Hyperfine Interactions and the Chemical Shift

Historically, after some hesitation, the discovery of the so called chemical shift was harmonized with the extant electronic theory of chemical bonding, and subsumed into quantum mechanics. However, owing to the fact that the radio frequency peaks should originate directly from the nuclei, doubts persist over how the chemical composition should affect a nucleus, and why that effect should manifest at low energies. We propose to trace back the connection between the pursued studies of the nuclear structure of the atom at low energies and the unexpected discovery of the chemical shift, shortly after WWII.