SOME PIONEERS OF THE KINETICS AND MECHANISM OF ORGANIC-REACTIONS

Sir Christopher Ingold played a key role during the late 1920s and thr ough the 1930s and 1940s in getting the study of the kinetics and mech anism of organic reactions established as an integral part of organic chemistry. Such studies, however, had already been considerably pursue d by many chemists, whose work has now largely been overlaid by later developments. The article highlights the contributions made between ab out 1895 and 1930 by James Walker, Arthur Lapworth, N. V. Sidgwick, J. J. Sudborough, K. J, P. Orton, and H. M. Dawson, with brief mention o f others who helped to found this area of physical organic chemistry.