Editing Stoichiometry (section)

== Etymology ==
The term ''stoichiometry'' was first used by [[Jeremias Benjamin Richter]] in 1792 when the first volume of Richter's {{Lang|de|Anfangsgründe der Stöchyometrie oder Meßkunst chymischer Elemente}} (''Fundamentals of Stoichiometry, or the Art of Measuring the Chemical Elements'') was published.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Richter |first1=J.B. |title=Anfangsgründe der Stöchyometrie ... (in 3 vol.s) |trans-title=Rudiments of Stoichiometry ... |date=1792 |publisher=Johann Friedrich Korn der Aeltere |location=Breslau and Hirschberg, (Germany) |volume= 1 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhFQAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA121 |language=de}}  From p. 121:  ''"Die Stöchyometrie (''Stöchyometria'') ist die Wissenschaft die quantitativen oder Massenverhältnisse ... zu messen, in welchen die chemischen Elemente ... gegen einander stehen."''  (Stoichiometry (''stoichiometria'') is the science of measuring the quantitative or mass relations in which the chemical "elements" exist in relation to each other.)  [On pp. 3–7, Richter explains that an "element" is a pure substance, and that a "chemical element" (''chymisches Element (Elementum chymicum)'') is a substance that cannot be resolved into dissimilar substances by known physical or chemical means.  Thus, for example, [[aluminium oxide]] was a "chemical element" because in Richter's time, it couldn't be resolved further into its component elements.]</ref> The term is derived from the [[Ancient Greek]] words {{Wikt-lang|grc|στοιχεῖον}} {{Transliteration|grc|stoikheîon}} "element"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sinnott |first=R. K. |title=Coulson and Richardson's Chemical Engineering |date=2005 |publisher=Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann |isbn=978-0-7506-6538-4 |edition=4th |location=Amsterdam Paris |page=36}}</ref> and {{Wikt-lang|grc|μέτρον}} {{Transliteration|grc|métron}} "measure." [[Ludwig Darmstaedter]] and [[Ralph E. Oesper]] have written a useful account on this.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=L. Darmstaedter |author2=R. E. Oesper| title = Jeremias Benjamin Richter
| journal = [[J. Chem. Educ.]] | year = 1928 | volume = 5 | issue = 7 | pages = 785–790 | doi = 10.1021/ed005p785|bibcode=1928JChEd...5..785D }}</ref>