Chemists From England

"November the sixth following, viz. in the Year 1741 Martin Triewald, Captain of Mechanicks and Military Architect to the King of Sweden, and Fellow of the Royal Society at London, in a Letter to M.D. and Secretary of the Royal Society, says, that "this Spring he had invented a Machine, for the Use of his Majesty's Men of War, which went to block up Petersburgh, in order to draw out the bad Air from under their Decks, the least of which does exhaust 36172 cubick Feet of Air in an Hour,"..."

"It were a very extraordinary Circumstance that two Persons at so great a Distance from each other, without getting a Hint of it one from the other, should happen to hit on inventing a like very useful Engine."

"As these Ventilators are like to prove of great Benefit to Mankind, in many other Respects than are here mentioned, or can as yet be thought of; so it will be of great use, if those who shall have made farther Improvements, will... communicate them; as also an Account of the Difficulties or Success they have met with in putting the Things here proposed in execution."

"As the celebrated Tar-water, recommended by the worthy and learned Bishop Berkeley, is said to be taken with great Benefit by some, and Detriment by others; I thought it might probably be of use to inquire whether any, or what Quantity of Tar, there was in Tar-water, made with different kinds of Tar, different Degrees of stirring, and in different Ways of making it. A short Account of which I shall give, without interesting myself, either in Favour or Disfavour of a Medicine that is under the Inspection of the proper Judges, as well as of all the rest of the World."

"Having procured some Norway or Swedish Tar which was thirty Years old... I, according to the Bishop's Prescription, made Tar-water in the proportion of a Gallon of Water to a Quart of Tar, stirring it four Minutes: I then took a Pint of this Tar-water, and evaporated it away in a , cut to a wide Orifice... and weighed."

"When Tar-waters of different Degrees of Strength were put into Florence Flasks, with other inverted Flasks fixed on them, and all were placed in the same Vessel of hot Water; on breaking the upper Flasks, the volatile acid Spirit could very sensibly be tasted, especially that of the stronger Tar-water; which shows that these Waters are impregnated therewith: and which when distilled from Turpentine, Dr. Boerhaave in his Chemistry says, is the best vegetable Acid that is known."

"But whereas in some Cases, it is observed by Physicians to be too inflammatory, it is probable, that heating Quality, may in some Degree be abated, by making Tar-Water with the Strainer... without Stirring; thereby to divest the Water of a good Quantity of its grosser, tarrish Particles, and yet retain whatever Powers it may have to do good."

"It is hoped, that the Light given by these Researches, may be of use in skilful Hands, for regulating and adapting the due Proportions of the acid, and the oily Principles, to different Cases and Constitutions. This is the proper Province of the Physician, which I am no ways qualified to meddle in."

"Whence we may evidently see the Reason why those Liquors do so frequently cause those Obstructions and Stoppages in the Liver; which occasion the Jaundice, Dropsy, and many other fatal Diseases."

"It is in like manner also that they destroy and burn up the Lungs. Hence also it is, that by frequently contracting and shrivelling, and then soon after relaxing, they weaken and wear out the Substance and Coats of the Stomach, on which they more immediately prey, every time they are drank."

"For this [ventilator] invention Triewald was granted a privilege for life by the King and Senate of Sweden. He then wrote a "deduction" on the usefulness of ventilators... distributed among... naval officers. This "deduction" was read before the Royal Society in 1742. In it Triewald recommends the use of ventilators "in Hospitals and Barracks for the sick, Men-of-War and Hospital Ships.""

"In [1739] he reported to the Royal Society an account of some "further experiments towards the discovery of a medicine for dissolving the stone in the kidneys and bladder, and preserving meat in long voyages," and it was for this that he received the []. In the following year he published an account of some experiments and observations on Miss Stephens’ medicines for dissolving stone, in which their dissolving power was inquired into and demonstrated."

"During his residence in the college, a period of about twelve years (1696-1708 or 1709), he applied himself with great zeal to the study of natural and experimental philosophy."

"In William Stukeley... who came in 1704 to live in Corpus Christi College, Hales seems to have found a very congenial companion, though Stukeley was the younger by ten years. ...The two friends also studied anatomy together, dissecting frogs, dogs and other animals; while Hales devised an ingenious method of obtaining a preparation of the lungs in lead. They moreover studied chemistry and "repeated many of Mr. Boyle’s experiments" and prepared various substances, "some of use, some of curiosity.""

