Archibald Scott Couper (1831-1892) was the author of On a New Chemical Theory, Philosophical Magazine 16, 104-116 (1858) [as excerpted in Alembic Club Reprint #21, On a New Chemical Theory and Researches on Salicylic Acid[1]]
Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz claimed to solve the structure of Benzene in a dream. While his claims were well publicized and accepted, by the early 1920s Kekulé's biographer came to the conclusion that Kekulé's understanding of the tetravalent nature carbon bonding depended on the previous research of Archibald Scott Couper (1831-1892); further, the German Chemist Josef Loschmidt (1821_1895) had earlier posited a cyclic structure for benzene as early as 1862, although he had not actually proved this structure to be correct.
ArchibaldScottCouper was born on March 31, 1831, at Kirkintilloch in Dumbartonshire, Scotland, the son of a prosperous cotton weaver.
Couper also introduced the use of a line to indicate the valence linkage between two atoms and, had he used 16 rather than eight for the atomic weight of oxygen, his chemical formulas would have been almost identical with those used today.
ArchibaldScottCouper (March 31, 1831, Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland—March 11, 1892, Kirkintilloch) was the author of "On a New Chemical Theory", Philosophical Magazine 16, 104-116 (1858) [as excerpted in Alembic Club Reprint #21, On a New Chemical Theory and Researches on Salicylic Acid [1]]
The Scottish chemist ArchibaldScottCouper (1831-1892) shares with Kekulé the distinction of recognizing the tetravalency of carbon and the capacity of carbon atoms to combine to form chains, thereby providing the basis for structural organic chemistry.
Couper's paper was, however, finally presented by Jean Baptiste Dumas to the academy on June 14, 1858, and published in the Comptes rendus; fuller versions were subsequently published in English and French.
Couper also introduced the use of a line to indicate the valence linkage between two atoms and, had he used 16 rather than 8 for the atomic weight of oxygen, his chemical formulas would have been almost identical with those used today.
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