History of Chemistry (Thorpe)

"Bunsen first distinguished himself by his classical work on the compounds, obtained as the result of an inquiry into the nature of the so-called "fuming liquor of Cadet," an evil-smelling, highly poisonous, inflammable liquid formed by heating arsenious oxide with an alkaline . The investigation (1837-1845) is noteworthy, not only for the skill it exhibits in dealing with a difficult and highly dangerous manipulative problem, but also for the remarkable nature of its results and on account of their influence on contemporary chemical theory. The research, in the words of Berzelius, was the foundation-stone of the theory of compound radicals. The name cacodyl or kakodyl was suggested by Berzelius in allusion to the nauseous smell of the compounds of the new radical arsinedimethyl, As(CH3)2, as it was subsequently termed by Kolbe."

"Bunsen worked on problems of chemical geology, and made a long series of analyses of volcanic products."

"[H]e was a great teacher, and made the chemical school of Heidelberg no less famous than the schools of Giessen and Gottingen."

"Bunsen devised methods for determining the solubility of gases in liquids, for ascertaining the specific gravity of gases, their rates of diffusion, and of combination or inflammation."

"In 1859, in association with Kirchhoff, he devised the first methods of spectrum analysis, and explained this origin and significance of the in the solar spectrum, thus laying the foundations of solar and . The application of the spectroscope to analytical chemistry almost immediately resulted in his discovery of cœsium and ."

"[H]e invented the gas-burner... with which his name is inseparably associated, and which has been of inestimable service to operative chemistry and in the arts."

"His methods of ascertaining the specific heats of solids and liquids were simple, ingenious, and accurate."

"Bunsen was no theorist, and purely speculative questions had little or no interest for him."

"With [Leon] Schischkoff, he examined, in 1857, the products of fired ."

"In 1841 he invented the carbon-zinc battery, and applied it to the electrolytic production of metals, notably of , the properties of which he first accurately described."

"In In 1836 he succeeded Wöhler as teacher of chemistry in the Polytechnic School of Cassel, and in 1842 became Professor of Chemistry in the . In 1852 he was called to Heidelberg, and occupied the Chair of Chemistry there until his retirement in 1889."

"In 1855-1863 he carried out, in conjunction with Roscoe, a long series of investigations on the chemical action of light."

"He effected many improvements in analytical chemistry; devised the iodiometric method of volumetric analysis, and systematised the processes of water analysis."

"Thorpe's observation... that "Organic chemistry has been largely developed by the discovery from time to time of special reagents and special types of reactions which have shown themselves to be capable of extensive application" continues to be true to this day."

"Bunsen greatly improved the methods of gasometric analysis; these he applied, in conjunction with Playfair, to an examination of the gaseous products of the in the manufacture of iron, and thereby demonstrated the enormous waste of energy occasioned by allowing the gases to escape unused into the air, as was then the universal practice. This inquiry effected a revolution in the manufacture of iron as important, indeed, as that due to the introduction of the ."

"In 1844 he contrived the grease-spot photo-meter, which was long in general use for ascertaining the photometric value of illuminating gas."

"Copper is also found to a limited extent in the metallic state, but probably the greater part of that used by the ancients was obtained from its ores, which are comparatively abundant and readily smelted. It was also used for coinage by the Egyptians, and was fashioned by them into a variety of utensils and implements. The older writers drew no clear distinction between copper, , and ..."

"Silver... like gold, to have been coined into money. It was originally known as "white gold." Some of the oldest coins in existence are alloys of silver and gold, obtained probably by the fusion of naturally occurring argentiferous gold, such as the pale gold of the . Such an alloy was termed , from its resemblance in colour to ."

"[H]owever, in all allusions to chemia, even after the translation of the seat of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, it is implied that a knowledge of it was a sacred mystery, to be known only to the priesthood, and jealously guarded by them. It was characteristic of writers who had affixed an eternal stigma on Eve to make the sex in general answerable for an illicit knowledge of "things unfit for men to know.""

