Making Soda Pop
Joseph Priestley 1733-1804 began a religious odyssey at an early age and is now recognized as one of the founders of Unitarianism.1'2 At 19 he entered the Dissenting Academy of Daventry to study for the Nonconformist Ministry, refecting the early influence of his aunt. By the age of 28 he taught languages including Hebrew , history, law, logic, and anatomy at the highly regarded Dissenting Academy at Warrington. His scientific interests were well under way by this time he had earlier purchased...
The Atom As A Solar System
The line spectra obtained by heating elements and refracting the light through a prism was employed by Bunsen to identify salts. His gas-powered burner was first used to obtain colorless flame to study light emissions of these salts not for heating flasks.1 The spectroscope designed by Bunsen and Kirchoff immediately led to the discovery of cesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861.1 In 1868, the emission spectrum of another new element, helium, was discovered in the spectrum of the solar...
The Atmosphereis Massive
What is air Paraphrasing David Abram1 We are immersed in the invisible air, but we barely even perceive it. We sense its effects it is needed to support life but not its substance. Perception also rides upon windy drafts, which, in early times, might have been regarded as ethereal breaths of nature. Why learn the gas laws in chemistry We have known since the early nineteenth century that the gaseous state is where molecules roam as freely as individuals. This permits understanding of their...
An Alchemical Bestiary
Symbols and metaphors allow us to represent phenomena we do not fully understand and thoughts having no rational translations. Four centuries ago, the wolf represented the biting behavior of antimony or its sulfide on base metals. At a much deeper, subconscious level we may employ sexual imagery to convey perceptions of the male and female nature of things. For millennia, these dualities were projected to explain properties of matter that could be understood only symbolically. It is no wonder...
The Dualistic Theory Of Chemistry
The early alchemists and natural philosophers believed in the duality of matter sun and moon male and female sulfur fixed and mercury volatile . When Davy electro lyzed pure potash KOH and produced a volatile female spirit oxygen at the positive pole and an explosive, fixed male matter potassium at the negative pole, this would have been intuitively obvious to them. Jons Jacob Berzelius1,2 1779-1848 was born in Stockholm one year before his great countryman Scheele discovered lactic acid in...
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lt i ubltmct . A4 amp ' X.Q Ri fsrit Ji- It'liTUM _ fi , o lt lt r , 27 V5 O fi bhvtc , ' Jt fm maju -jr lt S I_1 a .V lt ' W hA j hi aunir V _ L J H ' III- if . , FIGURE 193. Fully assembled chemical balance belonging to Guillaume Fran ois Rouelle, demonstrator at the Jardin du Roi in Paris, depicted in the eighteenth-century encyclopedia published by Diderot and D'Alem-bert. G.F. Rouelle's demonstrations inspired Antoine Lavoisier to enter chemistry. Rouelle was a firm phlogis-tonist, and in...
PHLIPPO VLSTADIO PATRICIO Niercnbergcnii Auchore
FIGURE 106. Title page from Philip Ulstad's Heaven of the Philosophers, Nuremburg, 1528 from The Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a collection in the Othmer Library, CHF . Muske amp Amber greece, of each two drams, all these mired together distill after that these added amp put into the former distillation have remained five dayes the fire in the beginning soft, increase after by little and little unto the end of the work. The use of it, is, that the same may be applied in the winter...
The Atomic Weight Of Carbon And Related Confusions
Confusion over molecular formulas and atomic weights was an unfortunate byproduct of the early atomic theory. Dalton's Rule of Greatest Simplicity provided incorrect formulas such as HO for water and NH for ammonia. Although Gay-Lussac's Law of Combining Volumes 1808 , Avogadro's hypothesis 1811 , the Law of Dulong and Petit 1819 , and other studies began to clear up the confusion, it was not until Cannizzaro's 1858 paper and the 1860 Karlsruhe Conference that atomic formulas, equivalents, and...
Unifying The Infiniteandtheinfinitesimal
It is human nature to try to harmonize our universe to attempt to unify the infinite with the infinitesimal. Pythagoras and his followers developed a purely mathematical conception of the universe. As Pullman notes 1 Indeed, the Pythagoreans held that numbers are the essence of all things. Numbers are the source of what is real they themselves constitute the things of the world. Mendeleev developed the periodic table roughly 2400 years after Pythagoras died. He could not possibly have...
