Charles Rugeley Bury and his contributions to physical chemistry

Abstract

Charles Rugeley Bury's work appears to be known to a very small minority of physical scientists and, even amongst colleagues in the field of historical studies, only a vague appreciation is usually retained. His name does not appear even in the index of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography in sixteen volumes1, and an interesting commentary might be written in attempting to account for such an omission. Bury was active, very much as a physical chemist, in the interwar (1919-39) years. Not only has Physical Chemistry now so expanded and merged with contiguous studies as largely to have lost any character of separateness, but the history of that once recognizably distinct discipline has no adequate systematic coverage. There are, however, very numerous histories of atomic physics, and it will become clear that Bury's absence from most such accounts can be explained only by their authors. However, the first requisite is to establish his claim for recognition. The simple fact is that anyone who learns of the relation between the electronic structures of the chemical atoms and their placements in the Periodic Table is absorbing an interpretation first arrived at and amply defined by Bury. It was from their 1 Dictionary of Scientific Biography, editor-in-chief, C. C. Gillispie, Charles Scribner's, New York, 1970-1980.