Classic Papers (alphabetical)

	Selected Classic Papers
	from the
	History of Chemistry

Alphabetical list by author. See main classics paper page for biographical links and further information.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Corbin Allardice and Edward R. Trapnell (1949): first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (at ChemTeam site)
Aristotle: On Generation and Corruption, Book II, on elements (at Internet Classics Archive at MIT).
Svante Arrhenius: 1887 paper on electrolyte solutions (at ChemTeam site)
Svante Arrhenius: 1889 paper on temperature dependence of reaction rate.
Svante Arrhenius, on the greenhouse effect (1896)
Francis Aston (1919): mass spectra, isotopes.
Francis Aston on mass spectra of isotopes (1920) (at ChemTeam site).
Amedeo Avogadro, Journal de Physique (1811)
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Francis Bacon (1620): Before caloric and the kinetic theory, Bacon reviewed a wide range of thoughts and observations about heat.
Johann Balmer: from 1885 paper on regularities in wavelength of lines of the hydrogen spectrum.
Henri Becquerel, discovery of radioactivity 1896.
Marcellin Berthelot on atoms, equivalents, and notation (1877): response to an article by Marignac.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787).
Jöns Jacob Berzelius on the atomic hypothesis and some difficulties with it (1813).
Jöns Jacob Berzelius on chemical symbols and formulas (1814).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Niels Bjerrum: 1909 paper on solutions of strong electrolytes (at ChemTeam site)
Joseph Black (1756). Reactions involving carbonates and their release of "fixed air" (carbon dioxide).
Joseph Black: 1803 (posthumous) paper on heat distinguished between heat and temperature and described specific heat and latent heat.
Niels Bohr: 1913 excerpt on hydrogen spectrum.
Niels Bohr: his model of the atom, 1913 (at ChemTeam site).
Niels Bohr: 1921 excerpt on the "correspondence principle" of quantum theory.
Niels Bohr: electron configurations and atomic structure (1921, at ChemTeam site).
Niels Bohr: liquid drop model of fission (1939, at ChemTeam site).
Roger Boscovich: excerpts from a 1763 treatise on atoms as point-like centers of force (at ChemTeam site).
Robert Boyle: The Sceptical Chymist (1661), page images at University of Pennsylvania; HTML excerpts here; annotations [pdf] here.
Robert Boyle on Boyle's law (1662) at ChemTeam site.
Robert Boyle, on combustion (1672).
Frederick S. Brackett: 1922 paper contains a new series of hydrogen spectral lines (now known as the Brackett series), at ChemTeam site.
Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George Murphy: 1932 paper announcing detection of a heavy isotope of hydrogen, H² (reprinted with permission of the American Physical Society).
J. N. Brønsted: 1923 paper on acids and bases (at ChemTeam site)
Harriet Brooks: 1904 description of a volatile radioactive product from radium, at UCLA.
Robert Brown on Brownian Movement (1829, at ChemTeam site.)
Eduard Buchner (1897) on alcoholic fermentation without yeast cells, implicating an enzyme (at Athel Cornish-Bowden's website at the Laboratoire de Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Proteines).
Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen: bright-line flame spectra (at ChemTeam site).
Charles R. Bury (1921) on the arrangement of electrons in atoms (at ChemTeam site).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Stanislao Cannizzaro (1858): outline of a course in chemical philosophy (at ChemTeam site).
Sadi Carnot: Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire (or "of heat" as this translation has it), 1824 (at the Steam Engine Library at the University of Rochester)
Henry Cavendish on the "phlogisticated" part of the atmosphere.
James Chadwick: 1932 letter and detailed paper proposing the neutron (at ChemTeam site).
Sydney Chapman, excerpted from "A Theory of Upper-Atmospheric Ozone", by Sydney Chapman, Memoirs of the Royal Meteorological Society 3 (26) 103-25 (1930). Copyright ©1930. Posted with the permission of the Royal Meteorological Society.
Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1814) on a new fat called margarine.
Rudolf Clausius: excerpts from two papers on entropy. The first (1850) notes that heat is not indestructible, and examines how it can be converted to work with the flow of heat from a warm body to a cold; the second (1865) coins the term entropy and states the second law of thermodynamics.