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FIGURE 312. The fundamental basis of the Periodic Table is the Atomic Number and not the Atomic Weight. The square root of the frequency of emitted x-rays from different metallic cathodes is imperfectly related to Atomic Mass but directly proportional to Atomic Number. This immediately explained certain anomalies in the Periodic Table. Henry G.J. Moseley, who made this critical discovery, was drafted in World War I and died at Gallipoli at the age of 28 figure from Born see Figure 309 .
The Electric Scalpel
Count Rumford, whose efforts led to the chartering of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1799, took note of the accomplishments and verve of the 23-year-old Humphry Davy, and had him appointed lecturer in chemistry in 1801.1,2 The fact that Davy had been critical of Lavoisier's caloric theory probably did not hurt his case. The handsome, poetic Davy was an immediate hit at the Royal Institution, attracting women as well as men to his lectures. He also worked on practical problems...
Pray And Work
Any chemist who has ever punted understands the poetic dictum of Saint Benedict of Montecassino 1,2 Ora et Labora Pray and Work . A series of well-planned, rational experiments may fail to yield an expected product, while a well-placed punt3 going for broke with a one-step, less rational . . . vacuum sublimation, for example sometimes works. The chemist depicted in Figure 124 may be trying just such a punt and pays homage to God whose all-encompassing wisdom is captured in his reaction vessel a...
Practical Metallick Chemistry
Figure 7 depicts the inside view of an assay laboratory of the late sixteenth century. Figures 7 to 17, like Figure 5, are from the 1736 edition of Ercker's Aula Sub-terranae . . . and were printed using plates from the 1574 edition.1 Figure 8 depicts a machine washing alluvial gold ores. The great density of gold, 19.3 g cm3 the density of water, 1.0 g cm3 mercury only 13.6 g cm3 , allows its ready separation from sand and other minerals. Figure 9 depicts the operations in making cupels....
Seeding The Earth Withmetals
Chemistry began to emerge as a science in the early seventeenth century. Its roots included practical chemistry the mining and purification of metals, the creation of jewelry, pottery, and weaponry , medicinal chemistry the use of herbs and various preparations made from them , and mystical beliefs the search for the Philosopher's Stone or the Universal Elixir . Figure 5 is the frontispiece from the final German edition 1736 of Lazarus Ercker's book Aula Subterranea , which was first published...
The Chemical Power Of A Current Of Electricity
The nineteenth century was a period of specialization in the sciences. Organic, inorganic, physical, and analytical chemistries emerged as disciplines. It is noteworthy that Michael Faraday 1791-1867 first saw Humphry Davy lecture at the Royal Institution in 1812, requested employment in his laboratory, and was appointed as laboratory assistant in 1813.1 Davy was knighted in 1812 and married a wealthy widow during that year. Although he resigned his Professorship at the Royal Institution in...
The First Tenpoundchemistry Text
The first systematic textbook of chemistry was the Alchemia, published in Frankfort in 1597 by Andreas Libavius ca. 1540 1616 .1 The title page of the beautiful enlarged and illustrated second edition, the Alchymia 1606, Frankfurt , is shown in Figure 135. My copy of this book is bound in ornate, Italian-tooled vellum, measures about 9 inches by 13 inches and weighs about 10 pounds. Libavius had a classical education and, in addition to obtaining the M.D. and serving as a physician, was...
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9lft gt ji cinrm 5JS o c i gt c r i dj t Con e cm. U3i i'tinn. JJrcf, una Kitur tri amp irt. Upfrtin tmb 8 ipjii -Brr t gt lt m tU n. 6n gt t gt entfl, SttftfetMirj u fiajfj be S rufuj - , FIGURE 195. Title page from the first Upsala and Leipzig edition of Carl Wilhelm Scheele's monumental work on air and fire. Although Scheele first discovered oxygen in 1771 or 1772, long delays in review by Bergman and publication allowed Joseph Priestley to be first in publishing oxygen's discovery 1774 ....
