The Structural Theory of Atom
Yet another of Kekule's discovery was that of the Structural Theory of Atom. As seemed to be his destiny, this insight also was supplied to him by his unconscious mind in a dream. Not surprising that when addressing a scientists' convention, he said: "Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the truth."
He described how he made his discovery to the German Chemical Society, which had met on March 11, 1890, to honour him on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of his theory of the chemical structure of benzene:
"One beautiful summer evening I was riding on the last omnibus through the deserted streets usually filled with life. I rode as usual on the outside of the omnibus. I fell into a reverie. Atoms flitted before my eyes. I had never before succeeded in perceiving their manner of moving. That evening, however, I saw that frequently two smaller atoms were coupled together, that larger ones seized the smaller ones, that still larger ones held fast three or four of the smaller ones and that all were whirled around in a bewildering dance. I saw how the atoms formed a row and one dragged along still smaller ones at the end of the chain... The cry of the guard, 'Clapham Road', waked me from my reverie; but I spent a part of the night writing down sketches of these dream pictures. Thus arose the structural theory."
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