chemists-from-scotland

"The difficulties which Arkwright encountered in organizing his factory system, were much greater than is commonly imagined. In the first place, he had to train his work-people to a precision in assiduity altogether unknown before, against which their listless and restive habits rose in continual rebellion; in the second place, he had to form a body of accurate mechanics, very different from the rude hands which then satisfied the manufacturer; in the third, he had to seek a market for his yarns; and in the fourth, he had to resist competition in its most odious forms. From the concurrence of these circumstances, we find that so late as the year 1779, ten years after the date of his first patent, his enterprise was regarded by many as a doubtful novelty."

"The processes that may be employed, to give to portions of inert matter, precise movements resembling those of organized beings, are innumerable, as they consist of an indefinite number and variety of cords pulleys, toothed-wheels, nails, screws, levers, inclined-planes, as well as agencies of air, water, fire, light, &c., combined in endless modes to produce a desired effect Ingenuity has been long exercised on such combinations, chiefly for public amusement or mystification, without any object of utility."

"Of the early management pioneers, history has provided us with the best records for four men: Robert Owen, Charles Babbage, Andrew Ure, and Charles Dupin... Ure knew the French engineer and management writer Charles Dupin, and when Dupin visited Great Britain in 1816–1818, Ure escorted him around the Glasgow factories. Dupin commented that many of the managers of these factories were Ure’s own students."

"Another forerunner of modern organization theorists was Andrew Ure, a professor of chemistry. An enthusiastic proponent of “the factory system,” Ure (1835) took a step beyond Adam Smith. Whereas Smith’s pin factory was solely an example of division of labor, Ure pointed out that a factory poses organizational challenges. He asserted that every factory incorporates “three principles of action, or three organic systems”: (a) a “mechanical” system that integrates production processes, (b) a “moral” system that motivates and satisfies the needs of workers, and (c) a “commercial” system that seeks to sustain the firm through financial management and marketing. Harmonizing these three systems, said Ure, was the responsibility of managers."

"There are only two ores of tin: the peroxide, tin-stone, or Cassiterite; and tin pyrites, sulphide of tin, or Stannine: the former of which alone has been found in sufficient abundance for metallurgical purposes."

"The stanniferous small veins, or thin flat masses, though of small extent, are sometimes very numerous, interposed between certain rocks, parallel to their beds, and are commonly called tin-floors."

"The final tin-dip is useful to remove the marks of the brush, and to make the surface uniformly bright."

"One event has been adduced in evidence of the uncertainty of his condition, which ought to excite interest in his behalf. He parted from his wife in 1779, because she would not agree to join him in converting some landed property into money, for the sale of which her consent was required by law. The property was worth, it is said, little more than four hundred pounds. Mrs. Arkwright entertained a high esteem for her husband, and always spoke of him with respect; yet she preferred separating from him, to the chance of being beggared by placing her dowry in so precarious a concern as she then thought the water-spinning frame to be. For some years after this event she lived altogether upon her own means. Mr. Arkwright was justly indignant at this want of sympathy in one so nearly related to him, and in consequence allowed her only thirty pounds a year, out of his own pocket, even when he had realized great opulence. These particulars are given by Mr. Guest on the authority of Sir Richard Arkwright’s niece, probably a disappointed and prejudiced person"

"of the body was immediately agitated with convulsive movements resembling a violent shuddering from cold. ... On moving the second rod from hip to heel, the knee being previously bent, the leg was thrown out with such violence as nearly to overturn one of the assistants, who in vain tried to prevent its extension. The body was also made to perform the movements of breathing by stimulating the phrenic nerve and the diaphragm. When the supraorbital nerve was excited 'every muscle in his countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action; rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous expressions in the murderer's face, surpassing far the wildest representations of Fuseli or a Kean. At this period several of the spectators were forced to leave the apartment from terror or sickness, and one gentleman fainted.'"

"The present is distinguished from every precenn hvjh vding age by an universal ardour of enterprise in arts and manufactures. Nations convinced at length that war is always a losing game, have converted their swords and muskets into factory implements, and now contend with each other in the bloodless but still formidable strife of trade. They no longer send troops to fight on distant fields but fabrics to drive before them those of their old adversaries in arms, and to take possession of a foreign mart. To impair the resources of a rival at home, by underselling his wares abroad, is the new belligerent system, in pursuance of which every nerve and sinew of the people are put upon the strain."