Rudolf Clausius: 1857 paper on the kinetic theory of gases; derives expressions for the pressure of a gas based from analysis of collisions for average molecular speeds.
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton: 1932 paper on the disintegration of lithium by fast protons: artificial transmutation (Nature's physics portal).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Archibald Scott Couper: 1858 paper on structural formulas.
James Watson and Francis Crick (1953): structure of DNA (Nature's physics portal).
Paul Crutzen, "The influence of nitrogen oxides on the atmospheric ozone content", by Paul J. Crutzen, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 96, 320-325 (1970). (Copyright ©1970. Posted with the permission of the author, the Royal Meteorological Society, and the Journal.)
Marie Curie on radioactivity (1898).
Pierre and Marie Curie: 1898 announcement of polonium.
Pierre and Marie Curie and G. Bémont: 1898 announcement of radium.
John Dalton on gases of the atmosphere (read 1802).
John Dalton: 1803 article including Dalton's first table of atomic weights
John Dalton, excerpts from A New System of Chemistry (1808) on heat and matter.
John Dalton, excerpts from A New System of Chemistry (1808) on atomic hypothesis.
Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer: 1927 paper on the diffraction of electrons (at Nature's physics portal).
Humphry Davy: on heat and friction (1799).
Humphry Davy isolates sodium and potassium (1808, at ChemTeam site).
Humphry Davy early paper on chlorine and its compounds (1811, at ChemTeam site).
Humphry Davy: 1812 paper searching for analogies among elements.
John Davy: 1812 paper describes preparation of phosgene and possibly urea (several years before Wöhler).
Peter Debye: excerpt of 1920 paper explaining the origin of cohesive forces in a van der Waals gas (at ChemTeam site).
P. Debye & E. Hückel on colligative properties of electrolyte solutions (1923, at ChemTeam site)
Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner: 1829 paper on triads of analogous elements.
Pierre-Louis Dulong & Alexis-Thérèse Petit: 1819 on heat capacities of elements.
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas and Justus von Liebig (1837): compound radicals in organic chemistry.
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas on acetic acid and trichloroacetic acid (1839) and chemical types.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit: several liquids to boil at constant temperatures (1724)
Kasimir Fajans: 1913 paper on the radioactive displacement law and isotopes (at ChemTeam site).
Michael Faraday on the liquefaction of chlorine (1823, at ChemTeam site.)
Michael Faraday: excerpt of 1834 paper "On Electrical Decomposition" (at ChemTeam site)
Michael Faraday: on the condition of the Thames (1855, at ChemTeam site).
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of A Candle, 1860 at Fordham.
Enrico Fermi: 1934 note suspects (incorrectly) production of transuranic elements by bombarding thorium and uranium with neutrons, later explained as nuclear fission (at Nature's physics portal).
Emil Fischer [pdf]: 1891 paper on the structure of glucose and other simple sugars, a landmark of stereochemical reasoning (at J. Michael McBride's site at Yale).
F. G. Banting, C. H. Best, J. B. Collip, W. R. Campbell, & A. A. Fletcher (1922): "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus" (at the James Lind Library).
Edward Frankland: complete 1852 paper on organometallic compounds includes statement of the concept of valence.
Benjamin Franklin on marsh gas.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787).
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch: 1939 paper on fission, at Nature's physics portal.
Otto Frisch: on fission (1939, at ChemTeam site).
Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac: 1802 excerpt on expansion of gases with temperature.
Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac on combining volumes (1808)
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Thenard (1809): on "oxygenated muriatic acid" (now known as chlorine)
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: "backscatter" of alpha particles (1909, at ChemTeam site).
Hans Geiger: from 1910 paper on scattering of alpha particles from gold foil, at ChemTeam site.
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: 1913 paper comparing backscatter of alpha particles to Rutherford's nuclear model (1913, at ChemTeam site).
Charles Gerhardt: 1853 excerpt on organic types.
Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer: 1927 paper on the diffraction of electrons (Nature's physics portal).
Josiah Willard Gibbs [pdf]: preface to Statistical Mechanics, published in 1902. (At American Institute of Physics.)
Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage on law of mass action (1864) (at ChemTeam site).
