Timeline of crystallography

This is a timeline of crystallography.

17th century 1669 - In his book De solido intra solidum naturaliter contentoSteno, N. (1669). De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento, Star, Florence Nicolas Steno asserted that, although the number and size of crystal faces may vary from one crystal to another, the angles between corresponding faces are always the same. This was the original statement of the first law of crystallography (Steno's law).

18th century 1723 - Moritz Anton Cappeller introduced the term crystallography in his book Prodromus Crystallographiae De Crystallis Improprie Sic Dictis Commentarium. 1766 - Pierre-Joseph Macquer, in his Dictionnaire de Chymie, promoted mechanisms of crystallization based on the idea that crystals are composed of polyhedral molecules (primitive integrantes).Macquer, P.-J. (1766). Dictionnaire de Chymie, Lacombe, Paris 1772 - Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle developed geometrical ideas on crystal structure in his Essai de Cristallographie. He also described the twinning phenomenon in crystals.Romé de l'Isle, J.-B. L. (1772). Essai de Cristallographie, Knapen & Delaguete, Paris 1781 - Abbé René Just Haüy (often termed the "Father of Modern Crystallography"Brock, H. (1910). The Catholic Encyclopedia, Robert Appleton Company, New York.) discovered that crystals always cleave along crystallographic planes. Based on this observation, and the fact that the inter-facial angles in each crystal species always have the same value, Haüy concluded that crystals must be periodic and composed of regularly arranged rows of tiny polyhedra (molécules intégrantes). This theory explained why all crystal planes are related by small rational numbers (the law of rational indices).Haüy, R.J. (1782). Sur la structure des cristaux de grenat, Observations sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle et sur les arts, XIX, 366-370Haüy, R.J. (1782). Sur la structure des cristaux des spaths calcaires, Observations sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle et sur les arts. XX, 33-39 1783 - Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle in the second edition of his Cristallographie used the contact goniometer to discover the law of constancy of interfacial angles: angles are constant and characteristic for crystals of the same chemical substance.Romé de l'Isle, J.-B. L. (1783). Cristallographie ou description des formes propres à tous les corps du règne minéral dans l'état de combinaison saline, pierreuse ou métallique, Paris 1784 - René Just Haüy published his law of decrements: a crystal is composed of molecules arranged periodically in three dimensions.Haüy, R.J. (1784). Essai d'une théorie sur la structure des cristaux, appliquée à plusieurs genres de substances cristallisées, Chez Gogué et Née de La Rochelle, Paris 1795 - René Just Haüy lectured on his law of symmetry: "the manner in which Nature creates crystals is always obeying ... the law of the greatest possible symmetry, in the sense that oppositely situated but corresponding parts are always equal in number, arrangement, and form of their faces".Haüy, R.J. (1795). Leçons de Physique, in Séances des Ecoles normales ..., L. Reynier, Paris

