The History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2)Thomson, Thomas
History
The History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2)
Thomson, Thomas
Chemistry -- History
1 atom sulphide of antimony or arsenic
2 atoms sulphide of copper or silver.
Dark red silver ore is composed of
1 atom sulphide of antimony
1 atom sulphide of silver;
and light red silver ore of
2 atoms sesquisulphide of arsenic
3 atoms sulphide of silver.
These specimens show how much light the doctrine of sulphur salts has
thrown on the mineral kingdom.
In 1828 he published his experimental investigation of the characters
and compounds of palladium, rhodium, osmium, and iridium; and upon the
mode of analyzing the different ores of platinum.
One of the greatest improvements which Berzelius has introduced into
analytical chemistry, is his mode of separating those bodies which
become acid when united to oxygen, as sulphur, selenium, arsenic, &c.,
from those that become alkaline, as copper, lead, silver, &c. His
method is to put the alloy or ore to be analyzed into a glass tube,
and to pass over it a current of dry chlorine gas, while the powder in
the tube is heated by a lamp. The acidifiable bodies are volatile, and
pass over along the tube into a vessel of water placed to receive them,
while the alkalifiable bodies remain fixed in the tube. This mode of
analysis has been considerably improved by Rose, who availed himself of
it in his analysis of gray copper ore, and other similar compounds.
Analytical chemistry lies under obligations to Berzelius, not merely
for what he has done himself, but for what has been done by those
pupils who were educated in his laboratory. Bonsdorf, Nordenskiöld,
C. G. Gmelin, Rose, Wöhler, Arfvedson, have given us some of the
finest examples of analytical investigations with which the science is
furnished.
P. A. Von Bonsdorf was a professor of Abo, and after that university
was burnt down, he moved to the new locality in which it was planted by
the Russian government. His analysis of the minerals which crystallize
in the form of the amphibole, constitutes a model for the young
analysts to study, whether we consider the precision of the analyses,
or the methods by which the different constituents were separated and
estimated. His analysis of red silver ore first demonstrated that
the metals in it were not in the state of oxides. The nature of the
combination was first completely explained by Rose, after Berzelius's
paper on the sulphur salts had made its appearance. His paper on the
acid properties of several of the chlorides, has served considerably to
extend and to rectify the views first proposed by Berzelius respecting
the different classes of salts.
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