Co 1
Meyer's theory was essentially the reverse of Black's.1 Meyer's acidum pingue fatty or oily acid was said to be a component of all acids. When the mild alkalis which Black understood to be carbonates were reacted with acids, the effervescence indicated absorption of the acidum pingue found in all acids. Caustic alkalis were, as noted above, saturated with acidum pingue and thus did not effervesce when reacted with acids. The slippery feeling of caustic alkalies arose from the oily acid...
Crystals Can Diffract Xrays
X-rays were discovered accidentally by William R ntgen in 1895.1 He had a cathode-ray tube inside a cardboard box and nearby there was, by chance, a sheet of paper coated with phosphorescent material. When the tube was on, the phosphorescent material glowed in the dark. R ntgen found that the same penetrating radiation fogged photographic plates. He called the radiation x-rays and even took images of his own hand using them.1 R ntgen won the first Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 . Light diffraction...
Chapitre Xviii
FIGURE 54. and shun the frumious basilisk. The basilisk or cockatrice is a symbol for projection, the mysterious power of the Philosopher's Stone to transmute metals from a distance. Sometimes represented as a lizard, sometimes a combination of lizard and rooster, and sometimes as a serpent a spitting cobra . The mere glance of a basilisk is deadly. From Grevin, Deux Livres des Venins, 1568, 1567. Courtesy of The New York Academy of Medicine and B amp S Gventer Books each supplied copies of...
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2. Partington, op. cit., 1962, Vol. 3, pp. 205-234 237-297. 3. Partington 1962, op. cit., pp. 130-143. 4. Partington 1962, op. cit., pp. 471-479. 5. J.-P. Poirier, Lavoisier Chemist, Biologist, Economist transl. R. Balinski , University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1996, pp. 300-309. 6. Partington 1962, op. cit., pp. 426-434. 7. Poirier, op. cit., pp. 135-140. 8. Modern calorimetric data indicate that combustion of carbon graphite sufficient to produce exactly 1 ounce of carbon dioxide...
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, r Inn . jr. White calx of tin, or, Grey call of tin . . Wh.te oxyd of tm . .J puuy of . . .1 Martial ethiops . . j aad d f J Ochre and rail of iron . Black ox yd of manganefe Black calx of manganefe Wbiteoxyd ofmanganefe White calx of manganefe , ,, , , . rfTurbith mineral,red pre j Ethiops minerll f . . i Ycl,0W and red ids f cipiutc, calcined mer I mercury . . CUry, precipitate Yellow oxyd of gold . Yellow oxyd of platina Calx of no ybJena Calx of nickel . Yellow calx of gold Yellow calx...
Lavoisier In Love
Draft for a screenplay Lavoisier In Love. Noting the great critical and commercial success of the 1998 film Shakespeare In Love, we1 feel that the roughly 30-year period between 1772 and 1805 that witnessed the chemical revolution could furnish a blockbuster.2 Although we offer the idea later in a humorous vein, we honestly feel that an epic of more appropriate title could really be quite good. We see Kenneth Branagh directing the screenplay and playing Antoine Gwyneth Paltrow as the young...
Cavendish Weighed The Earth But Thought He Had Captured Phlogiston In A Bottle
Although we modern chemists go to some lengths to let the public know that we play tennis, like fast cars and stylish clothes, and are down-to-earth social-mixer types, we must admit that our passion for smelly, smoky mixtures will likely get us booted from most respectable country clubs. Henry Cavendish 1731-1810 was definitely an unworldly type. He lived with his father until the latter died in 1783, did not marry, communicated with his housekeeper using daily notes, and dressed in shabby,...
Apparatus Fob Chemical Cabinet Continued 1
5 .Pair of Scales and Set of Weights. 6 Mahogany Test Tube Stand amp 9 Th ree Phillip's Precipitating 10 Glass Triangle for Filters t 13 Blown Glass Decanting Funnel 14 Globe Retort and Kerr's Tube 17 Two large Green Glass ditto. 20 Wedgwood's Mortar amp Pestle. 21 Two ditto Capsules. Filtering, Litmus, and Turmeric l'jpers. FIGURE 243. Ede's 1837 student chemistry apparatus see Figure 242 . FIGURE 244. Ede's very simple and elegant student experiment for obtaining and trapping at 0 C, the deep...
