This is Paper 2 in the 27‐paper series on the history of the development of the Woodward‐Hoffmann rules. Paper 2 takes the reader back to the 1950s and early 1960s, before the publication of the first Woodward‐Hoffmann paper in January 1965. The scope of the pericyclic no‐mechanism problem is described along with many of the key “hints” or “clues” to orbital symmetry control that were available in the literature prior to 1965. A chronology of reactions with alternating stereospecificities is provided. A second chronology of alternating theoretical hints is provided, e. g., 4 n +2 versus 4 n . Another chronology is provided, that of the development of frontier molecular orbital theory, with and without phases and nodes. A tabulation is provided of 36 instances in which the MOs of 1,3‐butadiene were reported in the literature. A knowledge of the MOs of 1,3‐butadiene, plus a knowledge of some of the alternating stereospecific reactions, could have led many chemists to the solution of the pericyclic no‐mechanism problem before Woodward and Hoffmann.
...MoreReview Arthur Greenberg (2022) Review of "History of the Woodward‐Hoffmann Rules. The No‐Mechanism Puzzle**". Bulletin for the History of Chemistry (pp. 260-262).
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2023)
“The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth:” Writing the History of the Woodward-Hoffmann Rules
(/isis/citation/CBB187386338/)
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2015)
Woodward-Hoffmann's Stereochemistry of Electrocyclic Reactions: From Day 1 to the JACS Receipt Date (May 5, 1964 to November 30, 1964)
(/isis/citation/CBB013818274/)
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2023)
The Back Story: KC, EJ, and Arbie. Three Generations of Eminent Synthetic Organic Chemists
(/isis/citation/CBB238116652/)
Article
Kaspar F. Burri;
Richard J. Friary;
(2019)
A school for synthesis: R. B. Woodward and the Woodward Research Institute remembered
(/isis/citation/CBB705117748/)
Article
Kaspar F. Burri;
Richard J. Friary;
(2020)
Liberating R. B. Woodward and the Woodward Research Institute from Error
(/isis/citation/CBB720615930/)
Chapter
Andrew Streitwieser;
(2015)
Hydrogen Isotopes in Physical Organic Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB214171595/)
Article
Kauffman, George B.;
(2004)
Robert B. Woodward: Organic Synthesizer par excellence---On the 25th Anniversary of His Death
(/isis/citation/CBB001252538/)
Thesis
Slater, Leo B.;
(1997)
Organic synthesis and R.B. Woodward: An historical study in the chemical sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001566023/)
Article
Reinhard W. Hoffmann;
(2023)
Concerning "Molecules with Fluxional Structure: An Initial Moment in Their Conception
(/isis/citation/CBB641190453/)
Book
Gratzer, Walter B.;
(2009)
Giant Molecules: From Nylon to Nanotubes
(/isis/citation/CBB001220274/)
Article
Evan Hepler-Smith;
(2018)
“A Way of Thinking Backwards”: Computing and Method in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB100670426/)
Article
Joseph Gal;
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2014)
In Defense of the Use of the French Language in Scientific Communication, 1965-1985: National and International Deliberations and an Ingeniously Clever Takeoff on the Theme by R. B. Woodward
(/isis/citation/CBB618004227/)
Chapter
Volti, Rudi;
(2013)
Worker Innovation: Did Maoist Promotion Contribute to China's Present Chronological and Economic Success?
(/isis/citation/CBB001320727/)
Article
Bosnich, B.;
(2011)
Alan McLeod Sargeson, 1930--2008
(/isis/citation/CBB001220652/)
Article
Blumenthal, Stanley A.;
(2012)
Earl Sutherland (1915--1975) and the Discovery of Cyclic Amp
(/isis/citation/CBB001201291/)
Book
Mathias Grote;
(2019)
Membranes to Molecular Machines: Active Matter and the Remaking of Life
(/isis/citation/CBB578630199/)
Article
Causá, Mauro;
Savin, Andreas;
Silvi, Bernard;
(2014)
Atoms and Bonds in Molecules and Chemical Explanations
(/isis/citation/CBB001321116/)
Article
Onishi, Hiroshi;
(2002)
Mole, Past and Present
(/isis/citation/CBB000300356/)
Book
Robert Holloway;
(2023)
The Chemical Histories of Soot and Buckminsterfullerene
(/isis/citation/CBB946250573/)
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2020)
The back story: Carl Djerassi (1923-2015): The man of multiple lives
(/isis/citation/CBB045986139/)
Be the first to comment!