The first two chapters of the book deal with some gen-eral kinetic principles and with basic quantum me-chanics. A chapter on the method of potential-energysurfaces is followed by a brief account of the methodsof statistical mechanics, and this leads to derivationsof the basic equations of transition-state theory. Theremaining chapters of the book make applications oftransition-state theory to a number of different pro-cesses: homogeneous gas reactions, reactions involv-ing excited electronic states, reactions on surfaces,reactions in solution, viscosity and diffusion, and elec-trochemical processes, including the problem of over-voltage. [The SC!~indicates that this book has beencited in over 4,605 publications since 1955.]

Keith j. LaidlerDepartment of Chemistry

University of OttawaOttawa, Ontario KiN 6N5

Canada

May 24, 1988

In 1938, at the age of 22, I arrived at PrincetonUniversity to work with Henry Eyring in theoreticalchemical kinetics. My undergraduate work, withC.N. Hinshelwood at the University of Oxford, hadled me to a deep interest in theories of reaction rates,especially in Eyring’s theory that he had publishedin 1935. Hinshelwood had recommended that I ap-ply for a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship (nowcalled a Harkoess Fellowship) to work with Eyring,and to my great good fortune I was successful.

Eyring’s classical 1935 paper1

had attracted greatinterest but also some controversy, and, initially, ithad been rejected by the Journal of ChemicalPhysics. Some of the early struggles over the theoryhave been detailed elsewhere.

2Eyring had come to

the conclusion that therewas a need for a book thatwould present the basic theory in a fairly detailedway, discuss its implications and assumptions, andapply it to rate processes of various kinds. Eyringknew that he would find it difficult to settle downto long sessions of writing, which are necessary toproduce a book. He therefore invited me to collab-orate with him on the book, with the arrangementto be that I would do the actual writing, in regularconsultation with him. I was naturally very pleased

and honored to be able to work with him on a bookthat I knew would exert considerable influence.

I at once started to prepare material for the book,while at the same time carrying out research for myPhD degree, particularly on the application ofEyring’s theory to reactions in solutionand to reac-tions on surfaces. I also drafted chapters on quantumand statistical mechanics and on the derivation ofthe rate equations.

In the summer of 1939 Samuel Glasstone arrivedin Princeton as a research associate in the Depart-ment of Chemistry. Glasstone, then aged about 40,had already had a successful research career at theUniversity of Sheffield and was the authorof severalvery successful books on physicalchemistry. In viewof his background, it was natural to enlist his helpwith the writing of the book, especially since itwouldbe necessary for me to leave Princeton in 1940 tocarry out war research. I provided Classtone witheverything I had written and continued to give himmaterial as I wrote it during my second year atPrinceton. At the same time, Glasstone, Eynng, andI collaborated on research on overvoltage, a subjecton which Glasstone had previously worked. Glas-stone greatly supplemented the material I gave himfor the book, and he put everything into final form.Eyring himself did hardly any of the writing, but hemade numerous and valuable comments on every-thing we wrote, and I well remember many vigor-ous but always very friendly arguments on a num-ber of fundamental points.

AlthougJs World War Il interrupted most basic sci-entific work for a few years after the book’s publi-cation in 1941, the book attracted much attentionfrom the start, particularly as it was the first com-prehensive treatment of the new rate theory and ofits applications to a variety of chemical and physicalprocesses; it also contained a good deal of previous-ly unpublished material. Records of sales during thewar years have been lost, but probably at least10,000 copies were sold during that period. After1947 about 10,000 further coçtses were sold until thebook went out of print in 1970. The ScienceCifa-lion Index

5showsthat it has been frequently quoted

and that it has been Eyring’s most often cited publi-cation. In 1948 a pirated Russian translation of thebook appeared, and there have also been japaneseand Spanish editions.

There have been many extensions and modifica-tions of the original theory;some of these have beenreviewed in some detail,

3and in lesser detail in a re-

cent book.4

fEyring and Glasstone are now deceased.1

16 ©1988bylS1® CURRENT CONTENTS®

~This Week’s Citation CIass1c®No~88Glasstone S, Laidler K J & Eyring H. The theoryof rateprocesses:the kinetics of

I chemicalreactions,viscosity,diffusion and electrochemicalphenomena.New York:~ McGraw-Hill, 1941. 611 p.

L [Prick Chemical Laboratory, Princeton University, NJ]

I. EyrUag U. The activated complex in chemical renctions. J. Client. Phys. 3:107-15, 1935. (Cited 440 times since 1955.)2. Laldkr KJ & King M C. The deveiopment of transition state theoty. J. Phys. Client. 87:2657~64,1983. (Cited 20 timc~.)3. Thihlar D G, fuss W L & Hynes ,J T. The current status of transition-state theory. J. Phys. Chem. 87:2664-82, 1983.

(Cited 105 times.)4. L.aldier K 1. C’hemicalkinetics. New York: Harper & Row. 1987. 531 p.