Heroes of Science Part 3

CHAPTER II.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CHEMISTRY AS A SCIENCE--PERIOD OF BLACK, PRIESTLEY AND LAVOISIER.

_Joseph Black_, 1728-1799. _Joseph, Priestley_, 1733-1804. _Antoine Laurent Lavoisier_, 1743-1794.

During this period of advance, which may be broadly stated as comprising the last half of the eighteenth century, the aim and scope of chemical science were clearly indicated by the labours of Black, Priestley and Lavoisier. The work of these men dealt chiefly with the process of combustion. Black and Priestley finally proved the existence of airs or gases different from common air, and Lavoisier applied these discoveries to give a clear explanation of what happens when a substance burns.

JOSEPH BLACK was born near Bordeaux in the year 1728. His father was of Scottish family, but a native of Belfast; his mother was the daughter of Mr. Gordon, of Hilhead in Aberdeens.h.i.+re. We are told by Dr. Robison, in his preface to Black's Lectures, that John Black, the father of Joseph, was a man "of most amiable manners, candid and liberal in his sentiments, and of no common information."

At the age of twelve Black was sent home to a school at Belfast; after spending six years there he went to the University of Glasgow in the year 1746. Little is known of his progress at school or at the university, but judging from his father's letters, which his son preserved, he seems to have devoted himself to study. While at Glasgow he was attracted to the pursuit of physical science, and chose medicine as a profession. Becoming a pupil of Dr. Cullen, he was much impressed with the importance of chemical knowledge to the student of medicine. Dr. Cullen appears to have been one of the first to take large and philosophical views of the scope of chemical science, and to attempt to raise chemistry from the rank of a useful art to that of a branch of natural philosophy. Such a man must have been attracted by the young student, whose work was already at once accurate in detail and wide in general scope.

In the notes of work kept by Black at this time are displayed those qualities of methodical arrangement, perseverance and thoroughness which are so prominent in his published investigations and lectures. In one place we find, says his biographer, many disjointed facts and records of diverse observations, but the next time he refers to the same subjects we generally have a.n.a.logous facts noted and some conclusions drawn--we have the beginnings of knowledge. Having once entered on an investigation Black works it out steadily until he gets definite results.

His earlier notes are concerned chiefly with heat and cold; about 1752 he begins to make references to the subject of "fixed air."

About 1750 Black went to Edinburgh University to complete his medical studies, and here he was again fortunate in finding a really scientific student occupying the chair of natural philosophy.

The attention of medical men was directed at this time to the action of limewater as a remedy for stone in the bladder. All the medicines which were of any avail in mitigating the pain attendant on this disease more or less resembled the "caustic ley of the soap-boilers" (or as we should now call it caustic potash or soda). These caustic medicines were mostly prepared by the action of quicklime on some other substance, and quicklime was generally supposed to derive its caustic, or corrosive properties from the fire which was used in changing ordinary limestone into quicklime.

When quicklime was heated with "fixed alkalis" (_i.e._ with pota.s.sium or sodium carbonate), it changed these substances into caustic bodies which had a corrosive action on animal matter; hence it was concluded that the quicklime had derived a "power"--or some said had derived "igneous matter"--from the fire, and had communicated this to the fixed alkalis, which thereby acquired the property of corroding animal matter.

Black thought that he might be able to lay hold of this "igneous matter"

supposed to be taken by the limestone from the fire; but he found that limestone loses weight when changed into quicklime. He then dissolved limestone (or chalk) in spirits of salt (hydrochloric acid), and compared the loss of weight undergone by the chalk in this process with the loss suffered by an equal quant.i.ty of chalk when strongly heated. This investigation led Black to a fuller study of the action of heat on chalk and on "mild magnesia" (or as we now say, magnesium carbonate).

In order that his experiments might be complete and his conclusions well established, he delayed taking the degree of Doctor of Medicine for three years. He graduated as M. D. in 1755, and presented his thesis on "Magnesia Alba, Quicklime and other Alkaline Substances," which contained the results of what is probably the first accurately quant.i.tative examination of a chemical action which we possess.

Black prepared mild magnesia (magnesium carbonate) by boiling together solutions of Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) and fixed alkali (pota.s.sium carbonate). He showed that when mild magnesia is heated--

1. It is much decreased in bulk.

2. It loses weight (twelve parts become five, according to Black).

3. It does not precipitate lime from solutions of that substance in acids (Black had already shown that mild magnesia does precipitate lime).

