How to Use the Popular Science Library; History of Science; General IndexServiss, Garrett Putman
History
How to Use the Popular Science Library; History of Science; General Index
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Popular science library; Science -- History
The numerous investigations now being made with the object of
discovering the various combinations of the elements led to many
improvements in chemical analyses. When we read Berzelius' accounts of
his analyses they seem to have been written only yesterday. He and his
contemporaries developed analytical and synthetic methods to almost the
efficiency that we see to-day.
We also owe to Berzelius a table of the elements showing their
electrical qualities, an electrochemical theory, identifying chemical
affinity with electric attraction, and a new nomenclature, besides a
vast amount of descriptive chemistry.
The discovery of the specific heats of various solid elements by
Dulong and Petit in 1819, and Mitscherlich's finding of the isomorphic
phenomena in 1818, resulted in the publication of a new atomic weight
table in 1826 by Berzelius.
The experiments made in isomorphism by Mitscherlich led him to discover
dimorphism and study crystallography. He used his knowledge of crystal
measurement extensively and developed synthetic chemistry and the laws
of crystallization.
Thompson, Prout, and Wollaston were working on problems in England
similar to those examined in Sweden by Berzelius and Mitscherlich.
Molecules were discriminated from atoms in 1826 by Jean Baptiste Dumas
and Faraday discovered his law of electrochemical action in 1834.
Organic chemistry originated in Manchester, England, when Dalton
read his paper before the Manchester Philosophic Society in 1803 on
the theory of atomic weights. This paper led Gay-Lussac, Thenard,
Berthollet, de Saussure and others to study organic analyses as devised
by Dalton. Gay-Lussac and Thenard greatly improved Dalton's methods
and in 1824, as shown by Chevreul's work on fats and greases, organic
analyses had been brought to high perfection.
The phenomena of substitution in hydrocarbon compounds like the
petroleum oils were studied by Laurent who proposed a theory of basic
nuclei. C₁₀H₈ being the nucleus of the naphthalene group and C₂H₄ that
of the ethylene group, derived nuclei can be obtained from these by
substitution and hydrogen and other elements acting on derived nuclei
from numerous hydrocarbon series.
The homology of the hydrocarbons was discovered by Gerhardt in 1844
while he was investigating the alcohols. Wurtz's work on the ammonia
compounds, Williamson's on the ethers, Hoffmann's on anilines, Graham's
and Liebig's on the citrates, and Frankland's, Kolbe's and Kekulé's
work on other compounds raised organic chemistry to such a high plane
that industrial chemists were able to use their theoretical conclusions
and build a great number of important industries upon organic
principles.
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