Marvels of Scientific Invention: An Interesting Account in Non-Technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-Date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and Many Other Recent Discoveries of Science — John Shaqi
Marvels of Scientific Invention: An Interesting Account in Non-Technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-Date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and Many Other Recent Discoveries of ScienceCorbin, Thomas W.
Science
Marvels of Scientific Invention: An Interesting Account in Non-Technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-Date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and Many Other Recent Discoveries of Science
Corbin, Thomas W.
Inventions
We now enter for a while the realm of organic chemistry, a branch of
knowledge which is of supreme interest, since it covers the matters of
which our own bodies are constructed, the foods which we eat and the
beverages which we drink, besides a host of other things of great value
to us.
Although the old division of chemistry into inorganic and organic is
still kept up as a matter of convenience, the old boundaries between the
two have become largely obliterated. The distinction arose from the fact
that there used to be (and are still to a very great extent) a number of
highly complex substances the composition of which is known, for they
can be analysed, or taken to pieces, but which the wit of man has failed
to put together. Consequently these substances could only be obtained
from organic bodies. The living trees, or animals, could in some
mysterious way bring these combinations about, but man could not. The
molecules of these substances are much more complicated than those with
which the inorganic chemist deals. The important ingredient in them all
is carbon, which with hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen almost completes the
list of the simple elements of which these marvellous substances are
compounded. In some cases there appear to be hundreds of atoms in the
molecule.
If one takes a glance at a text-book on organic chemistry the pages are
seen to be sprinkled all over with C's and O's, N's and H's, with but an
occasional symbol for some other element.
Another feature of this branch which cannot fail to strike the casual
observer is the queer names which many of the substances possess.
Trimethylaniline, triphenylmethane and mononitrophenol are a few
examples which happen to occur to the memory, and they are by no means
the longest or queerest-sounding.
Another peculiarity about these organic substances is that a number of
them, each quite different from the others, can be formed of the same
atoms. Certain atoms of hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen form sulphuric
acid, and under whatever conditions they combine they never form
anything else. On the other hand, there are sixty-six different
substances all formed of eight of carbon, twelve of hydrogen and four of
oxygen. This can only mean that in such cases as the latter the atoms
have different groupings and that when grouped in one way they form one
thing, in another way some other thing, and so on. This explains the
extreme difficulty which the chemist finds in building up some of these
organic substances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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