The Chemical Works of Carl Wilhelm Scheele

This brief draws on the first modern book about Carl Wilhelm Scheele which was published in Swedish in 2015. Following an introduction and bibliography of Scheele’s published works, the author analyses Scheele’s publications paragraph by paragraph, explaining the procedures and the results in modern terms, and summarising and elucidating Scheele’s conclusions. Up until now the original works by Scheele have only in part been translated into English, and to get a complete view of Scheele’s work, knowledge of both Swedish and German was required. This brief opens up the important work of Carl Wilhelm Scheele to an international audience of historians of chemistry, students of history of chemistry and interested chemists. 

Anders Lennartson obtained his PhD from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2009. The thesis focused on absolute asymmetric synthesis, i.e. synthesis of optically active compounds using no optically active precursors. According to most textbooks, this synthesis was considered impossible. However, by employing a crystalisation technique known as total spontaneous resolution, Anders became the first to optically resolve five- and seven-coordinate metal complexes. Since then, Anders has worked at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense, Denmark), the Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) and the University of Gothenburg.

Over the past years, Anders has also become interested in the history of chemistry, paying special attention to the history of Swedish chemistry and the history of stereochemistry.