"Great Britain may certainly continue to uphold her envied supremacy, sustained by her coal, iron, capital, and skill, if, acting on the Baconian axiom, " Knowledge is Power," she shall diligently promote moral and professional culture among all ranks of her productive population."

"The present volume, introductory to a series of works in more ample detail, is submitted to the public as a specimen of the manner in which the author conceives technological subjects should be discussed."

"Being advised by his medical friends to try the effects of travelling, with light intellectual exercise, he left London in the latter end of last summer, and spent several months in wandering through the factory districts of Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, &c., with the happiest results to his health; having everywhere experienced the utmost kindness and liberality from the mill-proprietors."

"Manufacture is a word, which, in the vicissitude of language, has come to signify the reverse of its intrinsic meaning, for it now denotes every extensive product of art, which is made by machinery, with little or no aid of the human hand; so that the most perfect manufacture is that which dispenses entirely with manual labour."

"A mechanical manufacture being commonly occupied with one substance, which it conducts through metamorphoses in regular succession^ may be made nearly automatic; whereas a chemical manufacture depends on the play of delicate affinities between two or more substances, which it has to subject to heat and mixture under circumstances somewhat uncertain, and must therefore remain, to a corresponding extent, a manual operation."

"It is in a cotton mill, however, that the perfection of automatic industry is to be seen; it is there that the elemental powers have been made to animate millions of complex organs, infusing into forms of wood, iron, and brass an intelligent agency."

"He had discovered that a cubic inch of marble consisted of about half its weight of pure lime, and as much air as would fill a vessel holding six wine gallons. ...What could be more singular than to find so subtle a substance as air existing in the form of a hard stone, and its presence accompanied by such a change in the properties of that stone? … It is surely a dull mind that will not be animated by such a prospect."

"Black discovered the difference between weak and strong s, i.e. between the alkali s and s. The work... is essentially quantitative, and... leads into... gas analysis, which was to play a very important role in providing a new chemical theory. ...Black ...first showed that and were two different substances. Although both effervesce when treated with s... [m]agnesium carbonate does not form common lime when heated strongly, and on cooling, the residue is insoluble in water. This product of ignition (oxide) however forms the same salts with acids as does the original salt (carbonate) with the difference that no effervescence occurs. Black also observed that during ignition "air" () is lost, and supposed that to be responsible for the loss of weight as well as for the effervescence... [H]e dissolved the magnesium oxide in sulphuric acid and then precipitated the magnesium with . ...[T]he composition of the precipitate was identical with that... before the ignition... He... concluded that alkali carbonates were not elemental substances, as had been originally thought, because they give "air" to the... oxide... [the] same "air"... responsible for the effervescence... Black then [examined] lime and limestone and applied similar experiments. He established that the air was not identical with atmospheric air... only a component... called by Black "fixed air"... that part... absorbed by lime and the alkali hyroxides. ...[T]he relationship... is similar to that between alkalis and acids... alkalis are "in some measure neutralized" by the fixed air. However, the relation between acids and alkalis is stronger as the acid drives out the fixed air."

"Black... began a new epoch in Chemistry and Physics, by his fundamental work on Heat, and on the nature of chemical combination; and his name must ever remain associated with those of other illustrious Scotsmen of his day as one who led the way in chemical research and its technical applications."

"Black's celebrated thesis ...gained for him not merely the degree of Doctor of Medicine, but also brought his name before every "philosopher" in Europe and America as that of a man who had made a discovery of more fundamental influence on the progress of Chemistry than any which had previously been described."

"In the olden days it was considered quite as marvellous that a gas could be made to occupy a small volume, or that "air" could be produced in quantity from a stone, as that an Arabian "djinn" of enormous size and ferocious mien could issue from a bottle..."

"[I]n the middle of the seventeenth century Robert Boyle had enunciated his famous discovery, "Touching the Spring of the Air"; in which he proved that the greater the pressure to which a gas is exposed the smaller the volume it will occupy. But however great the pressure, Boyle's air remained air."

"It was Black's discovery of the production of carbonic-acid gas, or, as he named it, "fixed air," from , which first directed notice to this possibility of the production of a gas from a solid; and, further, the peculiar property of this gas its power of being fixed was one which completely differentiated it from ordinary air."