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1772) argues that there is nothing absurd about the weight of phlogiston.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787).
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann: 1939 papers reporting, at first tentatively then more definitely fission of uranium (at ChemTeam site).
M. L. Oliphant, P. Harteck, and Ernest Rutherford: 1934 note and more detailed paper from the Rutherford lab describe fusion ('transmutation') of deuterium (at ChemTeam site).
Heinrich Hlasiwetz and Josef Habermann (1873): analysis of proteins (caesin, in this excerpt)
Hermann von Helmholtz: lecture on Faraday and electricity (1881, at ChemTeam site).
Jan Baptista van Helmont: three short excerpts from the border of alchemy and chemistry.
John Herapath: excerpt of 1821 paper on kinetic theory of gases.
Germain Henri Hess: 1840 paper on heats of reaction (Hess's law), at ChemTeam site.
Heinrich Hlasiwetz and Josef Habermann (1873): analysis of proteins (caesin, in this excerpt)
August Wilhelm von Hofmann: 1851 excerpt on amines and organic ammonium compounds.
Franz Hofmeister (1902): structure of proteins, in particular the peptide bond.
P. Debye & E. Hückel on colligative properties of electrolyte solutions (1923, at ChemTeam site)
Jan Ingenhousz on photosynthesis (1779).
James Prescott Joule: note on mechanical equivalent of heat (1845, at ChemTeam site).
James Prescott Joule: 1851 estimate of the speed of a gas molecule.
G. N. Lewis and Michael Kasha (pdf): 1944 paper on phosphorescence and triplet electronic states (at Turro group's History of Photochemistry page)
August Kekule: excerpt of 1865 paper on the structure of aromatic compounds (at Rod Beavon's chemistry site).
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin of Largs): principles of an absolute thermodynamic scale of temperature (1848).
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin of Largs): 1852 formulation of the second law of thermodynamics and absolute temperature scale.
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin of Largs) (1865): an application of heat transfer to geology, leading Thomson to believe the earth is relatively young.
Baron Kelvin of Largs (William Thomson): 1902 excerpt speculating on how electrical charges might underlie properties of atoms.
Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen: bright-line flame spectra (at ChemTeam site).
W. Kossel: on bonding, periodic table, and atomic structure (1916, at ChemTeam site.)
Irving Langmuir on the octet theory (1919, at ChemTeam site, papers 1 and 2).
Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush on polarity, ionization, and hydrogen bonding (1920, at ChemTeam site).
Antoine Lavoisier on calcination (original 1775 text as well as the final 1778 revisions).
Antoine Lavoisier: Excerpts from three papers (1775-1777) on properties of oxygen (at ChemTeam site).
Antoine Lavoisier, explanation of combustion (1775).
Antoine Lavoisier on water (1783)
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Bertholet, and Antoine de Fourcroy: "A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature" from Method of Chymical Nomenclature (1787).
Antoine Lavoisier: Preface to Elements of Chemistry (1789)
Antoine Lavoisier: Table of elements from Elements of Chemistry (1789)
Antoine Lavoisier: on caloric and the three states of matter from Elements of Chemistry (1789)
Antoine Lavoisier: Oeuvres, (Paris, 1862-1893, 6 vols.): page images at Panopticon Lavoisier
Joseph Achille LeBel on tetrahedral carbon (1874, at ChemTeam site).
Henri Louis le Chatelier (1884): enunciates his principle concerning chemical equilibrium.
Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran: 1877 excerpt on discovery of gallium (at ChemTeam site).
Theodore W. Richards & Max E. Lembert: 1914 paper on atomic weights of lead found different atomic weights for lead of radioactive origin compared to "ordinary" lead; authors cautiously interpret the results as consistent with the concept of isotopes.
John Edward Lennard-Jones: 1929 paper on molecular orbital descriptions of diatomic molecules, including paramagnetism of oxygen (at ChemTeam site).
G. N. Lewis: 1916 paper on the electron pair bond (transcribed text at ChemTeam site, page images at Pauling Archives).
G. N. Lewis and Michael Kasha (pdf): 1944 paper on phosphorescence and triplet electronic states (at Turro group's History of Photochemistry page)
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas and Justus von Liebig (1837): compound radicals in organic chemistry.
