[spirochete]

http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/pictures/naphthalene.html

This is a drawing by linus pauling I found through random googling.  It is apparently of 42 resonance structures of napthalene.  Does anybody know about the thought process that went into drawing those?  I can't find any info about it online.

[Mitch]

It just shows the necessary structures he used in his valence bonding model for naphthalene. When you draw a lewis line diagram, you typically only draw the chemical structure that most represents the molecule. As you go through Pauling's structures from the top-left to top-right, what you are looking at are 2nd order, 3rd order, 4th order, ., structures that contribute to the total bonding picture of naphthalene.