"Ethiopian and n gold were known from the earliest times, and crushing and gold washing were practised by the Egyptians. Representations of these processes have been found on Egyptian tombs dating from 2500 B.C. Gold-wire was used by the Egyptians for embroidery, and they practised plating, , and ing as far back as 2000 B.C."

"Leaden pipes were used by the Romans for the conveyance of water, and sheet lead was employed by them for roofing purposes. Argentarium was composed of equal parts of lead and tin; tertiarium, used as a solder, consisted of two parts of lead and one part of tin."

"Gold was undoubtedly one of the earliest metals to be made use of by men, as it probably was one of the first to be discovered. It occurs free in nature, and is met with in many rocks and in the sands of rivers. Its colour, lustre, and density would early attract attention... its malleability and ductility and the ease with which it could be fashioned, together with its unalterability, would render it valuable."

"[The] legend of the " feministic" origin of chemistry is... much older than the fifth century of our era, and is but a variant of that which, according to Jewish writers, led to the expulsion of man from Paradise. A similar myth was current among the Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, and Magi. ...Some of the ecclesiastics who elaborated these myths included the use of charms, a knowledge of gold and silver and precious stones, the art of dyeing, of painting the eyebrows, etc. the kind of arcana, in fact, which women in all ages were presumably most keen to know."

"Iron, although now the most important of the common metals, was not in general use until long after the discovery of gold, silver, and copper. ...[A]lthough its ores are relatively abundant and widely distributed, its extraction as a metal demanded greater skill and more appliances... Metallic iron was, however, well known to the Egyptians, who employed it in the manufacture of swords, knives, axes, and stone-chisels, both as malleable iron and as steel."

"Steel was... known to the Chinese as far back as 2220 B.C., and they were acquainted with the methods of tempering it. The good quality of Chinese steel caused it to be highly prized by Western nations."

"Mercury was familiar to Aristotle, and its mode of manufacture from is described by Theophrastus (320 B.C.), who terms it "liquid silver." Processes of amalgamation were known to Pliny, who notes the readiness with which mercury dissolves gold. Pliny appears to distinguish the native metal found in Spain, which he terms argentum vivum (quicksilver), from that obtained by sublimation or from , which he calls hydrargyrum, from which we get the chemical symbol for mercury Hg."

"[M]etallic compounds were known to the ancients, and were employed by them as medicines and as pigments. The oxides of copper, known as flos œris, and scoria œris, obtained by heating copper bars to redness and exposing them to air, were used as escharotics. , or œrugo, was made by the same methods as now. Blue vitriol, or chalcantum, is described by Pliny, who says that the blue transparent crystals are formed on strings suspended in its solution."

"', malachite, or copper carbonate, was used as a green pigment. The blue κύανος of the Greeks, or cœruleum of the Romans, was obtained by ting together alkali, sand, and oxide of copper. Botryitis, placitis, onychitis, ostracitis, were varieties of ' or oxide of zinc, obtained by calcining calamine, and were used in the treatment of ulcers, etc."

"Molybdena, which was the Latin name for , was employed externally as an and in the manufacture of plaster. The lead plaster employed by Roman surgeons was practically identical... with that in use to-day."

"Cerussa, or , was made as now by exposing sheets of lead to the fumes of . It was used in medicine, as a pigment, and in the preparation of cosmetics."

"China, India, Chaldæa have each in turn been regarded as the birthplace of the various technical processes from which chemistry may be said to have taken its rise. Nevertheless, it is mainly from Egyptian records, or from writings avowedly based on... Egyptian sources, that such knowledge... is derived."

"Lead was well known to the Egyptians. In Pliny's time it was mainly procured from Spain and from Britain ()."

"The Latin word for tin was stannum; it was also known as plumbum album, in contradistinction to lead, which was called plumbum nigrum. Tin was used by the Romans for covering the inside of copper vessels, and was also occasionally employed in the construction of mirrors."

"[I]t is through [the Jews] and the ns, who were among the earliest of traders, that Europe was gradually made acquainted with many technical products of Eastern origin."