Justus Liebig: Familiar Letters on Chemistry (1843) (at Peter Childs' site).
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
Johann Josef Loschmidt (1865): on size of air molecule (at ChemTeam site).
Lucretius, excerpts from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Full text at Internet Classics Archive; excerpts at ChemTeam site.
Pierre-Joseph Macquer: 1766 dictionary entries on aggregation (akin to modern atoms and molecules) and principles (akin to elements).
Jean Charles de Marignac (1860): commentary on the paper by J. S. Stas about Prout's hypothesis.
Jean Charles de Marignac on atoms, equivalents, and notation (1877): original article; a brief reply to a response by Berthelot.
Edme Mariotte (c. 1620-1684) on the relationship between air pressure and volume.
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: "backscatter" of alpha particles (1909, at ChemTeam site).
Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden: 1913 paper comparing backscatter of alpha particles to Rutherford's nuclear model (1913, at ChemTeam site).
James Clerk Maxwell: introduces Maxwell's "demon" (1872).
James Clerk Maxwell, on physical atomic-molecular theory (1873).
James Clerk Maxwell, on the kinetic molecular theory and its support for the molecular nature of matter (1875).
Julius Robert Mayer: on the conservation of energy
John Mayow: air contains at least two portions, one of which nurtures flame and supports respiration (1674).
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch: 1939 paper on fission, at ChemTeam site.
Dmitrii Mendeleev, first periodic table (1869)
Dmitrii Mendeleev, 1871 periodic table (at Pictorial Periodic Table site).
Dmitrii Mendeleev: excerpt from 1871 paper focuses on properties of the predicted element eka-boron, now known as scandium (at Rod Beavon's chemistry site).
Dmitrii Mendeleev, on periodic law (1889)
Dmitrii Mendeleev: "An Attempt Towards A Chemical Conception Of The Ether," an early 20th-century speculation envisioning the ether as the lightest of the inert gases (at Rex Research, a site devoted mainly to fringe science).
Leonor Michaelis and Maud Leonora Menten: 1913 paper on enzyme kinetics (invertase).
Julius Lothar Meyer, periodic table and figure of atomic volumes (1870).
Julius Lothar Meyer: excerpts from 1870 paper on periodicity of the elements (at Rod Beavon's chemistry site).
Leonor Michaelis and Maud Leonora Menten: 1913 paper on enzyme kinetics (invertase).
Robert Millikan: 1913 excerpt on the elementary electrical charge and Avogadro's constant (at American Institute of Physics Center for the History of Physics).
Henry Moseley on X-ray spectra and atomic number (1913, 1914) (at ChemTeam site).
Gerardus Johannes Mulder (1839): elemental analysis of proteins, coins term protein
Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George Murphy: 1932 paper announcing detection of a heavy isotope of hydrogen, H² (reprinted with permission of the American Physical Society).
Hantaro Nagaoka (1904): from Saturnian model of atomic structure, at ChemTeam site.
J. A. R. Newlands, classification of elements and law of octaves (1863, 1864, 1865, and 1866)
Isaac Newton, from the end of his Opticks (1704).
Lars Nilson: excerpts (1879, 1880) on the discovery of scandium (at ChemTeam site).
Ida Noddack: 1934 note critiques Fermi's conclusion that he had produced transuranic elements by bombarding thorium and uranium with neutrons.
M. L. Oliphant, P. Harteck, and Ernest Rutherford: 1934 note and more detailed paper from the Rutherford lab describe fusion ('transmutation') of deuterium (at ChemTeam site).
Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald on dilution law (1888, at ChemTeam site).
Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald on catalysis (1894, at ChemTeam site).
Paracelsus: on alchemy and metals (16th century, at ChemTeam site).
Louis Pasteur: 1860 lecture on optical rotation, crystal structure, and molecular asymmetry.
Louis Pasteur (1861) on alcoholic fermentation and beer yeast.
Louis Pasteur (1863): germs are implicated in putrefaction.
Louis Pasteur (1879): physiological theory of fermentation (at Internet Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham).
Wolfgang Pauli: 1925 paper on the fourth quantum number (at the ChemTeam site).
