The principles of inorganic chemistry / by Wilhelm Ostwald ; tr.with the author's sanction by Alexander Findlay.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The principles of inorganic chemistry / by Wilhelm Ostwald ; tr.with the author's sanction by Alexander Findlay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    729/826 (page 697)
    ANTIMONY I General.—With antimony we commence the consideration of the metals of the tin group, in which a number of elements are classed : together belonging to different natural families and forming corre- • sponding sub-groups. Their common characteristic is the predominat- ing tendency to form acid compounds in place of the basic ones yielded by the other metals. Their oxides, especially those comparatively rich in oxygen, behave as the anhydrides of acids, and their sulphur compounds dissolve in the solutions of the alkali sulphides with formation of thio-salts {vide infra). The last characteristic which is of importance in analytical chemistry has given rise to the formation of the whole group, and the relations which are here met with will be presently discussed in greater detail. On account of the manifold and widely extending affinity relations ■existing between the elements, we shall repeatedly find resemblances to other groups, and it would be possible to class several of the elements considered here along with others previously discussed. By reason, however, of the variety of the relationships, a system of the •' elements, sufficient in all respects, cannot be framed, and the arrange- niment which has here been retained has therefore been determined £>i chiefly by didactic considerations. Antimony.—Antimony is allied on the one hand to bismuth, (and on the other, to arsenic and phosphorus. It therefore forms a transition element between the metals and the non-metals, but is still essentially on the side of the metals. Antimony is a grey-white, lustrous metal, having the density 6-7; firfrom the fused mass it solidifies in a distinctly crystalline form, and is fi at all temperatures so brittle that it can be easily ground or pounded & t0 a powder. It melts at 440°, and volatilises at a high temperature. The vapour exhibits a vai-iable molar weight in the neighbourhood of 0290. This number corresponds to no simple formula, but lies between ■Vbq and Sb3; probably, therefore, we are dealing with a mixture of ' lifterent kinds of vapour, perhaps Sb, and Sb.