"Tin ores are found in Britain (Cornwall), and were brought thence by the Phoenicians."

"The famous purpurissum was chalk or clay stained by immersion in a solution of ."

"Tin... known to the early Egyptians, would appear to have been first obtained from the , and to have been known under the Sanskrit name of Kastîra (Kâs, to shine), whence... the Arabic word for tin, Kàsdir, and the Greek κασσιτερος, used by Homer and Hesiod."

"The Egyptians were skilled in dyeing and in the manufacture of leather, and in the production and working of metals and alloys. They were familiar with the methods of tempering iron. They made glass, artificial gems, and enamels."

"Boerhaave gathers that chemistry was... originally denominated because it was considered of old as "not fit to be divulged to the populace, but treasured up as a religious secret""

"' was lamp-black: ivory-black was used by , and was known as elephantinum. The ink of the ancients consisted of lamp-black suspended in a solution of gum or glue. The atramentum indicum, imported from the East, was identical with China ink."

"The ancients were well skilled in the art of dyeing, and even of printing. The Tyrians produced their famous purple dye as far back as 1500 B.C. It was obtained from shell-fish, mainly species of , inhabiting the Mediterranean. Tyrian purple has been shown to be dibrom-indigo, and to have been produced by the action of air and light upon the juices exuded from the shell-fish."

"[T]he Egyptians were acquainted with the use of s ... [Pliny] accurately describes the process of madder dyeing on cotton, whereby a variety of fast colours—reds, browns, and purples—can be obtained from the same vat by the employment of different mordants, such as alumina, oxide of iron, or oxide of tin, etc."

"[L]arge quantities of glass were exported to Greece and Rome from Egypt, mainly by Phoenicians. Aristophanes mentions it as hyalos, and speaks of it as the beautiful transparent stone used for kindling fire."

"The Egyptians made use of various metallic oxides in colouring glass. The hœmatinon of Pliny was a red glass coloured with cuprous oxide. Cupric oxide was used to colour glass green; and ancient blue glass has been found to contain cobalt. The costly vasa murrhina of the Romans, obtained from Egypt, probably consisted of fluorspar, identical with the Blue John of the mines."

"Soap (sapo) is mentioned by Pliny, but its detergent properties were apparently unknown to him. It appears to have been first made by the , who prepared it from the ashes of the beech and the fat of goats, and used it as a pomatum, as did the jeunesse d'oreé of Rome. Wood ashes, as well as natron, were, however, used by the ancients for their cleansing properties."

"Starch, acetic acid, sulphur, alumen or crude sulphate of alumina, beeswax, , bitumen, naphtha, asphalt, nitrum (carbonate of soda), common salt, and lime, were all well known to the Egyptians, and were used by them for many of the purposes in which they are employed to-day."

"[T]he ancients possessed a considerable acquaintance with many operations of technical chemistry... Their methods were probably jealously guarded and handed down by successive members of the crafts as precious secrets. ...[T]he scientific spirit was not free to develop, for science depends essentially upon free inter-communication of facts ...Moreover, the great intellects of antiquity, for the most part, had little sympathy with the operations of artisans, who, at least among the Greeks and Romans, were, for the most part, slaves. Philosophers taught that industrial work tended to lower the standard of thought."

"The priests, in most ages, have looked more or less askance at attempts, on the part of the laity, to inquire too closely into the causes of natural phenomena. The investigation of nature in early times was impossible for religious reasons."

"The educated Greeks had no interest in observing or in explaining the phenomena of technical processes. However prone they might be to speculation, they had no inclination to experiment or to engage in the patient accumulation of the knowledge of physical facts. ...The influence of a spurious , which lasted through many centuries and even beyond the time of Boyle, was wholly opposed to the true methods of science, and it was only when philosophy had shaken itself free from that chemistry, as a science, was able to develop."

"The ancients were well acquainted with indigo and madder, and with the mode of manufacturing lakes, which were employed by Grecian artists."