"Stephen Hales... had distilled many substances of vegetable, animal, and mineral origin ; among them he treated many which must have produced impure hydrogen, marsh-gas, carbonic-acid gas, and oxygen; but Hales contented himself with measuring the volume of gases obtained from a known weight of material, without concerning himself as to their properties. And, as the result of many experiments, he concluded that "our atmosphere is a chaos, consisting not only of elastick, but also of unelastick air-particles, which in plenty float in it, as well as the sulphureous, saline, watry, and earthy particles, which are no ways capable of being thrown off into a permanently elastick state, like those particles which constitute true permanent air." This was the current belief as regards the nature of air."

"[I]t was with the object of discovering a "milder alkali," and bringing it into the service of medicine, that Black began his experiments on magnesia. They are described in... "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances"... his thesis for the... M.D... at Edinburgh in 1754; he had been making the experiments since 1752. The actual thesis was in Latin: "De Humore Acido a Cibis orto, et Magnesia Alba"; the pamphlet was published in the following year."

"As Dr. Black had never anything for ostentation, he was at all times precisely what the occasion required, and no more. Never did anyone see Dr. Black hurried at one time to recover matter which had been improperly neglected on a former occasion. Everything being done in its proper season and place, he ever seemed to have leisure in store; and he was ready to receive his friend or acquaintance, and to take his part with cheerfulness in any conversation that occurred."

"As he advanced in years, his countenance continued to preserve that pleasing expression of inward satisfaction, which, by giving ease to the beholder, never fails to please. His manner was perfectly easy and unaffected, and graceful. He was of most easy approach, affable, and readily entered into conversation, whether serious or trivial. His mind being abundantly furnished with matter, his conversation was at all times pertinent and agreeable. He was a stranger to none of the elegant accomplishments of life."

"I do not imagine that Mr. Black's researches at this time (or perhaps at any time) have been keen or pertinacious. This could not accord with the native gentleness of his mind; but his conceptions being distinct, and his judgment sound, his progress in scientific research, if slow, was steady, and his acquisitions were solid. Perhaps this moderation and sobriety of thought was his happiest disposition, and the most conducive to his improvement."

"During the period in which the theory of phlogiston reached its zenith, four names stand out in bold relief. They are those of Joseph Black (1728–99), Henry Cavendish (1731–1810), Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–86), and Joseph Priestley (1733–1804). Of these men the last three were steadfast adherents of the theory, while Black seems to have been indifferent, devoting himself to his researches and placing his own interpretation upon his results."

"In all essentials, Black's explanation is identical with our own, and the careful logic of his procedure makes his monograph conspicuous at once among the multitude of useful researches which were now beginning to bear witness to the new spirit in chemistry."

"His only other important discovery was that of the s, but he is nevertheless correctly regarded as one of the greatest chemists of one of the most fruitful periods of chemistry, and his fame rests upon impregnable foundations."

"Black's research began in an attempt to produce a milder [for medicinal use] from Epsom salts. ...He commenced by studying the different forms of lime. , when heated in a fire, became activated, and this quicklime, when placed in water, generated much heat, and was transformed into slaked lime. The limestone was supposed to have absorbed phlogiston from the fire and later to have lost it to the water. Black heated a weighed quantity of marble and found that in the process it lost weight, thus giving the first blow to the phlogiston theory. He next showed that if slaked lime be treated with a mild alkali, such as , it is changed again to chalk, while the mild alkali becomes caustic alkali."

"In modern nomenclature the changes are:"

"Black realized that when or was heated, a gas which he called fixed air was released. He was able to collect the gas, which we know as , and to study its properties. He was also able to show that carbon dioxide was a normal constituent of the air because quicklime was changed into ordinary chalk, albeit tardily, by exposure to air. This was the first atmospheric gas to be isolated and described. The discovery heralded the dawn of a new era in chemical investigation, and so Black is often given the title-Father of Pneumatic Chemistry."

"Much of Black's success was due to his accuracy in weighing. The experiments quoted are the first example of a reversible chemical reaction. A certain weight of chalk is taken in experiment 1 and the same weight is recovered at the end of experiment 3. In the words of Sir William Ramsay, "his proof that the change of a complex compound to simpler compounds, and the building up of a complex compound from simpler ones, can be followed successfully by the use of the balance, has had for its consequence the whole development of chemistry." On this score he has been called the Father of Quantitative Chemistry."

