Introduction

Abstract

The post-war generation of chemists learned to handle a blow pipe at the university as thoroughly as modern chemistry students learn to write computer programmes. Even after World War II the rule of three was considered to be sufficient mathematical knowledge for chemists and the short course of “higher mathematics” at technical universities was the test most feared by chemistry students. However, even then some envisaged the theoretical derivation of information on the properties of molecules from knowledge of the bonding of the component atoms.