ApsûVoyage of a Thousand Books
Apsû World Map
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Who is this book for?
- Readers who love history and know a little chemistry
- Teachers and students who want to make chemistry class interesting
- People curious about how commodities such as spices, sugar, cotton and rubber changed the world
- Readers who like stories where "a small thing changed history"
Who is the author?
- Penny Le Couteur, born in 1942 in Auckland, New Zealand, earned a PhD in chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, taught chemistry at Capilano College in Canada for more than thirty years, and won a chemistry teaching award
- Jay Burreson holds a PhD in chemistry, worked as an industrial chemist, and received a National Institutes of Health grant to research marine compounds
- The book was published in 2003
Book notes
Starting with a button
The book's title comes from an intriguing historical hypothesis. In 1812 Napoleon led an army of six hundred thousand into Russia and by the retreat fewer than ten thousand remained. Some have speculated that the buttons on the soldiers' uniforms were made of tin, and that tin gradually becomes brittle and crumbles at low temperatures; as the buttons failed one by one, soldiers in the bitter cold could not even keep their clothes fastened. The authors admit frankly that this claim has not been proven, but it captures the book's main point: a tiny change in a molecule can bring enormous consequences. The book also opens with a simple chemistry primer, explaining how the different position of a group of atoms can make a molecule's properties completely different.
A history written in molecules
Pepper: the spice that could buy freedom
Nutmeg and cloves: trading Manhattan for a small island
Vitamin C: the molecule that decided naval power
Glucose: slavery behind sweetness
Cellulose: cotton and the Civil War
Nitro compounds: explosives and fertilizer
Silk, nylon and phenol
Rubber: from rainforest to war
Dyes and drugs: an accidental discovery
The pill: a social revolution
Alkaloids and witch hunts
Opium, tea and war
Olive oil, salt and civilization
Chlorine compounds and unintended consequences
Reception and limitations
Bottles that drifted to this book
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Shang
Shang's reading list
Voyager's Guide
The world
The Sea of Books has 24 real islands, one for each subject. Every building on an island is a book.
What you can do now
- Tap an island on the chart to go ashore
- Tap a building to read the notes on that book
- Meet Shang, the Navigator
Coming soon
- Chapter 2: register as a voyager, sail your ship, collect building badges, send bottles
- Chapter 4: private chats with other voyagers
Symbols
Ship's Registry
Before you set sail, let's get your ship registered.