Linus Pauling (1931): "The nature of the chemical bond" (first paper in a series) describes hybrid orbitals (at Pauling archive, Oregon State University).
Linus Pauling (1932): on the continuum between covalent and ionic bonds (at Pauling archive, Oregon State University).
Linus Pauling (1932): Pauling's electronegativity scale and its relationship to bond energies (at Pauling archive, Oregon State University).
Jean Perrin collects cathode rays (1895, at ChemTeam site).
Jean Perrin (1909): excerpt on Brownian movement, including an esimation of Avogadro's number.
Pierre-Louis Dulong & Alexis-Thérèse Petit: 1819 on heat capacities of elements.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, volumes 50-67 (1757-77: page images at the Internet Library of Early Journals, Bodelian Library, Oxford University
Max Planck (1920): on the quantum of action.
Agnes Pockels: on surface properties of water (at Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics site, UCLA).
Joseph Priestley on making carbonated water (1772, at ChemTeam site.)
Joseph Priestley on dephlogisticated air.
Joseph Priestley (1789) on burning hydrogen in oxygen.
Joseph Priestley: Considerations on the Doctrine of Phlogiston and the Decomposition of Water, 1796.
Joseph Louis Proust (1799): on definite proportions of copper carbonate.
Joseph Louis Proust (1806): reserves the word compound for materials with definite proportions.
William Prout, on "Prout's hypothesis" (1815-16).
William Prout (1827): analysis, classification, and organization of bio-organic materials.
Chandrasekhara V. Raman & K. S. Krishnan: 1928 paper on the Raman effect (posted by Jim Holler).
William Ramsay on noble gases in periodic table (1897).
William Ramsay & Frederick Soddy: 1903 investigation on radium emanation and the evolution of helium from radium and its emanation.
François-Marie Raoult: 1882 paper on freezing point depression.
François-Marie Raoult: 1887 paper on the lowering of vapor pressure.
Lord Rayleigh, on puzzling anomalies in the density of nitrogen (1892).
Lord Rayleigh on discovery of argon.
Johann Christian Reil: "On the Vital Force" (1796).
Jean Rey on calcination of tin and lead (1630).
Theodore W. Richards & Max E. Lembert: 1914 paper on atomic weights of lead found different atomic weights for lead of radioactive origin compared to "ordinary" lead; authors cautiously interpret the results as consistent with the concept of isotopes.
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush on polarity, ionization, and hydrogen bonding (1920, at ChemTeam site).
Wilhelm Röntgen, discovery of X-rays (1895)
Count Rumford (Benjamin Thomson) on heat and boring cannons (1798, at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1899 distinguishes alpha from beta radiation (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1900 paper introduces radioactive half-life (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford & Frederick Soddy: 1902 paper proposes (in final section) radioactive transformation
Ernest Rutherford and T. Royds: 1909 paper identifying the alpha particle.
Ernest Rutherford: 1911 abstract proposing nuclear model of the atom (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1911 paper proposing nuclear model of the atom (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1914 paper on the nuclear model of the atom (at ChemTeam site).
Ernest Rutherford: 1919 paper describing the disintegration of nitrogen nuclei under bombardment by alpha particles.
Ernest Rutherford: 1920 lecture on nuclear structure.
M. L. Oliphant, P. Harteck, and Ernest Rutherford: 1934 note and more detailed paper from the Rutherford lab describe fusion ('transmutation') of deuterium (at ChemTeam site).
Carl Wilhelm Scheele prepares and describes chlorine (1774).
Carl Wilhelm Scheele: excerpts on gases from Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire (1777), including recognition that common air is not a single substance and preparation and properties of "fire-air" (oxygen)
John Slater (1931): introduces hybrid orbitals in the context of tetrahedral carbon compounds (at the Pauling archive, Oregon State University)
Ernest Rutherford & Frederick Soddy: 1902 paper proposes (in final section) radioactive transformation
William Ramsay & Frederick Soddy: 1903 investigation on radium emanation and the evolution of helium from radium and its emanation.
Frederick Soddy: 1913; displacement law and "non-separable" elements.
Frederick Soddy: 1913 paper introduces the term "isotopes".
