The depiction of chemistry on stamps began in 1923 with the issue of a set of definitive French stamps commemorating the chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. [1] Another early chemical stamp depicted the botanist and chemist Herman Boerhaave. [2] The depiction of chemistry on stamps contributes to chemical education [3] [4] and to the public understanding of science. [5] [6]
A chemical stamp has one or more of the following characteristics:
Stamps may depict a specific area of chemistry such as physical, analytical, [11] spectroscopic, [12] organic, [13] or inorganic.
The following types of material are excluded (although they may also be collected by chemical stamp enthusiasts):
Stamps depicting individual chemists are often issued by countries to commemorate the birth or death anniversaries of their significant national chemists, [16] for example stamps issued by Russia celebrating Dmitri Mendeleev. Examples are illustrated in the gallery above. Some countries have also issued stamps depicting internationally famous chemists such as Marie Curie [17] [18] or Alfred Nobel.
Stamps depicting a chemical concept or object, sometimes combined with a portrait of the chemist responsible for inventing the concept or object, are generally issued as commemorative stamps rather than definitive stamps. Examples are shown in the gallery above: a 1951 American stamp illustrating chemical industry and also celebrating the diamond jubilee of the American Chemical Society, [10] a 1971 Russian stamp illustrating Rutherford Scattering, a 1976 American stamp depicting Laboratory glassware, and a 1979 German stamp illustrating nuclear fission and also commemorating Otto Hahn's 1944 Nobel prize in chemistry.
Stamps depicting a chemical symbol or formula are frequently depicted together with the chemist they are primarily associated with. Examples are shown in the gallery above: a 1964 German stamp illustrating the benzene structure associated with August Kekulé, a 1965 Russian stamp commemorating the 1965 IUPAC meeting in Moscow, a 2008 Uzbeki stamp illustrating the element gold, a 2011 Romanian stamp depicting the electron structure of Tellurium and the chemist F.J. Müller, and a 2011 Indonesian stamp issued for the International Year of Chemistry.
The chemists Edgar Heilbronner and Foil Miller published the book A philatelic ramble through chemistry in 1998 (reissued in 2004) [19] which was well reviewed. [20] [21] [22] [23] Prior to this, Foil Miller and George Kauffman had published a series of articles on Alfred Nobel, and on Nobel Laureates in Chemistry in The Journal of Chemical Education . [24] [25] [26] [27]
Daniel Rabinovich is the current leading writer in the field having published articles on the International Year of Chemistry, [17] the International System of Units, [28] the International Year of the Periodic Table, [29] Roald Hoffmann, [30] and also making presentations on the subject to chemistry departments and at chemistry conferences. [31]
The Chemistry and Physics on Stamps Study Unit (CPOSSU) of the American Topical Association has published a members' journal Philatelia Chimica et Physica since 1979. [32]
Listings of new issues of chemical stamps are included in the monthly Scott Stamp magazine and in Linn's Stamp News; they are also available online from October 2010 to date in the Science & Technology section. [33]
Friedrich Wöhler FRS(For) HonFRSE was a German chemist known for his work in both organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the first to prepare several inorganic compounds, including silane and silicon nitride.
Gilbert Newton Lewis was an American physical chemist and a dean of the college of chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. Lewis was best known for his discovery of the covalent bond and his concept of electron pairs; his Lewis dot structures and other contributions to valence bond theory have shaped modern theories of chemical bonding. Lewis successfully contributed to chemical thermodynamics, photochemistry, and isotope separation, and is also known for his concept of acids and bases. Lewis also researched on relativity and quantum physics, and in 1926 he coined the term "photon" for the smallest unit of radiant energy.
Roald Hoffmann is a Polish-American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He has also published plays and poetry. He is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at Cornell University.
Ira Remsen was an American chemist who discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin along with Constantin Fahlberg. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University.
Theodore William Richards was an American physical chemist and the first American scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, earning the award "in recognition of his exact determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of the chemical elements."
Trimyristin is a saturated fat and the triglyceride of myristic acid with the chemical formula C45H86O6. Trimyristin is a white to yellowish-gray solid that is insoluble in water, but soluble in ethanol, acetone, benzene, chloroform, dichloromethane, ether, and TBME.
Ida Noddack, néeTacke, was a German chemist and physicist. In 1934 she was the first to mention the idea later named nuclear fission. With her husband Walter Noddack, and Otto Berg, she discovered element 75, rhenium. She was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
George Bernard Kauffman was an American chemist.
Cläre Hunsdiecker (née Dieckmann) (1903–1995) was a German chemist who worked with her husband Heinz Hunsdiecker (1904–1981) to improve a reaction of Alexander Borodin now known as the Hunsdiecker reaction. They received both US and German patents for the work.
Edgar Heilbronner was a Swiss German chemist. In 1964 he published the concept of Möbius cyclic annulenes, but the first Möbius aromatic was not synthesized until 2003.
Philippe A. Guye FRS was a Swiss chemist who was awarded the Davy Medal in 1921 "for his researches in physical chemistry".
The International Year of Chemistry 2011 was a year-long commemorative event for the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to humankind. The recognition for chemistry was made official by the United Nations in December 2008. Events for the year were coordinated by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
Niels Janniksen Bjerrum was a Danish chemist.
Foil Allan Miller was an American chemist and philatelist best known for his work in infrared and Raman spectroscopy. He was head of the spectroscopy division of the Mellon Institute and later professor and head of the spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. Among other publications, he co-authored the books Course Notes on the Interpretation of Infrared and Raman Spectra (2004) and A Philatelic Ramble Through Chemistry (1998).
Jeffrey I. Seeman is a historian of science, chemist, and Visiting Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. He is the editor of 20+ volumes in the series Profiles, pathways and dreams : autobiographies of eminent chemists. In addition to writing extensively as both a scientist and historian, he has produced short films for historical and educational use.
Ralph Edward Oesper was an American chemist and historian of chemistry. He is noted for his biographies of scientists, emphasizing their personal lives in addition to their scientific contributions. Oesper translated significant works in the field of chemistry to various languages especially English. As an independent investigator, he developed improved analytical methods. These contributions included new reagents for certain types of titrations. One such new reagent, Oesper's Salt, is named after him.
Ilya Ilich Chernyaev was a Russian and Soviet chemist who worked on inorganic chemistry and identified what is termed in coordination chemistry as the trans effect. He was a specialist on the refining of rhodium, palladium, platinum and other precious metals.
Henry Marshall Leicester was an American biochemist and historian of chemistry.
The depiction of mathematics on stamps began in 1923 with the issue of a set of three Polish stamps commemorating the 450th birth anniversary of the astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus. As the definition of what constitutes a valid mathematical stamp is not universally agreed, some collectors make the case that the first mathematical stamp was the 1847 United States issue depicting the polymath Benjamin Franklin even though he was not primarily a mathematician; others prefer to recognize the 1926 German Leibniz stamp as the first depicting a mathematician.
The depiction of crystallography on stamps began in 1939 with the issue of a Danzig stamp commemorating Wilhelm Röntgen who discovered X-rays. Crystallographic stamps contribute to crystallography education and to the public understanding of science.
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