The Magic Of Distillation
Most of us who have been lucky enough to perform distillations know the thrill of winning a clear spirit from a dark and dingy solution, capturing a pure oil from a messy residue and even witnessing the collected distillate's abrupt solidification into white crystalline needles. A crude fermentation mixture will, upon distillation, yield an intoxicating spirit of wine. Small wonder that a synonym for distillation is rectification making things right. Indeed, distillation itself may almost be...
The Chemical History Of A Candle
A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle London, 1861 New York, 1861 see Figure 287 a , derived from notes at Faraday's public lectures, is the culmination of a wonderful 60-year heritage of popularizing chemistry involving three individuals Humphry Davy, Jane Marcet, and Michael Faraday. We have already met Count Rumford, whose boring experiment Figure 222 disproved Lavoisier's caloric theory. He married the widowed Madame Lavoisier in 1805 and they effectively separated...
The Wolf And The Impure King
In 1617 Michael Maier wrote a gloriously illustrated book titled Atalanta Fugiens see Figure 82 for which he composed 50 fugues to accompany 50 illustrations emblems of the alchemical process.2 Alluding to the three principles sulfur, mercury, and salt each of Maier's fugues was composed as an epigram in three verses for three voices. In Brooklyn, this would translate as three voices for three verses. Figure 45, Emblem 24 from Atalanta Fugiens, is a chemically astute depiction of a purification...
Salamander As Spirit Of Fire
The salamander is used to depict the fiery masculine seed that survives and is nourished by the fire.6 The philosopher's stone is frequently likened to a seed FIGURE 46. The passionate struggle of the winged Green Lion volatile female principle sophic mercury and the Red Lion fixed male principle sophic sulfur from Atalanta Fugiens, fromThe Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a collection in the Othmer Library, CHF . FIGURE 46. The passionate struggle of the winged Green Lion volatile...
The Humble Gift Of Charcoal
Charcoal is hardly an awe-inspiring substance, yet it has played a critical role in human history. As noted in an earlier essay, charcoal's ability to strip phosphate of its oxygens at high temperature provided the surprised Brant with elemental white phosphorus. In modern terms we understand that the driving forces are thermodynamic. Carbon monoxide has the strongest covalent chemical bond in nature.1 Energetically, the creation of strong bonds at the sacrifice of weaker bonds is a powerful...
The Guinea Pig Asinternalcombustionengine
Since calorique was a simple substance an element , albeit imponderable, naturally Lavoisier wanted to measure it. Figure 212 shows the ice calorimeter designed by Lavoisier and Laplace. The fully assembled calorimeter is shown in Fig. 1 and the cutout view in Fig. 3. The basket ffff, with opening LM, is made of iron wire mesh and can be covered with lid GH. This basket holds the caloric-generating sample hot metal, hot liquid, or chemical reaction via mixing inside a suitable container ,...
The Man In The Rubbersuit
Antoine Lavoisier buried phlogiston theory and, in so doing, explained the basis of combustion and calcinations such as the rusting of iron. However, it is less widely appreciated that it was Lavoisier who first demonstrated that metabolism is simply a very slow combustion process. Where this metabolism actually occurred, heart, lungs, or both places, remained a mystery to him. It was apparent to John Mayow as early as 1674 that respiration removed something from atmospheric air and the...
Beautiful Seventeenthcentury Chemistry Texts
Following Libavius' Alchymia, a series of useful and beautifully illustrated textbooks appeared throughout the seventeenth century.1-3 Let us begin the Beguin Jean Beguin's Tyrocinium Chymicum The Chemical Beginner was first published in 1610. It went through more than 50 editions before the last in 1669. Figure 165 shows the title page depicting an alchemical Cupid for the 1660 edition. Nicolas Le F vre first published his Traict de la Chimie in 1660. The second French edition appeared in...
