- Glauber
Glauber is a
discovery system , a type ofartificial intelligence used to discover new scientifictheories based on empirical evidence and the systematicmeasurement of related data. It is named afterJohann Rudolph Glauber , a chemist in the 17th century whose work helped to developacid-base theory .Glauber was designed by
Pat Langley as part of his work on discoveryheuristics in an attempt to have a computer automatically review a host of values and characteristics and make independent analyses from them. In the case of Glauber, the goal was to have an autonomous application that could estimate or even perfectly describe the nature of a givenchemical compound by comparing it to relatedsubstances . Langley formalized and compiled Glauber in 1983.The software was supplied information about a variety of materials as they had been described by 18th century chemists, before most of modern chemical knowledge had been uncovered or invented. Qualitative descriptions like
taste , rather thannumerical data such asmolecular weight , were programmed into the application. Chemicalreactions that were known in that era and the distinction betweenreactants and products were also provided. From this knowledge, Glauber was to figure out which substances wereacids ,bases , andsalts without anyquantitative information. The system examined chemical substances and all of their most likely reactions and correlates the expected taste and related acidity or saltiness according to the rule that acids and bases produce salts.Glauber was a very successful advance in
theoretical chemistry as performed by computer, and it, along with similar systems developed byHerbert Simon includingStahl (which examinesoxidation ) andDALTON (which calculatesatomic weight ) helped form the groundwork of all current automated chemical analysis.
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