"The contributions of Hales to the "Philosophical Transactions" were numerous and dealt with a great variety of topics. ...the following [9 not shown here] may be enumerated... Whenever these papers seemed to him to be of value to the public or to deal with topics of general interest, he would publish a popularized version in the Gentleman's Magazine. But besides these abstracts this magazine contains numerous articles from his pen, of which the following [5 not shown here] are the more important..."

"The work and writings of Hales embrace a very broad field, which includes chemistry, botany, , medicine and public hygiene, not to mention sermons and temperance tracts."

"The Hales ventilators were nothing more than ingeniously contrived bellows which sucked the foul air from the rooms or spaces to be ventilated and blew it out of doors. When large, these bellows were worked by means of a wind-mill; when small, by hand."

"Sachs... writes that in the revival of which took place in the eighteenth century, the work of Hales was the most original and most important contribution."

"Hales made a careful study of gases, or, as he called them, "air.""

"It was in honor of Hales that John Ellis, the "bright star in Natural History," as Linnaeus has called him, named a newly discovered genus of plants '."

"In his experiments he must have prepared , oxygen, , and , and though they were all "air" to him, he introduced some important improvements in the way of chemical apparatus and manipulations, and was perhaps the first chemist to employ quantitative methods."

"In the Year 1683 Mr. Fitz-gerald, a near Relation of the Famous Robert Boyle Esq; having upon Mr. Boyle's encouragement made a Discovery of a new easy and practicable way of making salt Water fresh... Mr. Walcot asserted before the House of Commons, that Mr. Fitz-gerald's Water was rough, harsh, fiery, corroding and tormenting the Body when constantly drank of. This I suspect was the true Reason why both their Methods of preparing fresh Sea-Water were disused..."

"To him air was an element which entered into the composition of a surprising number of substances, and so he studied the generation and absorption of "air" during , and many other chemical processes."

"In 1739 he published an volume entitled: "Philosophical experiments: containing useful and necessary instructions for such as undertake long Voyages at Sea..." This work, which contained so many useful instructions for voyagers, was dedicated to the Lords of the Admiralty."

"Molecules that differ from each other by rotation about single bonds are called conformational isomers or conformers. Derek H. R. Barton (…) showed that the chemical and physical properties of complicated molecules can be interpreted in terms of their specific or preferred rotational arrangements and that a knowledge of the conformations of molecules is crucial to understanding the stereochemical basis of many reaction."

"I do not believe that the present flowering of science is due in the least to a real appreciation of the beauty and intellectual discipline of the subject. It is due simply to the fact that power, wealth and prestige can only be obtained by the correct application of science."

"The natural sciences are sometimes said to have no concern with values, nor to seek morality and goodness, and therefore belong to an inferior order of things. Counter-claims are made that they are the only living and dynamic studies... Both contentions are wrong. Language, Literature and Philosophy express, reflect and contemplate the world. But it is a world in which men will never be content to stay at rest, and so these disciplines cannot be cut off from the great searching into the nature of things without being deprived of life-blood."

"As he is of prodigious inventive head, so is a person of great vertue and goodnes. Now when I have sayd his inventive faculty is so great, you cannot imagine his memory to be excellent, for they are like two bucketts, as one goes up, the other goes downe. He is certainly the greatest mechanick this day in the world. His head lies much more to Geometry then to Arithmetique."

"Anno Domini 1666 the great conflagration of London happened, and then he was chosen one of the two surveyors of the citie of London; by which he hath gott a great estate. He built Bedlam, the Physitians' College, Montague-house, the Piller on Fish-street-hill, and Theatre there; and he is much made use of in designing buildings."

"'Twas Mr Robert Hooke that invented the Pendulum Watches, so much more usefull than the other watches."

"Anno Domini 1658... he was sent to Christ Church in Oxford, where he had a chorister's place (in those dayes when the church musique was putt downe), which was a pretty good maintenance. He was there assistant to Dr. Thomas Willis in his chymistry; who afterwards recommended him to the honble Robert Boyle, esqre, to be usefull to him in his chymicall operations. Mr Hooke then read to him (R.B. esqre) Euclid's Elements, and made him understand Des Cartes' Philosophy."