He then strongly heated a weighed quant.i.ty of mild magnesia in a retort connected with a receiver; a few drops of water were obtained in the receiver, but the magnesia lost six or seven times as much weight as the weight of the water produced. Black then recalls the experiments of Hales, wherein airs other than common air had been prepared, and concludes that the loss of weight noticed when mild magnesia is calcined is probably due to expulsion, by the heat, of some kind of air. Dissolving some of his mild magnesia in acid he noticed that effervescence occurred, and from this he concluded that the same air which, according to his hypothesis, is expelled by heat, is also driven out from the mild magnesia by the action of acid.

He then proceeded to test this hypothesis. One hundred and twenty grains of mild magnesia were strongly calcined; the calcined matter, amounting to seventy grains, was dissolved in dilute oil of vitriol, and this solution was mixed with common fixed alkali (pota.s.sium carbonate). The solid which was thus produced was collected, washed and weighed; it amounted to a trifle less than one hundred and twenty grains, and possessed all the properties--detailed by Black--of the original mild magnesia. But this is exactly the result which ought to have occurred according to his hypothesis.

The next step in the investigation was to collect the peculiar air which Black had proved to be evolved during the calcination of mild magnesia. To this substance he gave the name of "fixed air," because it was fixed or held by magnesia. Black established the existence of this air in the expired breath of animals, and also showed that it was present in the air evolved during vinous fermentation. He demonstrated several of its properties; among these, the fact that animals die when placed in this air.

An air with similar properties was obtained by calcining chalk. Black held that the chemical changes which occur when chalk is calcined are exactly a.n.a.logous to those which he had proved to take place when magnesia is strongly heated. Chalk ought therefore to lose weight when calcined; the residue ought to neutralize an acid without evolution of any gas, and the quant.i.ty of acid thus neutralized ought to be the same as would be neutralized by the uncalcined chalk; lastly, it ought to be possible to recover the uncalcined chalk by adding a fixed alkali to a solution of the calcined chalk or quicklime.

The actual results which Black obtained were as follows:--

One hundred and twenty grains of chalk were dissolved in dilute muriatic (hydrochloric) acid; 421 grains of the acid were needed to neutralize the chalk, and 48 grains of fixed air were evolved. One hundred and twenty grains of the same specimen of chalk were strongly calcined, and then dissolved in dilute muriatic acid; 414 grains of the acid were required to neutralize the calcined chalk. The difference between 421 and 414 is very slight; considering the state of practical chemistry at Black's time, we may well agree with him that he was justified in the conclusion that equal weights of calcined and of uncalcined chalk neutralize the same amount of acid. One hundred and twenty grains of the same specimen of chalk were again strongly heated; the calcined chalk, amounting to 68 grains, was digested with a solution of fixed alkali in water. The substance thus obtained, when washed and dried, weighed 118 grains, and had all the properties of ordinary chalk. Therefore, said Black, it is possible to recover the whole of the chalk originally present before calcination, by adding a fixed alkali to the calcined chalk or quicklime.

At this time it was known that water dissolves quicklime, but it was generally held that only about one-fourth (or perhaps a little more) of any specimen of quicklime could be dissolved by water, however much water was employed. Black's researches had led him to regard quicklime as a h.o.m.ogeneous chemical compound; he concluded that as water undoubtedly dissolves quicklime to some extent, any specimen of this substance, provided it be pure, must be wholly soluble in water. Carefully conducted experiments proved that Black's conclusion was correct. Black had thus proved that quicklime is a definite substance, with certain fixed properties which characterize it and mark it off from all other substances; that by absorbing, or combining with another definite substance (fixed air), quicklime is changed into a third substance, namely chalk, which is also characterized by properties as definite and marked as those of quicklime or fixed air.

Black, quite as much as the alchemists, recognized the fact that change is continually proceeding in Nature; but he clearly established the all-important conclusion that these natural changes proceed in definite order, and that it is possible by careful experiment and just reasoning to acquire a knowledge of this order. He began the great work of showing that, as in other branches of natural science, so also in chemistry, which is pre-eminently the study of the changes of Nature, "the only distinct meaning of that word" (natural) "is _stated_, _fixed_, or _settled_"

(Butler's "a.n.a.logy," published 1736).

