200 years of Gmelin’s handbook

By Mike Sutton2017-05-17T09:56:00

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry / Miranda Parry Photography

2017 marks 200 years since Leopold Gmelin first published his influential handbook – and it’s still going strong, as Mike Sutton discovers

In 1817 a newly appointed German professor started a quiet revolution in scientific publishing. When the first volume of Leopold Gmelin’s Handbuch appeared, the world of chemistry began to change. Today his brainchild still survives, sustained by a technological infrastructure he could scarcely have imagined.