"When he went to Mr Busby's, the schoolemaster of Westminster, at whose howse he was; and he made very much of him. ...There he learnd to play 20 lessons on the organ. He there in one weeke's time made himselfe master of the first Vl bookes of Euclid, to the admiration of Mr. Busby... who introduced him. At schoole here he was very mechanicall, and (amongst other things) he invented thirty severall wayes of flying, which I have not only heard him say, but Dr. Wilkins (at Wadham College at that time) who gave him his Mathematical Magique which did him a great kindnes. He was never a King's Scholar, and I have heard Sir Richard Knight (who was his school-fellow) say that he seldome sawe him in the schoole."

"Anno Domini 1662 Mr. Robert Boyle recommended Mr. Robert Hooke to be Curator of the Experiments of the Royall Society, wherin he did an admirable good worke to the Common-wealth of Learning, in recommending the fittest person in the world to them. Anno 1664 he was chosen Geometry Professour at Gresham College."

"He hath invented an engine for the speedie working of division, etc., or for the speedie and immediate finding out the divisor."

"From his Youth he had been us'd to a Collegiate, or rather Monastick Life, which might be some reason of his continuing to live so like an Hermit or Cynick too penuriously, when his Circumstances, as to Estate, were very considerable, scarcely affording himself Necessaries. I indeed, as well as others, have heard him declare sometimes that he had a great Project in his Head as to the disposal of the most part of his Estate for the advancement of Natural Knowledge, and to promote the Ends and Designs for which the Royal Society was instituted... But tho he was often solicited by his Friends to put his Designs down in Writing, and make his Will as to the disposal of his Estate to his own liking in the time of his Health; and after when himself, and all thought, his End drew near, yet he could never be prevail'd with to perfect it, still procrastinating it, till at last this great Design prov'd an airy Phantom and vanish'd into nothing. Thus he dy'd at last without any Will and Testament that could be found."

"Being subject to headache which hindered his learning his father laid aside all thought of breeding him a scholar, and finding himself also grow very infirm through age and sickness, wholly neglected his further education, who, being thus left to himself, spent his time in making little mechanical 'Toys, (as he says) in which he was very intent, and for the Tools he had successful; so that there was nothing he saw done by any Mechanick but he endeavoured to imitate, and in some particular could exceed (which are his own words).' His Father, observing by these Indications, his great inclination to Mechanicks, thought to put him Apprentice to some easy Trade (as a Watchmakers or Limners) he shewing most inclination to those or the like Mechanical Performances; for making use of such Tools as he could procure, 'seeing an old Brass Clock taken to pieces, he attempted to imitate it, and made a wooden one that would go: 'Much about the same time he made a small Ship about a Yard long, fitly shaping it, adding its Rigging of Ropes, Pullies, Masts, &c. with a contrivance to make it fire off some small Guns, as it was Sailing cross a Haven of a pretty breadth: He had also a great fancy for drawing, having much about the same Age Coppied several Prints with a Pen, that Mr. Hoskins (Son to the famous Hoskins Cowpers Master) much admired one not instructed could so well imitate them."

"He always exprest a great Veneration for the eternal and immense Cause of all Beings, as may be seen in very many Passages in his Writings, and seldom receiv'd any remarkable Benefit from God without thankfully ackowledging the Mercy; never made any considerable discovery in Nature, invented any useful Contrivance, or found out any difficult Problem, without setting down his Acknowledgement to the Omnipotent Providence, as many places in his Diary testify, frequently in these or the like words, abbreviated thus, DOMGM. and was a frequent studier of the Holy Scripture in the Originals: If he was particular in some Matters, let us leave him to the searcher of Hearts."

"Thence with Creed to Gresham College, where I had been by Mr. Povy the last week proposed to be admitted a member; and was this day admitted... But it is a most acceptable thing to hear their discourse, and see their experiments; which were this day upon the nature of fire... Above all, Mr. Boyle to-day was at the meeting, and above him Mr. Hooke, who is the most, and promises the least, of any man in the world that ever I saw."

