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2026-10-06 archive.org: German translations (1903, 1904) and the 1905 English Principles of Chemistry

Site: https://archive.org. The Chrome search page rendered no text (shadow DOM), so the public advancedsearch API and the metadata and download endpoints were queried with curl. No login was used.

Queries (advancedsearch)

  • title:(prometheus) AND date:[1902-01-01 TO 1905-12-31]
  • title:(prometheus) AND title:("15. Jahrgang") AND title:(735 OR 736 OR 737 OR 738 OR 739)
  • title:(naturwissenschaftliche rundschau) AND date:[1903-01-01 TO 1905-12-31]
  • mendeleeff ether
  • title:(основы химии) AND creator:(менделеев) (no hits); title:(osnovy khimii) (no hits); mendeleev principles of chemistry 1905 (no hits)

Found

  1. Prometheus, Illustrirte Wochenschrift über die Fortschritte in Gewerbe, Industrie und Wissenschaft, 15. Jahrgang (1903), from the Lower Silesian Digital Library (dbc.wroc.pl) via archive.org. The article is "Versuch einer chemischen Auffassung des Weltäthers", by Prof. Dr. D. I. Mendelejeff, St Petersburg, "Aus dem Russischen übersetzt von S. Tschulok, Fachlehrer in Zürich" [web: https://archive.org/details/dbc.wroc.pl.20090, OCR p.1]. Editorial note: "Das Original wurde Ende October 1902 abgeschlossen und gelangte im Laufe des Januar 1903 in der Petersburger Zeitschrift Wiestnik i biblioteka samoobrasowanja zum Abdruck" (the original was finished at the end of October 1902 and printed in January 1903). The German opens with the "Seit den ältesten Zeiten strebt der Menschengeist nach einer einheitlichen Welterkenntniss" passage, which matches the Russian opening that the English 1904 lacks. - Saved: Nr 735 (https://archive.org/details/dbc.wroc.pl.20090), Nr 737 (dbc.wroc.pl.20092; it contains the coronium passage) and Nr 738 (dbc.wroc.pl.20093) as PDF plus OCR text, in research/files/Prometheus-XV-1903-Nr73x-. Nr 736 was not found on archive.org* (identifier dbc.wroc.pl.20091 returns no metadata); it covers part of the text. De.wikipedia gives the page runs as pp. 97, 121, 129, 145 (four instalments). Nr 739 has no hits. - No "Newtonium" was found in the OCR of Nr 735/737/738; it may be in the missing Nr 736 or garbled by OCR (not checked).
  2. Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau 19 (1904), Nr. 22 and 23 (index: "Weltäthers 273. 289"): an abstract of the essay, "D. J. Mendelejew: Versuch einer chemischen Auffassung des Weltäthers (Wiestnik i Bibliotheka Samoobrasowanja [Russisch] 1903)", continued with "(Schluß)" [web: https://archive.org/details/naturwissenschaf19brau]. The Nr 22 opening states the "Dreieinigkeit der Erkenntnis" (trinity of knowledge: der Stoff, die Kraft und der Geist, i.e. matter, force and spirit). Nr 23 has: "das gesuchte x (welches wir vorläufig dem unsterblichen Isaac Newton zu Ehren als 'Newtonium' bezeichnen wollen) ... an Stelle der nullten Reihe in der nullten Gruppe das Element x = Newtonium eingetragen". So the newtonium name was in print in German by 1904, which suggests it was already in the January 1903 Russian original and was dropped from the English 1904 translation. Lente (2019) notes the Rundschau text "slightly deviates" from Prometheus and quotes a phrase found only in the German: "aus einer Parabel zweiter Ordnung" (from a second-order parabola), the method behind x = 0.17. Saved: research/files/NaturwissRundschau-XIX-1904-Mendelejew-Weltaether-ocr-excerpt.txt (OCR lines 51370-55200 of the volume; it covers both instalments plus unrelated neighbouring items).
  3. The Principles of Chemistry, third English edition from the 7th Russian, translated by George Kamensky, edited by Thomas H. Pope, Longmans 1905 [web: https://archive.org/details/ThePrinciplesOfChemistryAnAttemptTowardsTheChemicalConceptionOfAether, file "The Principles of Chemistry 7"]. Vol. 2, Appendix III is "An Attempt towards a Chemical Conception of the Ether". The translator's note says the article "recently written by Professor Mendeleeff" replaces the former Appendix III. The author's preface (p. xv-xvi) adds: "In endeavouring to clothe the conception of 'ether' with a chemical dress, and so render it an actual, real possibility in harmony with the purely realistic periodic law, I think I am serving the cause of unity in natural philosophy." So this is a third English printing of the essay, inside the textbook. Saved: full djvu text as research/files/Principles-of-Chemistry-3rd-English-ed-1905-vol1-2-djvu.txt (the 92 MB PDF was not downloaded). The 5th and 6th edition English texts are in the same item.

Bears on

Claims 1-3 and 5: three more printings of the inventor's own text (Russian journal 1903 via German, German abstract 1904, English textbook appendix 1905). They show the essay was widely circulated in Mendeleev's lifetime, not a private note. The German also gives a method detail (the parabola) that the English lacks.