A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry - Tapa blanda

"...will lift your spirit, delight your vision, and expose you to our history...To the authors: Thank you for producing such a memorable piece of work." (Clinical Chemistry, January 2005) "...this book has served its purpose in documenting, in the highest quality, our chemical heritage as depicted on philatelic material...this book is a thoroughly enjoyable read." (Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, Spring 2005) "It is the kind of book published only once in a generation. I can whole-heartedly recommend it to any chemist and even to non-chemists who enjoy art." (Chromatographia)

This is not a history of chemistry which uses stamps instead of the usual illustrations, but a collection of short essays and comments on such chemistry as can be found on postage stamps and other philatelic items. In other words, the choice of topics is dictated by the philatelic material available, with the necessary consequence that important parts of chemical history will be missing for the simple reason that they have not found their way onto postage stamps. Thus, the reader may find detailed comments on lesser known chemists, such as Wilhelm August Lampadius who has been honoured with two stamps by the German Post Office, but hardly anything on such luminaries as Robert Bunsen, who have not been deemed worthy of a commemorative issue.