This research by Black is a model of what scientific work ought to be. He begins with a few observations of some natural phenomenon; these he supplements by careful experiments, and thus establishes a sure basis of fact; he then builds on this basis a general hypothesis, which he proceeds to test by deducing from it certain necessary conclusions, and proving, or disproving, these by an appeal to Nature. This is the scientific method; it is common sense made accurate.

Very shortly after the publication of the thesis on magnesia and quicklime, a vacancy occurred in the chemical chair in Glasgow University, and Black was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Lecturer on Chemistry. As he did not feel fully qualified to lecture on anatomy, he made an arrangement to exchange subjects with the Professor of Medicine, and from this time he delivered lectures on chemistry and on "The Inst.i.tutes of Medicine."

Black devoted a great deal of care and time to the teaching duties of his chair. His chemical experimental researches were not much advanced after this time; but he delivered courses of lectures in which new light was thrown on the whole range of chemical science.

In the years between 1759 and 1763 Black examined the phenomena of heat and cold, and gave an explanation, founded on accurate experiments, of the thermal changes which accompany the melting of solids and the vaporization of liquids.

If pieces of wood, lead and ice be taken by the hand from a box in which they have been kept cold, the wood feels cold to the touch, the lead feels colder than the wood, and the ice feels colder than the lead; hence it was concluded that the hand receives cold from the wood, more cold from the lead, and most cold from the ice.

Black however showed that the wood really takes away heat from the hand, but that as the wood soon gets warmed, the process stops before long; that the lead, not being so quickly warmed as the wood, takes away more heat from the hand than the wood does, and that the ice takes away more heat than either wood or lead.

Black thought that the heat which is taken by melting ice from a warm body remains in the water which is produced; as soon as winter came he proceeded to test this supposition by comparing the times required to melt one pound of ice and to raise the temperature of one pound of water through one degree, the source of heat being the same in each case. He also compared the time required to lower the temperature of one pound of water through one degree with that required to freeze one pound of ice-cold water. He found that in order to melt one pound of ice without raising its temperature, as much heat had to be added to the ice as sufficed to raise the temperature of one pound of water through about 140 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. But this heat which has been added to the ice to convert it into water is not indicated by the thermometer. Black called this "_latent heat_."

The experimental data and the complete theory of latent heat were contained in a paper read by Black to a private society which met in the University of Glasgow, on April 23, 1762; but it appears that Black was accustomed to teach the theory in his ordinary lectures before this date.

The theory of latent heat ought also to explain the phenomena noticed when liquid water is changed into steam. Black applied his theory generally to this change, but did not fully work out the details and actually measure the quant.i.ty of heat which is absorbed by water at the boiling point before it is wholly converted into steam at the same temperature, until some years later when he had the a.s.sistance of his pupil and friend James Watt.

Taking a survey of the phenomena of Nature, Black insisted on the importance of these experimentally established facts--that before ice melts it must absorb a large quant.i.ty of heat, and before water is vaporized it must absorb another large quant.i.ty of heat, which amounts of heat are restored to surrounding substances when water vapour again becomes liquid water and when liquid water is congealed to ice. He allows his imagination to picture the effects of these properties of water in modifying and ameliorating the climates of tropical and of Northern countries. In his lectures he says, "Here we can also trace another magnificent train of changes which are nicely accommodated to the wants of the inhabitants of this globe. In the equatorial regions, the oppressive heat of the sun is prevented from a destructive acc.u.mulation by copious evaporation. The waters, stored with their vaporific heat, are then carried aloft into the atmosphere till the rarest of the vapour reaches the very cold regions of the air, which immediately forms a small portion of it into a fleecy cloud.

This also further tempers the scorching heat by its opacity, performing the acceptable office of a screen. From thence the clouds are carried to the inland countries, to form the sources in the mountains which are to supply the numberless streams that water the fields. And by the steady operation of causes, which are tolerably uniform, the greater part of the vapours pa.s.ses on to the circ.u.mpolar regions, there to descend in rains and dews; and by this beneficent conversion into rain by the cold of those regions, each particle of steam gives up the heat which was latent in it. This is immediately diffused, and softens the rigour of those less comfortable climates."

In the year 1766 Black was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, in which position he remained till his death in 1799. During these thirty-three years he devoted himself chiefly to teaching and to encouraging the advance of chemical science. He was especially careful in the preparation of his elementary lectures, being persuaded that it was of the utmost importance that his pupils should be well grounded in the principles of chemistry.

