Creative Chemistry: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Creative Chemistry, credited to Edwin E. Slosson, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Creative Chemistry, by Edwin E. Slosson. Read by LivelyHive. Slosson reviews the transformation of alchemistry from an obscure and imprecise practice to the science of chemistry. Along the way, he explains how the modern industrial world now relies on fertilizers, explosives, textile materials, polymers and metals. By exploring the properties of a once undervalued element, the high strength of vanadium steel made the Ford car possible. Another element, cerium, appears in butane lighters and was once seen as a threat to the match industry in France. In his chapter on oils, Slosson reviews the development of hydrogenated oils, especially during WWII, in the search for a way to reuse otherwise discarded components of corn and cottonseed. Through the revolutionary reaction of hydrogenation, waste materials became a stable product that wouldn't spoil when packaged or carried without refrigeration. Once thought of as a miracle, shoppers were once willing to pay more for fully hydrogenated oils than their natural, unsaturated forms. Only in recent years has evidence of health risks checked their popularity and given them the image of cheap, unhealthy fillers. (Summary by LivelyHive)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Creative Chemistry
• Author credits: Edwin E. Slosson
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 17
• Listed recording duration: 11:06:34

Catalogue topics

• Chemistry
• science
• industry

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction — 13:05
2. 01 - Ch 1 Three Periods of Progress — 22:22
3. 02 - Ch. 2 Nitrogen — 49:26
4. 03 - Ch. 3 Feeding the Soil — 49:14
5. 04 - Ch. 4 Coal-Tar Colors part 1/2 — 30:14
6. 05 - Ch. 4 Coal-Tar Colors part 2/2 — 41:58
7. 06 - Ch. 5 Synthetic Perfumes And Flavors — 40:02
8. 07 - Ch. 6 Cellulose — 41:29
9. 08 - Ch. 7 Synthetic Plastics — 37:40
10. 09 - Ch. 8 The Race For Rubber — 41:59
11. 10 - Ch. 9 The Rival Sugars — 37:17
12. 11 - Ch. 10 What Comes From Corn — 34:32
13. 12 - Ch. 11 Solidified Sunshine — 44:44
14. 13 - Ch. 12 Fighting with Fumes — 41:03
15. 14 - Ch. 13 Products Of The Electric Furnace — 1:00:39
16. 15 - Ch. 14 Metals, Old And New part 1/2 — 37:32
17. 16 - Ch. 14 Metals, Old And New part 2/2 — 43:26

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.