A Lecture On Platinum
ETTLLEMAN r Iil T amp SOB OF UHEMrBTRY, ROYAL IMBTJTCTIO r FOREIGN ABBOOLATE OF TDK AOA gt HT OV SClENaES, KTO. Delivered before ft tJitten l Auditory at th Royal kbtrfcnon of C bi t CarrAix during the Christmas Holiday. r 1S -1. HARPER amp BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARR. HARPER amp BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARR. FIGURE 287. a Title page from Michael Faraday's Chemical History Of A Candle the London edition was also published in 1861 . The book was not written by Faraday but...
The Ship Of Fools
In 1494, some 20 years prior to the Protestant Reformation, Sebastian Brant,1,2 a German poet and humanist, published a long poetic satire titled The Ship of Fools Das Narrenschiff . He has been termed a man of deep religious convictions and of stern morality, even to the point of prudishness.3 The book imagined a collection of fools reflecting mores and excesses that would have tickled the fancies of readers of the day by deflating recognizable character types. The ship, loaded with these...
To Be
Vtw m jm tenetentur onutid, amp inoprU u tonfejji Krritjte rt Nihil ex Veeretis mttgremw. NuM Keritattm cum eis qui decent, qu rimx, Sen. Printed for J. Cro key and arc to be fold at the Ship in St.PAuls Church-Yard. U4U FIGURE 141. The less polite version of the title page also included in Boyle's 1661 The Sceptical Chymist see Figure 140 from The Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a collection in the Othmer Library, CHF . The other prevailing vulgar opinion, dating from the time of...
Eulogy For Eudiometry
Eudiometers,1'2 at their simplest, were nothing more than inverted graduated tubes for measuring volumes of gases collected over water or above mercury if the gases were water-soluble see Fig. 11 in Figure 198 . The name is derived from the Greek for fine weather measure.2 The real power of eudiometry derived from the ability to measure volume changes when different gases reacted. Joseph Priestley employed very simple eudiometers for his studies of factitious airs such as nitrous air NO or...
Major groove deep wide
FIGURE 330. The compact structure of A-DNA courtesy Professor Catherine J. Murphy based on structures in Arnott and Chandrasekaran, Proceedings of the Second SUNYA Conversation in the Discipline Biomolecular Stereodynamics, R. Sarma ed. , Vol. 1, Adenine Press, 1981, pp. 99-122 courtesy Adenine Press . FIGURE 330. The compact structure of A-DNA courtesy Professor Catherine J. Murphy based on structures in Arnott and Chandrasekaran, Proceedings of the Second SUNYA Conversation in the Discipline...
Distillation In Alchemy
GEBER AND RHAZES ALCHEMISTS FROM THE BIBLICAL LANDS The Diocletian story see p. 106 is a nice one. However, it seems that Arabic alchemy only reached the West including Rome around the eleventh century, so the story may be charitably termed legendary.1 Most of our knowledge of Arabic alchemy derives from the writings of a mysterious eighth-century person named Jabir ibn Hayyan or Geber. Figure 95, the title page of De Alchimia Libri Tres Of Alchemy in Three Books , published in Strasbourg in...
Info Piz
4. J.-P. Poirier, Lavoisier Chemist, Biologist, Economist, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1993, pp. 110-112. 5. Gottschalk, op. cit., pp. 4-5. See also Conner's spirited defense of Marat's medical training Conner, op. cit., pp. 33-34. 7. J.P. Marat, Recherches Physiques sur le Feu, chez C. Ant. Jombert, Paris, 1780 9. Gottschalk, op. cit., pp. 1-31. 10. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, op. cit., Vol. 19, pp. 483-502. 11. Poirier, op. cit., pp. 328-333. 17. P. Weiss, The...
Phlogiston
B JOSEPH PRIESTLLY, i. c, . F. R. S. SV. trV. Hie hier, kic ifut tjl. VlRCiL. KORTilLTMLERLAND PRINTED leu THE AUTHOR u A. KENNEDY. M U C C. FIGURE 307. Joseph Priestley grouchily retained his belief in phlogiston theory through the end of his life. Here is a copy of his spirited defense that he signed and presented to an acquaintance. From The Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a collection in the Othmer Library, CHF. Rejecting Atomic Theory and Dismissing Continental Drift In this...
