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Unit 4.5 History: The Discovery
of Chemical Equilibrium
The law of mass action, which led to the concept of chemical
equilibrium , was discovered on the shores of Lake Natron
in Egypt by Claude Berthollet.
Video program cues: 34:15 — 36:30
Crystallizing sodium carbonate
Link
Chemical equilibrium
"Because it was on a large scale, the reaction
was the reverse of the reaction. Then he, Berthollet, began
to wonder: if that is the reverse of the reaction, maybe
other reactions are reversed?, And he went on to 10-15 years
of study and found out that many reactions were reversed."
Dr. Hugh Salzberg
Chemistry Historian
Reading
Baird, J. K. (1999)' A Generalized Statement of the Law
of Mass Action, 'Journal of Chemical Education, Vol.
76, No. 8, pp: 1146-1150.
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