! One might have thought that telling the story would be straightforward, from published papers and correspondence with some of their authors. Not so. One emerges...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2000-01, Vol.39 (1), p.123-124
Main Authors: Laszlo, Pierre, Hoffmann, Roald
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ferrocene
history of chemistry
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:What really happened? To recount a pivotal 20th century chemical discovery, the assignment of its structure to ferrocene, ain't easy! One might have thought that telling the story would be straightforward, from published papers and correspondence with some of their authors. Not so. One emerges with a good bit of sympathy for historians of science—who did just what and why is pretty hard to determine, even when less than fifty years have elapsed.
ISSN:1433-7851
1521-3773
DOI:10.1002/(SICI)1521-3773(20000103)39:1<123::AID-ANIE123>3.0.CO;2-Z