"November the 29th 1693, Dr Hook read a Discourse concerning Microscopes, their Uses and Advantages in discovering the Textures and Motions of Bodies, as well animate as inanimate; observing, that all Examinations by Fire, or Chymical Menstruums, destroyed or altered the compounding Particles, or mix'd them with, and confounded them with heterogeneous Parts of the Fire, or Menstruum, made Use of; whereas the Microscope discovers them in their natural State and Actions. Observing farther, that the Motions of the Viscera and of the Fluids, in the small Vessels, are, by that Instrument, to be seen, by their different Colours and Refractions, through the transparent Skins and Bodies of many Insects: Natural History, hitherto, being for the most Part only conversant about the outward Shape and Colour of Plants, Animals, and the like; but the Microscope would afford a very large Field of Enquiries and Observations not yet much cultivated, which he recommends as one of the most proper Ways of discovering the true Texture and Mechanism of Bodies."

"All his Errors and Blemishes were more than made amends for, by the Greatness and Extent of his natural and acquired Parts, and more than common, if not wonderful Sagacity, in diving into the most hidden secrets of Nature, and in contriving proper Methods of forcing her to confess the Truth. ...There needs no other Proof for this than the great number of Experiments he made, with the Contrivances for them, amounting to some hundreds; his new and useful Instruments and Inventions, which were numerous, his admirable Facility and Clearness, in explaining the Phænomena of Nature, and demonstrating his Assertions; his happy Talent in adapting Theories to the Phænomena observ'd, and contriving easy and plain, not pompous and amusing, Experiments to back and prove those Theories; proceeding from Observations to Theories, and from Theories to farther trials, which he often asserted to be the most proper method to succeed in the interpretation of Nature. For these, his happy Qualifications, he was much respected by the most learned Philosophers both at home and abroad: And as with all his Failures, he may be reckon'd among the great Men of the last Age, so had he been free from them, possibly, he might have stood in the Front. But humanum est errare."

"The next moneth he published another little... pamphlet,—Discourse of a new instrument he haz invented to make more accurate observations in astronomy then ever was yet made, or could be made by any instruments hitherto invented, and this instrument... performes more, and more exact, then all the chargeable apparatus of the noble Tycho Brache or the present Hevelius of Dantzick."

"He could... produce delightful drawings. Hooke was justifiably proud of his skills as an artist. It was a talent that he shared with his college friend Christopher Wren—by the late 1650s they had begun making exquisite drawings of insects and other natural phenomena viewed with the high-magnification help of the new microscope."

"The flexible chain, hanging under the action of applied force, will assume a certain shape, namely the catenary if the chain is subjected only to its own weight, or a if the load is uniformly distributed horizontally. Whatever the load, there will be a corresponding shape, and the structural action in all cases is the same; purely tensile forces are transmitted along the centre line of the chain. As Hooke saw in 1675 with his ut pendet continuum flexile, sic stabit contiguum rigidum inversum, ...a hanging chain may be inverted to give a satisfactory arch to carry the same loads, but working in compression rather than tension. The compressive arch, however, if of vanishingly small thickness, would be in unstable equilibrium, and stability is conferred in practice by making the arch ring of finite depth."

"Historically, the investigations of oscillatory motions was motivated by the desire to improve methods of telling time. ...In the seventeenth century the need to measure small periods of time accurately for the purpose of telling longitude at sea caused scientists to search for increasingly accurate clocks. The search resulted in some major successes that were at least as valuable for the advancement of mathematics and the study of other phenomena of nature, such as light and sound, as they were for the specific problem of measuring time. Scientists naturally concentrated on any physical phenomena that seemed to be periodic or repetitive and might therefore be related to the periodic motion of the planets. Two phenomena recommended themselves for closer investigation, the motion of an object or bob... on a spring, and the motion of a pendulum. The first of those attracted the attention of Robert Hooke... Suppose d is the increase or decrease in the length of the spring resulting from extension or contraction. Hooke found that the restoring force the spring exerts is proportional to d; that is, the force is a constant k, say, times d. This is the meaning of [Ut tensio, sic vis ("as the extension, so the force")]..."