A Primeval Forest Of The Tropics
Organic chemistry appears to me like a primeval forest of the tropics, full of the most remarkable things wrote Friedrich Wohler to Berzelius in 1835.1 I remember receiving from my father his personal copy of Karrar's Organic Chemistry 3rd ed., 1947 on the eve of taking my first organic chemistry course along with the admonition that I needed to learn everything in it almost 1000 large pages . Thirty-five years later I realize that he may have been pulling my leg a bit, but it took me almost...
Chymicall Characters
This table of chemical symbols see Figure 6 is found in the book titled The Royal Pharmacopoea, Galenical and Chymical, According to the Practice of the Most Eminent and Learned Physitians of France, and Published with their Several Approbations, the English edition published in 1678. The author, Moses Charas, fled religious persecution in France to join the enlightened intellectual environment in the England of Charles II, who chartered the Royal Society. Its membership included Robert Boyle,...
White Phosphorus Distillation
Is there a stone that makes gold Yes. Is there a universal remedy Yes in 1698, no in 1761. Can metals be changed into one another alternately Yes. Can real gold be made by the art of chemistry Yes. As Newman notes,2 Obviously, Harvard was far from being an uncongenial place for the budding alchemist as late as 1771, Harvard undergraduates were defending the powers of the philosopher's stone and these were not only the New Age people . FIGURE 154. Eirenaeus Philalethes A Peaceful Lover of Truth...
Poor Old Lamarck
It is sad that the only thing we learn in school about Jean Baptiste Lamarck 1744 1829 1 is that he explained the long limbs and necks of giraffes by noting that they must continuously stretch and extend themselves, thus strengthening and slightly elongating their necks and legs during their lifetimes, and that these acquired improvements are inherited by their offspring. Successive generations would continue to improve in this manner we might now say evolve. This explanation was offered almost...
Gay-lussac Apparatus
These errors may appear to be negligible. While they would be for determining simple formulas such as CH4, the errors would be significant for formulas such as C18H38O and would interfere with the understanding of carbon's valence. Gay-Lussac and Thenard made the first accurate determinations of carbon content of organic compounds by using potassium chlorate KClO3 as the oxidizing agent.1 The sample for analysis and potassium chlorate were pressed together into a pellet, which was dropped...
The First Modernencyclopedia
The elegantly simple illustration of an alchemist tending his furnace, with distillation apparatus in the background, depicted in Figure 66 is found in the first edition of the Margarita Philosophica, published in 1503.1,2 It is the first modern encyclopedia of any importance3 and was printed less than fifty years after Johannes Gutenberg printed his first books in 1455. The Margarita Philosophica reflects the university curriculum at the end of the fifteenth century. It covers grammar, logic,...
The Compleat Apothecary
Le Fevre's book A Compendious Body of Chymistry see previous essay was noteworthy for its clarity concerning the construction of apparatus and execution of chemical operations. In Figure 116 a we see a superdeluxe philosopher's furnace or athanor with all of its accessories. Clearly, Charles II royally supported his Royal Professor in Chymistry and Apothecary-in-Ordinary to the royal household.1 One can only imagine the negotiations for start-up monies and moving expenses to bring this young...
Vulgar And Commonerrors
Why would a knowledgeable scholar like Porta reinforce incorrect information such as that heating of antimony produces lead Scientific experimentation was still only in its infancy. Early writers such as Pliny often turned folklore into fact. In his book Pseudodoxia Epidemica Or, Enquiries Into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths1 the physician Thomas Browne notes on page 83 And first we hear it in every mans mouth, and in many good Authors we reade it, That a Diamond,...
Paracelsus
Theophrastus Bombast Von Hohenheim 1493-1541 , who called himself Paracelsus, applied chemistry to effect medical cures and fathered a field called iatrochemistry. His break with the ancient medical doctrines of Galen was total and his tone intolerant and bombastic. He is recognized as having introduced experiment and observation into medical treatment. Rather than search for Paracelsan quotes, we borrow from the novel by Evan S. Connell, The Alchymist's Journal1 in order to gain insight into...