History
The phenomenon was first noticed over one hundred years ago (in 1896) by the German chemist Raphael E. Liesegang, and has aroused the curiosity of chemists for many years. It was first noted when he dropped a solution of silver nitrate on to a thin layer of gel containing potassium dichromate. After a few hours, sharp concentric rings of insoluble silver dichromate formed. When formed in a test tube by diffusing one component from the top, layers or bands of precipitate form, rather than rings.
Read more about this topic: Liesegang Rings
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)