His health had never been robust, and as he grew old he was obliged to use great care in his diet; his simple and methodical character and habits made it easy for him to live on the plainest food, and to take meals and exercise at stated times and in fixed quant.i.ties.

Black's life closed, as was fitting, in a quiet and honoured old age. He had many friends, but lived pretty much alone--he was never married.

On the 26th of November 1799, "being at table with his usual fare, some bread, a few prunes and a measured quant.i.ty of milk diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand when the last stroke of his pulse was to be given, he had set it down on his knees, which were joined together, and kept it steady with his hand, in the manner of a person perfectly at ease; and in this att.i.tude he expired, without spilling a drop, and without a writhe in his countenance, as if an experiment had been required to show to his friends the facility with which he departed."

Black was characterized by "moderation and sobriety of thought;" he had a great sense of the fitness of things--of what is called by the older writers "propriety." But he was by no means a dull companion; he enjoyed general society, and was able to bear a part in any kind of conversation. A thorough student of Nature, he none the less did not wish to devote his whole time to laboratory work or to the labours of study; indeed he seems to have preferred the society of well-cultivated men and women to that of specialists in his own or other branches of natural science. But with his true scientific peers he doubtless appeared at his best. Among his more intimate friends were the famous political economist Adam Smith, and the no less celebrated philosopher David Hume. Dr. Hutton, one of the earliest workers in geology, was a particular friend of Black; his friends.h.i.+p with James Watt began when Watt was a student in his cla.s.s, and continued during his life.

With such men as his friends, and engaged in the study of Nature--that boundless subject which one can never know to the full, but which one can always know a little more year by year--Black's life could not but be happy. His example and his teaching animated his students; he was what a university professor ought to be, a student among students, but yet a teacher among pupils. His work gained for him a place in the first rank of men of science; his clearness of mind, his moderation, his gentleness, his readiness to accept the views of others provided these views were well established on a basis of experimentally determined facts, fitted him to be the centre of a circle of scientific students who looked on him as at once their teacher and their friend.

As a lecturer Black was eminently successful. He endeavoured to make all his lectures plain and intelligible; he enlivened them by many experiments designed simply to ill.u.s.trate the special point which he had in view. He abhorred ostentatious display and trickiness in a teacher.

Black was strongly opposed to the use of hypotheses in science. Dr. Robison (the editor of his lectures) tells that when a student in Edinburgh he met Black, who became interested in him from hearing him speak somewhat enthusiastically in favour of one of the lecturers in the university. Black impressed on him the necessity of steady experimental work in natural science, gave him a copy of Newton's "Optics" as a model after which scientific work ought to be conducted, and advised him "to reject, even without examination, any hypothetical explanation, as a mere waste of time and ingenuity." But, when we examine Black's own work, we see that by "hypothetical explanations" he meant vague guesses. He himself made free use of scientific (_i.e._ of exact) hypotheses; indeed the history of science tells us that without hypotheses advance is impossible. Black taught by his own researches that science is not an array of facts, but that the object of the student of Nature is to explain facts. But the method generally in vogue before the time of Black was to gather together a few facts, or what seemed to be facts, and on these to raise a vast superstructure of "vain imaginings." Naturalists had scarcely yet learned that Nature is very complex, and that guessing and reasoning on guesses, with here and there an observation added, was not the method by which progress was to be made in learning the lessons written in this complex book of Nature.

In place of this loose and slipshod method Black insisted that the student must endeavour to form a clear mental image of every phenomenon which he studied. Such an image could be obtained only by beginning with detailed observation and experiment. From a number of definite mental images the student must put together a picture of the whole natural phenomenon under examination; perceiving that something was wanted here, or that the picture was overcrowded there, he must again go to Nature and gain fresh facts, or sometimes prove that what had been accepted as facts had no real existence, and so at length he would arrive at a true representation of the whole process.

So anxious was Black to define clearly what he knew and professed to teach, that he preferred to call his lectures "On the Effects of Heat and Mixtures," rather than to announce them as "A Systematic Course on Chemistry."

His introductory lecture on "Heat in General" is very admirable; the following quotation will serve to show the clearness of his style and the methodical but yet eminently suggestive manner of his teaching:--