Bringing statistical mechanics into chemistry: The early scientific work of Karl F. Herzfeld

The physicist Karl F. Herzfeld was instrumental in introducing the techniques of statistical mechanics to physical chemists in the years between 1920 and 1935. Herzfeld's work included an early derivation of the rate constant for a first order reaction. This was similar to and fifteen years earlier than Eyring's calculation of the rate constant. Herzfeld also carried out the first calculation of a relaxation equation for vibrational energy transfer. Herzfeld's success lay in his classical approach to physics, which, it is suggested, made his work accessible to chemists.