Frederick Soddy: 1913; discusses isotopes and the displacement law
Sören Sörensen: pH scale (excerpt 1909) (at ChemTeam site)
Georg Ernst Stahl: three short passages from the father of phlogiston.
Jean S. Stas on atomic weights and Prout's hypothesis (1860).
Edmund C. Stoner: 1924 paper on electron configurations (at ChemTeam site).
George Johnstone Stoney (1894): electric charge comes in discrete packages; proposes the term "electron" (at ChemTeam site).
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann: 1939 papers reporting, at first tentatively then more definitely fission of uranium (at ChemTeam site).
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Thenard (1809): on "oxygenated muriatic acid" (now known as chlorine)
Louis-Jacques Thenard: 1819 paper announces discovery of hydrogen peroxide
Silvanus Thompson on X-rays and phosphorescence (1896).
Benjamin Thomson (Count Rumford) on heat and boring cannons (1798, at ChemTeam site).
J. J. Thomson, discovery of the electron (1897).
J. J. Thomson: 1899 paper giving mass of electron (at ChemTeam site).
J. J. Thomson: "plum pudding" model (at ChemTeam site).
J. J. Thomson: 1906 excerpt on the number of electrons in an atom (at ChemTeam site).
J. J. Thomson: Nobel Prize Address, (1906).
J. J. Thomson: on the positive rays of electric discharge tubes (1913).
Thomas Thomson: excerpts from A System of Chemistry (1807) that represent the first public explanation of Dalton's atomic ideas (at ChemTeam site).
Thomas Thomson: 1808 paper on oxalic acid and oxalates relevant to law of multiple proportions and atomic hypothesis (at ChemTeam site).
Thomas Thomson, "On the Daltonian Theory of Definite Proportions in Chemical Combinations" (1813).
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin of Largs): principles of an absolute thermodynamic scale of temperature (1848).
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin of Largs): 1852 formulation of the second law of thermodynamics.
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin of Largs) (1865): an application of heat transfer to geology.
Baron Kelvin of Largs (William Thomson): 1902 paper speculating on how electrical charges might underlie properties of atoms.
Evangelista Torricelli on the barometer (1644).
Moritz Traube (1858) on the chemical nature of ferments and putrefaction.
Mikhail Tswett: excerpts from two 1906 papers on chromatographic method and plant pigments.
Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George Murphy: 1932 paper announcing detection of a heavy isotope of hydrogen, H² (reprinted with permission of the American Physical Society).
A. van den Broek: on numbering the elements (1911 and 1913) (at ChemTeam site)
Jacobus van't Hoff on tetrahedral carbon (1874, at ChemTeam site).
Jacobus van't Hoff on osmotic pressure (1887, at ChemTeam site).
S. E. Virgo: 1933 review article on Loschmidt's number. (at Thomas Furtsch's, Tennessee Technological University)
Alessandro Volta: on the battery, 1800 (at ChemTeam site).
Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage on law of mass action (1864) (at ChemTeam site).
A. D. Walsh, R. Robinson, C. A. McDowell, and J.W. Linnett (separately) on bonding in cyclopropane, 1947 (Daniel Berger, Bluffton College)
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton: 1932 paper on the disintegration of lithium by fast protons: artificial transmutation (Nature's physics portal).
James Watson and Francis Crick (1953): structure of DNA.
Richard Watson: 1789 paper on the properties of phlogiston. [transcribed by Joel Benington, St. Bonaventure University]
James Watt on water,1784.
William Whewell: excerpt from 1840 paper expressing positivist skepticism about atomic theory.
Alexander Williamson: synthesis of ether and structure of ethers and alcohols (1850).
Clemens Winkler: excerpts (1886) on the discovery of germanium (at ChemTeam site).
Ludwig Wilhelmy (1850): chemical kinetic rate law of acid-catalyzed inversion of sucrose.
Friedrich Wöhler: synthesis of urea (at ChemTeam site).
William Hyde Wollaston: 1808 analytical paper relevant to law of multiple proportions and atomic hypothesis (at ChemTeam site)
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz on amines and their relation to ammonia (1849).
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz on the Karlsruhe Congress, 1860.
Pieter Zeeman on Zeeman effect (1897) (at ChemTeam site).

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