INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF 'A CONTRIBUTION TO CHEMICAL STATICS' BY LEOPOLD PFAUNDLER A Forgotten Classic of Chemical Kinetics

摘要

The central importance of Leopold Pfaundler's pioneer-ing 1867 paper on the application of the kinetic theory of heat to chemical reactions and the desirability of a long-overdue English translation of the same have already been commented on in the introduction to the recently published English translation of August Horst-mann's equally important paper of 1873 dealing with the first application of the second law of thermodynam-ics to the theory of chemical equilibrium (1). Since this same introduction also reviewed the current status of English-language translations of classic chemical papers in general, and a paper dealing with both Pfaundler's life and the Context of his contribution will appear in the next issue of the Bulletin (2), all that remains for this introduction is to deal with the technicalities of the translation process itself.