200 years of Gmelin’s handbook
2017 marks 200 years since Leopold Gmelin first published his influential handbook – and it’s still going strong, as Mike Sutton discovers
In 1817 a newly appointed German professor started a quiet revolution in scientific publishing. When the first volume of Leopold Gmelin’s Handbuch appeared, the world of chemistry began to change. Today his brainchild still survives, sustained by a technological infrastructure he could scarcely have imagined.