The History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2)Thomson, Thomas
History
The History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2)
Thomson, Thomas
Chemistry -- History
In the Memoirs for 1822 we have his analysis of the mineral waters
of Carlsbad. In 1823 he published his experiments on uranium, which
were meant as a confirmation and extension of the examination of this
substance previously made by Arfvedson. In the same year appeared his
experiments on fluoric acid and its combinations, constituting one of
the most curious and important of all the numerous additions which
he has made to analytical chemistry. In 1824 we have his analysis of
phosphate of yttria, a mineral found in Norway; of polymignite, a
mineral from the neighbourhood of Christiania, where it occurs in the
zircon sienite, and remarkable for the great number of bases which it
contains united to titanic acid; namely, zirconia, oxide of iron,
lime, oxide of manganese, oxide of cerium, and yttria. We have also
his analysis of arseniate of iron, from Brazil and from Cornwall; and
of chabasite from Ferro. In this last analysis he mentions chabasites
from Scotland, containing soda instead of lime. The only chabasites in
Scotland, that I know of, occur in the neighbourhood of Glasgow; and
in none of these have I found any soda. But I have found soda instead
of lime in chabasites from the north of Ireland, always crystallized
in the form to which Hauy has given the name of _trirhomboidale_. I
think, therefore, that the chabasites analyzed by Arfvedson, to which
Berzelius refers, must have been from Ireland, and not from Scotland;
and I think it may be a question whether this form of crystal, if it
should always be found to contain soda instead of lime, ought not to
constitute a peculiar species.
In 1826 we have his very elaborate and valuable paper on sulphur salts.
In this paper he shows that sulphur is capable of combining with
bodies, in the same way as oxygen, and of converting the acidifiable
bases into acids, and the alkalifiable bases into alkalies. These
sulphur acids and alkalies unite with each other, and form a new class
of saline bodies, which may be distinguished by the name of _sulphur
salts_. This subject has been since carried a good deal further by
M. H. Rose, who has by means of it thrown much light on some mineral
species hitherto quite inexplicable. Thus, what is called _nickel
glance_, is a sulphur salt of nickel. The acid is a compound of sulphur
and arsenic, the base a compound of sulphur and nickel. Its composition
may be represented thus:
1 atom disulphide of arsenic
1 atom disulphide of nickel.
In like manner glance cobalt is
1 atom disulphide of arsenic
1 atom disulphide of nickel.
Zinkenite is composed of
3 atoms sulphide of antimony
1 atom sulphide of lead;
and jamesonite of
2½ atoms sulphide of antimony
1 atom sulphide of lead.
Feather ore of antimony, hitherto confounded with sulphuret of
antimony, is a compound of
5 atoms sulphide of antimony
3 atoms sulphide of lead.
Gray copper ore, which has hitherto appeared so difficult to be reduced
to any thing like regularity, is composed of
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