19th century 1801 - René Just Haüy published his multi-volume Traité de Minéralogie in Paris. A second edition under the title Traité de Cristallographie was published in 1822.Haüy, R.J. (1801). Traité de Minéralogie, Chez Louis, ParisHaüy, R.J. (1822). Traité de Cristallographie, Bachelier et Huzard, Paris 1801 - Déodat de Dolomieu published his Sur la philosophie minéralogique et sur l'espèce minéralogique in Paris.de Dolomieu, Déodat (1801). Sur la philosophie minéralogique et sur l'espèce minéralogique, Paris 1815 - René Just Haüy published his law of symmetry.Haüy, R.J. (1815). Memoire sur une loi de cristallisation appelée loi de symmétrie, Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle 1, 81-101, 206-225, 273-298, 341-352 1815 - Christian Samuel Weiss, founder of the dynamist school of crystallography, developed a geometric treatment of crystals in which crystallographic axes are the basis for classification of crystals rather than Haüy's polyhedral molecules.Weiss, C.S. (1815). Uebersichtliche Darstellung der versschiedenen naturlichen Abteilungen der Kristallisations-Systeme, Abh. K. Akad. Wiss., Berlin. 289-337, 1814-1815. 1819 - Eilhard Mitscherlich discovered crystallographic isomorphism. 1822 - Friedrich Mohs attempted to bring the molecular approach of Haüy and the geometric approach of Weiss into agreement.Mohs, F. (1822). On the crystallographic discoveries and systems of Weiss and Mohs, The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, VIII, 275-290 1823 - Franz Ernst Neumann invented a system of crystal face notation, by using the reciprocals of the intercepts with crystal axes, which becomes the standard for the next 60 years.Neumann, F.E. (1823). Beiträge zur Krystallonomie, Ernst Siegfried Mittler, Berlin und Posen 1824 - Ludwig August Seeber conceived of the concept of using an array of discrete (molecular) points to represent a crystal.Seeber, L.A. (1824). Versuch einer Erklärung des inneren Baues der Festen Körper, Ann. Phys., 76, 229-248, 349-371 1826 - Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim derived the 32 crystal classes by using the crystallographic restriction, consistent with Haüy's laws, that only 2, 3, 4 and 6-fold rotational axes are permitted.Frankenheim, M.L. (1826). Crystallonomische Aufsätze, Isis (Jena), 19, 497-515, 542-565 1830 - Johann F. C. Hessel published an independent geometrical derivation of the 32 point groups (crystal classes).Hessel J.F.C. (1830). Krystallometrie oder Krystallonomie und Krystallographie, in Gehler's Physikalisches Wörterbuch, 8, 1023-1360, Schwickert, Leipzig 1832 - Friedrich Wöhler and Justus von Liebig discovered polymorphism in molecular crystals, using the example of benzamide. 1839 - William Hallowes Miller invented zonal relations by projecting the faces of a crystal upon the surface of a circumscribed sphere. Miller indices are defined which form a notation system in crystallography for planes in crystal (Bravais) lattices.Miller, W.H. (1839). A Treatise on Crystallography, Deighton-Parker, Cambridge, London 1840 - Gabriel Delafosse, independently of Seeber, represented crystal structure as an array of discrete points generated by defined translations.Delafosse, G. (1840). De la Structure des Cristaux [...] sur l'Importance de l'etude de la Symétrie dans les différentes Branches de l'Histoire Naturelle [...], Fain and Thunot, Paris 1842 - Moritz Frankenheim derived 15 different theoretical networks of points in space not dependent on molecular shape.Frankenheim, M.L. (1842). System der Kristalle. Nova Acta Acad. Naturae Curiosorum, 19, (2), 469-660 1848 - Louis Pasteur discovered that sodium ammonium tartrate can crystallize in left- and right-handed forms and showed that the two forms can rotate polarized light in opposite directions. This was the first demonstration of molecular chirality, and also the first explanation of isomerism.Pasteur, L. (1848). Mémoire sur la relation qui peut exister entre la forme cristalline et la composition chimique, et sur la cause de la polarisation rotatoire (Memoir on the relationship that can exist between crystalline form and chemical composition, and on the cause of rotary polarization), Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences (Paris), 26, 535–538 1850 - Auguste Bravais derived the 14 space lattices.Bravais, A. (1850). Mémoire sur les systèmes formés par des points distribués regulièrement sur un plan ou dans l'espace, J. l'Ecole Polytechnique 19, 1-128Bravais, M.A. (1949). On the systems formed by points regularly distributed on a plane or in space, English translation by Shaler, A.J., Crystallographic Society of America, Michigan. 1869 - Axel Gadolin, independently of Hessel, derived the 32 crystal classes using stereographic projection.Gadolin, A. (1871). Mémoire sur la déduction d'un seul principe de tous les systems cristallographiques avec leurs subdivisions (Memoir on the deduction from a single principle of all the crystal systems with their subdivisions), Acta Soc. Sci. Fennicae., 9, 1-71 1877 - Paul Heinrich von Groth founded the journal Zeitschrift für Krystallographie und Mineralogie, and served as its editor for 44 years.Authier, A. (2013). Early days of x-ray crystallography, International Union of Crystallography Texts on Crystallography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.83 1877 - Ernest-François Mallard, building on the work of Auguste Bravais, published a memoirMallard, E.-F. (1877). Explication des phénomènes optiques anomaux, Dunod, Paris, 143pp. on optically "anomalous" crystals (that is, those crystals the morphology of which seems to be of greater symmetry than their optics), in which the importance of crystal twinning and "pseudosymmetry" were used as explanatory concepts. 1879 - Leonhard Sohncke listed the 65 crystallographic point systems using rotations and reflections in addition to translations.Sohncke, L. (1879). Entwickelung einer Theorie der Krystallstruktur, B.G. Teubner, Leipzig 1888 - Friedrich Reinitzer discovered the existence of liquid crystals during investigations of cholesteryl benzoate. 1889 - Otto Lehmann, after receiving a letter from Friedrich Reinitzer, used polarizing light to explain the phenomenon of liquid crystals. 1891 - Derivation of the 230 space groups (by adding mirror-image symmetry to Sohncke's work) by a collaborative effort of Evgraf Fedorov and Arthur Schoenflies.Fedorov, E. (1891). The symmetry of regular systems of figures, Zap. Miner. Obshch. (Trans. Miner. Soc. Saint Petersburg), 28, 1-146Schoenflies, A. (1891). Kristallsysteme und Kristallstruktur. B. G. Teubner, Leipzig 1894 - William Barlow, using a method based on patterns of oriented motifs, independently derived the 230 space groups.Barlow W. (1894). Über die Geometrischen Eigenschaften homogener starrer Strukturen und ihre Anwendung auf Krystalle (On the geometrical properties of homogeneous rigid structures and their application to crystals), Zeitschrift für Krystallographie und Minerologie, 23, 1–63. 1894 - Pierre Curie described the now called Curie's principle for the symmetry properties of crystals. 1895 - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen on 8 November 1895 produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range now known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. X-rays became the major mode of crystallographic research in the 20th century. 1899 - Hermanus Haga and Cornelis Wind observed X-ray diffuse broadening through a slit and deduced that the wavelength of X-rays is on the order of an angstrom.

20th century 1905 - Charles Glover Barkla discovered the X-ray polarization effect. 1908 - Bernhard Walter and Robert Wichard Pohl observed X-ray diffraction from a slit. 1912 - Max von Laue discovered diffraction patterns from crystals in an X-ray beam.Laue, Max von (1912). Eine quantitative prüfung der theorie für die interferenz-erscheinungen bei Röntgenstrahlen, Sitzungsberichte der Kgl. Bayer. Akad. Der Wiss., 363–373 1912 - Bragg diffraction, expressed through Bragg's law, is first presented by Lawrence Bragg on 11 November 1912 to the Cambridge Philosophical Society.Bragg, W.L. (1913). The diffraction of short electromagnetic waves by a crystal, Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc., 17, 43-57 1912 - Heinrich Baumhauer discovered and described polytypism in crystals of carborundum, or silicon carbide. 1913 - Lawrence Bragg published the first observation of X-ray diffraction by crystals. Similar observations were also published by Torahiko Terada in the same year.