"In a... controversy with Hevelius, Hooke prejudiced a good cause by bad manners. Hevelius having ignored his recommendation of telescopic sights, he [Hooke] devoted several Cutlerian lectures to unfriendly comments on that 'curious and pompous book,' the 'Machina Cœlestis.' Hooke's acrid, though just, arguments were collected as 'Animadversions on the First Part of the "Machina Cœlestis"' (1674), in which he inserted descriptions of a 'water-level' and of a mode of giving clockwork motion to a parallactic instrument. There is no doubt of Hooke's priority in the application of a spiral spring to regulate the balance of watches; but here again his peevish temper brought him discredit. The invention, arrived at about 1668, was designed to solve the problem of longitudes, and Boyle and Brouncker endeavoured to secure him a patent, but he declined their terms, and concealed the improvement until Huygens rediscovered it in 1675. He then caused some of his 'new watches' to be constructed by Tompion (one of which was presented to Charles II), and published the principle involved in them of the isochronism of springs in the maxim 'ut tensio, sic vis,' appended in cryptographic form to 'A Description of Helioscopes' (1676). A quarrel with Oldenburg on the subject culminated in Hooke's accusation of him as 'a trafficker in intelligence,' an expression which the Royal Society obliged him to withdraw. It was contained in a postscript to his 'Lampas, or a Description of some Mechanical Improvements of Lamps and Water-poises' (1677)."

"By 1678 he had formulated the idea of gravitation as a universal principle; and by 1679 he, too, had discovered that the diminution of the force of gravity is proportional to the square of the distance. In this period it would appear that Newton... seemed to be less sure of his apprehension than Hooke. At the same time [Newton] was called upon for mathematical help... Hooke was to claim the priority in respect of the whole gravitational theory, and because Newton had been secretive about his work in 1665-66, because many of Hooke's own papers disappeared, and because Newton's memory was defective sometimes—or his accounts unreliable—the controversy... has been renewed in recent years. But... Hooke did not produce the mathematical demonstrations of his system. ...in the crucial period he was developing his mathematical powers more than was once imagined... His reputation has risen, with... research... though the glory of Newton has not been eclipsed."

"To complete the theory of reflexion and on the undulatory hypothesis, it will be necessary to show what becomes of those oblique portions of the secondary waves, diverging in all directions from every point of the reflecting or refracting surfaces... which do not conspire to form the principal wave. But to understand this, we must enter on the doctrine of the interference of the rays of light,—a doctrine we owe almost entirely to the ingenuity of Dr. Young, though some of its features may be pretty distinctly traced in the writings of Hooke, (the most ingenious man, perhaps, of his age,) and though Newton himself occasionally indulged in speculations bearing a certain relation to it. But the unpursued speculations of Newton, and the appercus of Hooke, however distinct, must not be put in competition, and, indeed, ought scarcely to be mentioned with the elegant, simple, and comprehensive theory of Young,—a theory which, if not founded in nature, is certainly one of the happiest fictions that the genius of man has yet invented to group together natural phenomena..."

"When any body is strained beyond a certain amount and then released, it fails to return completely to its original form and volume or it retains a permanent set. The largest strain of any kind which a body may undergo and still completely recover from when released is called the limit of elasticity for that form of strain, and the corresponding stress is called the limiting stress. The limit of elasticity is... widely different for different substances. Thus, rubber may be greatly extended and yet recover, while the limit for glass and ivory is very small. ... Within the limit of elasticity a simple law, first stated by Hooke in 1676 and known as Hooke's law, holds, namely, "stress is proportional to strain." (Hooke's statement in Latin was "Ut tensio sic vis.") Hooke illustrated his law by various cases of strain, such as the stretching of a spiral spring and of a wire, the bending of a beam, the twisting of a wire, and so on."

"Hooke merited a larger share of the admiration of posterity than has hitherto been awarded to him..."

"Robert Hooke was the first to announce that the force of the spring is as its angular distance from its position of rest. It seems, indeed, from his posthumous works, edited by Waller.... that Hooke, as early as 1656, had under the form of an anagram, expressed the law Ut pondus sic tensio. I have therefore little doubt that to Hooke we owe the invention of the fusee, one of the most beautiful of the many contrivances required to make a perfect timekeeper."