Three lectures embodying "A survey of modern inorganic chemistry" / by Gilbert Thomas Morgan.

  • Morgan, Gilbert T. (Gilbert Thomas), Sir, 1870-1940.
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Three lectures embodying "A survey of modern inorganic chemistry" / by Gilbert Thomas Morgan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/112
    A SURVEY OF MODERN INORGANIC CHEMISTRY By Gilbert T. Morgan For the purpose of these three lectures, which are of a recapitu- latory character, I propose to regard the scope of inorganic chemistry as a study of the chemical elements, other than carbon, including within this purview a typical selection of the diverse combinations assumed by many of these elements. In making a judicious selection of recent additions to materia chemica it is undesirable to exclude entirely all references to carbon deriva- tives, for such organic components frequently throw considerable light on the nature and constitution of complex inorganic materials. The Chemical Elements The modern use of the term chemical element probably dates from the time of Sir Robert Boyle (about 1660), for he and his co-workers had recognised that a constituent of air takes part in combustion, and forty years earlier Jean Rey had observed that air increased the weights of metals during their conversion into calces or oxides. Further advance in the definition of chemical elements was made by Black, Cavendish, Priestley, and Scheele among the eighteenth-century founders of modern chemistry, and notably by their contemporary, Lavoisier, who, by systematic use of the balance, provided a general criterion for distinguishing between elements and compounds. In 1789 Lavoisier published his list of simple substances,” which included heat and light, and to which he added the alkaline earths with the conjecture that these substances might be metallic oxides. His exclusion of soda and potash was justified in 1807 by Sir Humphrey Davy’s isolation of potassium and sodium. This investigator also obtained metallic calcium, strontium and barium, and in 1810 demonstrated the elementary nature of chlorine previously discovered by Scheele. Little by little the list of simple substances has grown until at present some ninety elementary bodies are recognised. A dozen of these elements account for 93 per cent, of terrestrial matter, the remainder are comparatively rare. Some thirty are found