Couper's Complex Formulas
From WikidChem
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Slide #30
In this slide, we see Couper's structural drawings for the glycerine and glyceric acid molecules. Comparing these to the modern structural formulae for these compounds, we see that Couper was not far off. One major mistake was that he assumed that oxygen came in "pairs," based on the erroneous calculation of oxygen's atomic weight as 8. Another, minor, mistake that he made was to place two hydroxyl groups on the first carbon, and none on the middle carbon (in both structures).
[edit]Slide #31
This slide shows Couper's structure for glucose in the English version of his paper. We can see that his conception of the structure is nearly identical to the modern conception of the actual structure. Note that, in this structure which appeared in the English paper, bonds between the carbons in the molecule are not drawn.
[edit]Slide #32
Here we see Couper's structure for glucose again, as it appeared in the original, French version of his paper. The structure is identical to that which appeared in the English version, except that the bonds between carbons are drawn, and on the bottom carbon H2 is added instead of H2O, this, however, is a typo. This was the first time that solid lines were used to represent bonds.
[edit]Slide #33
Supposed to be shown here was a video of the Freshman Orgo class of 2005 paying homage to a great chemist, Archibald Scott Couper.
