Historical Introduction to Chemistry

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Macmillan and Company, limited, 1915 - 581 pages
 

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Page 287 - All these things being considered, it seems probable to me that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties and in such proportion to space as most conduced to the end for which he formed them...
Page 23 - To this question, then, I respond and sustain proudly, resting on the foundations already laid, " That this increase in weight comes from the air, which in the vessel has been rendered denser, heavier, and in some measure adhesive, by the vehement and long-continued heat of the furnace: which air mixes with the calx (frequent agitation aiding) and becomes attached to its most minute particles : not otherwise than water makes heavier sand which you throw into it and agitate, by moistening it and adhering...
Page 270 - A small piece of pure potash, which had been exposed for a few seconds to the atmosphere, so as to give conducting power to the surface, was placed upon an insulated disc of platina, connected with the negative side of the battery of the power of...
Page 332 - At the time I formed the theory of mixed gases, I had a confused idea, as many have, I suppose, at this time, that the particles of elastic fluids are all of the same size...
Page 288 - ... these primitive particles being solids are incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded of them, even so very hard as never to wear or break in pieces, no ordinary power being able to divide what God himself made one in the first creation.
Page 333 - The truth is, I believe, that gases do not unite in equal or exact measures in any one instance; when they appear to do so, it is owing to the inaccuracy of our experiments.
Page 111 - ... so that, upon opening the cock, some of this mixed air rushed through the bent tube, and filled the globe.* The cock was then shut, and the included air fired by electricity, by which means almost all of it lost its elasticity. The cock was then again opened, so as to let in more of the same air, to supply the place of that destroyed by the explosion, which was again fired, and the operation continued till almost the whole of the mixture was let into the globe and exploded.
Page 2 - As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre: so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
Page 35 - I presently found that, by means of this lens, air was expelled from it very readily. Having got about three or four times as much as the bulk of my materials, I admitted water to it, and found that it was not imbibed by it. But what surprised me more than I can well express was that a candle burned in this air with a remarkably vigorous flame...
Page 289 - Chemical analysis and synthesis go no farther than to the separation of particles one from another, and to their reunion. No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency.

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