Henry Cavendish, in a paper on eudiometry …
Years: 1783 - 1783
Henry Cavendish, in a paper on eudiometry (the measurement of the goodness of gases for breathing) published in 1783, describes a new eudiometer of his own invention, with which he achieves the best results to date, using what in other hands had been the inexact method of measuring gases by weighing them.
He next publishes a paper on the production of water by burning inflammable air (that is, hydrogen) in "dephlogisticated air" (now known to be oxygen), the latter a constituent of atmospheric air (phlogiston theory).
Cavendish concludes that dephlogisticated air is dephlogisticated water and that hydrogen is either pure phlogiston or phlogisticated water.
He reports these findings to Joseph Priestley, an English clergyman and scientist, no later than March 1783, but will not publish them until the following year.
The Scottish inventor James Watt publishes a paper on the composition of water in 1783; Cavendish had performed the experiments first but publishes second.
Controversy about priority ensues.
In 1783 he publishes a paper on the temperature at which mercury freezes and in this paper makes use of the idea of latent heat, although he does not use the term because he believes that it implies acceptance of a material theory of heat.
He will made his objections explicit in his 1784 paper on air.
Cavendish, at about the time of his father's death, had begun to work closely with Charles Blagden, an association that had helped Blagden enter fully into London’s scientific society.
In return, Blagden has helped to keep the world at a distance from Cavendish.
Cavendish publishes no books and few papers, but he achieves much.
Several areas of research, including mechanics, optics, and magnetism, feature extensively in his manuscripts, but they scarcely feature in his published work.
Cavendish is considered to be one of the so-called pneumatic chemists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, along with, for example, Joseph Priestley, Joseph Black, and Daniel Rutherford.
Cavendish had found that a definite, peculiar, and highly inflammable gas, which he refers to as "Inflammable Air", is produced by the action of certain acid on certain metals.
This gas is in fact hydrogen, which Cavendish had correctly guessed is proportioned to two in one water.
Although others, such as Robert Boyle, had prepared hydrogen gas earlier, Cavendish is usually given the credit for recognizing its elemental nature.
Also, by dissolving alkalis in acids, Cavendish makes "fixed air" (carbon dioxide), which he collects, along with other gases, in bottles inverted over water or mercury.
He then measures their solubility in water and their specific gravity and notes their combustibility.
Cavendish had been awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for this paper.
Gas chemistry is of increasing importance in the latter half of the eighteenth century and becomes crucial for Frenchman Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier’s reform of chemistry, generally known as the chemical revolution.
He next publishes a paper on the production of water by burning inflammable air (that is, hydrogen) in "dephlogisticated air" (now known to be oxygen), the latter a constituent of atmospheric air (phlogiston theory).
Cavendish concludes that dephlogisticated air is dephlogisticated water and that hydrogen is either pure phlogiston or phlogisticated water.
He reports these findings to Joseph Priestley, an English clergyman and scientist, no later than March 1783, but will not publish them until the following year.
The Scottish inventor James Watt publishes a paper on the composition of water in 1783; Cavendish had performed the experiments first but publishes second.
Controversy about priority ensues.
In 1783 he publishes a paper on the temperature at which mercury freezes and in this paper makes use of the idea of latent heat, although he does not use the term because he believes that it implies acceptance of a material theory of heat.
He will made his objections explicit in his 1784 paper on air.
Cavendish, at about the time of his father's death, had begun to work closely with Charles Blagden, an association that had helped Blagden enter fully into London’s scientific society.
In return, Blagden has helped to keep the world at a distance from Cavendish.
Cavendish publishes no books and few papers, but he achieves much.
Several areas of research, including mechanics, optics, and magnetism, feature extensively in his manuscripts, but they scarcely feature in his published work.
Cavendish is considered to be one of the so-called pneumatic chemists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, along with, for example, Joseph Priestley, Joseph Black, and Daniel Rutherford.
Cavendish had found that a definite, peculiar, and highly inflammable gas, which he refers to as "Inflammable Air", is produced by the action of certain acid on certain metals.
This gas is in fact hydrogen, which Cavendish had correctly guessed is proportioned to two in one water.
Although others, such as Robert Boyle, had prepared hydrogen gas earlier, Cavendish is usually given the credit for recognizing its elemental nature.
Also, by dissolving alkalis in acids, Cavendish makes "fixed air" (carbon dioxide), which he collects, along with other gases, in bottles inverted over water or mercury.
He then measures their solubility in water and their specific gravity and notes their combustibility.
Cavendish had been awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for this paper.
Gas chemistry is of increasing importance in the latter half of the eighteenth century and becomes crucial for Frenchman Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier’s reform of chemistry, generally known as the chemical revolution.
Locations
People
- Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier
- Charles Blagden
- Daniel Rutherford
- Henry Cavendish
- James Watt
- Joseph Black
- Joseph Priestley
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Showing 10 events out of 24762 total
Years: 1783 - 1783
Locations
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- Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier
- Charles Blagden
- Daniel Rutherford
- Henry Cavendish
- James Watt
- Joseph Black
- Joseph Priestley
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