"Black was Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow and Edinburgh successively, and although he published only three papers on chemical subjects, these were models of accuracy and logic, and may still be read with profit by the novice—and indeed by the mature chemist. The most important of the three is entitled Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances, published in 1756. A modern reprint of it was made by the Alembic Club..."

"In the early part of my chymical studies, the author whose works made the most agreeable impression on my mind was Markgraaf of Berlin; he contrived and executed his experiments with so much chymical skill that they were uncommonly instructive and satisfactory; and he described them with so much modesty and simplicity, avoiding entirely the parade of erudition and self-importance, with which many other authors encumber their works, that I was quite charmed... and said to Dr. Cullen I would rather be the author of Markgraaf's Essays than of all the Chymical works in the library. The celebrated Reaumur's method of writing appeared to me also uncommonly pleasing. After 3 years spent with Dr. Cullen, I came to Edinburgh to finish my education in medicine. Here I attended the lectures of Dr. Munro, senr. and the other medical Professors, until the summer of the year 1754, when I received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and printed my inaugural Dissertation De Humere Acido a Cibis Orto et Magnesia Alba."

"Most Honrd Sir Your most affectionate letter of the 8th Aprill shews you in such a light as must warm the heart of a son with the highest degree of gratitude and affection."

"Others in the pursuits after happiness or pleasure must commonly seek those sources of it which they cannot enjoy without some inconvenience to the rest of their fellow creatures; hence they have their imaginary happiness so much soured by Envy, Jealousy, or self-disapprobation that they find themselves dissappointed."

"Your happiness on the contrary is quite secure because you place it entirely in making others happy and doing those things to the utmost of your power which you can afterwards reflect upon with satisfaction. I must own your letter had that effect upon me that it made me apply to my work with double eagerness and alacrity with the hopes of being some time what you are at present."

"I am not yet installed into the order of the great wig, but have gone through all the examinations, & nothing is wanting but the ceremony, that has been put off by the Processors to wait for some others that are to be promoted along with me 6 days hence."

"In my last letter to you I proposed to go immediately to London to spend some time in the Hospitals there. I am now advised to put that off and remain here yet a while longer; & I must own the reasons for it are very strong quite unanswerable by me unless you disapprove of them. The following are the chief of them."

"I have now studied the Theory of medicine & have likewise been taught every thing upon the Practice which can be learned in a College. I have also seen some real Practice & have even practised a little myself. But all this is not enough."

"I should be thoroughly acquainted with the real Practice & this is a thing very different from what can be learned in a College; thus for instance we are taught by our Professors that if a sick person breaths with great difficulty, one thing must be done; if his respiration is yet more laborious, another. But how shall we judge of the nice degrees of laborious breathing unless from a dayly & familiar acquaintance with, & study of, the appearances and looks of Patients &c. Most young Physicians neglect this essential point of their art in their education & very often acquire it when they come to Practice at the expense of their patients' safety."

"I have not had time this last winter to apply to it sufficiently; tho I had the opportunities, my attention was too much taken up with some of the Colleges, preparing my Thesis, & recalling to my mind everything I had learned, on account of the examinations."

"If I go to London to acquire this part of medicine, I may see a good deal of Practice, but I am a stranger there, & have no acquaintance whom I can venture to trust so much or be so familiar with as to trouble him with all my questions and doubts.—On the contrary here, medicine is allowed on all hands to be in a very flourishing condition. It is practised in the most rational & simple manner."

"I have the happiness to be lodged with a Gentleman who is justly esteemed by all his Brethren, who has extensive practice both as a Physician & Surgeon & tho no Doctor himself, yet the oldest of them are not ashamed to consult with him in private. Besides this he is my intimate & familiar Friend & is willing upon every occasion to teach me as far as he knows himself."

"When I am well instructed in a method of Practice here, a very short time of London will be sufficient; for then I need only observe the different manner of doing the same thing there, which I shall soon be master of."

"These, sir, are the chief of the reasons which have been urged to me for staying here some time longer & which I thought so good that I determined to acquaint you with them & in the meanwhile [I] will employ my time to the best advantage till I have your opinion of them. I am Dr Sir Your most affecte & Dutyfull Son,"

"The quantitative investigations of Black on the burning of lime and magnesia alba, in which the balance (previously characterized by the French chemist Jean Rey as "an instrument for clowns") was applied at every turn, led to the rejection of a hypothetical "principle of causticity," and replaced it by a "sensible ingredient of a sensible body," fixed air."