Kekul�'s Dreams

[Ghetta Life]

http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/famous-dreams.htm

Kekulé discovered the tetravalent nature of carbon, the formation of 
chemical/ organic "Structure Theory", but he did not make this breakthrough 
by experimentation alone. He had a dream! As he described in a speech given 
at the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft (German Chemical Society):

"I fell into a reverie, and lo, the atoms were gamboling before my eyes! 
Whenever, hitherto, these diminutive beings had appeared to me, they had 
always been in motion; but up to that time, I had never been able to discern 
the nature of their motion. Now, however, I saw how, frequently, two smaller 
atoms united to form a pair; how a larger one embraced the two smaller ones; 
how still larger ones kept hold of three or even four of the smaller; whilst 
the whole kept whirling in a giddy dance. I saw how the larger ones formed a 
chain, dragging the smaller ones after them, but only at the ends of the 
chain. . . The cry of the conductor: “Clapham Road,” awakened me from my 
dreaming; but I spent part of the night in putting on paper at least 
sketches of these dream forms. This was the origin of the Structural 
Theory."

Later, he had a dream that helped him discover that the Benzene molecule, 
unlike other known organic compounds, had a circular structure rather than a 
linear one... solving a problem that had been confounding chemists:

"...I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my 
thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the 
atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept 
modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the 
repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of 
manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all 
twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of 
the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly 
before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I 
spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the 
hypothesis."

The snake seizing it's own tail gave Kekulé the circular structure idea he 
needed to solve the Benzene problem!

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