Dissertation third : exhibiting a general view of the progress of chemical philosophy, from the early ages to the end of the eighteenth century / by William Thomas Brande.

  • Brande, William Thomas, 1788-1866.
Date:
1818
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dissertation third : exhibiting a general view of the progress of chemical philosophy, from the early ages to the end of the eighteenth century / by William Thomas Brande. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    alternately producing an acid and an alcali,—the result depending not upon the oxygen, but upon the base with which it combines. In detailing the discoveries of Dr. Black, I was led to notice his researches concerning the production of fixed air. This gas was also examined with much attention by Priestley, Scheele, and Cavendish, and they have each made important additions to our knowledge of its sources and properties. Lavoisier's inquiries respecting the composition of fixed air, and its production during the combustion of charcoal and of the diamond, were highly important as connected with his general theoretical views. Black had indeed as- certained that burning charcoal produced fixed air, but rested satisfied with the mere fact, and pursued not the in- quiry which is naturally suggested, and which was eager- ly taken up by Lavoisier at an early period of his scien- tifick career. He burned a given weight of charcoal in a given proportion of oxygen gas confined over quicksilver, and when the vessel had cooled, he introduced a solution of potash, which absorbed the fixed air. He thus ascer- tained the bulk of the fixed air generated by the charcoal, and the bulk of oxygen consumed ; and, by weighing the residuum of the charcoal, he found the quantity lost by its combustion. From such experiments, he was led to regard fixed air as composed of oxygen and charcoal, in the proportions by weight of about 70 of the former and 30 of the latter. Soon after the discovery of fixed air by Black, it was demonstrated by Keir, Bergman, and Fon- tana, to possess acid properties ; hence it was occasion- ally termed aerial acid, cretaceous acid, and mephitick acid. Consistently with the principles of the new nomen- clature, it received from Lavoisier the name of carbonick