Conversations on Chemistry Part 58

What are the other newly discovered metals which you have alluded to in your list of simple bodies?

MRS. B.

They are the metals of the earths which became next the object of Sir H.

Davy's researches; these bodies had never yet been decomposed, though they were strongly suspected not only of being compounds, but of being metallic oxyds. From the circ.u.mstance of their incombustibility it was conjectured, with some plausibility, that they might possibly be bodies that had been already burnt.

CAROLINE.

And metals, when oxydated, become, to all appearance, a kind of earthy substance.

MRS. B.

They have, besides, several features of resemblance with metallic oxyds; Sir H. Davy had therefore great reason to be sanguine in his expectations of decomposing them, and he was not disappointed. He could not, however, succeed in obtaining the basis of the earths in a pure separate state; but metallic alloys were formed with other metals, which sufficiently proved the existence of the metallic basis of the earths.

The last cla.s.s of new metallic bodies which Sir H. Davy discovered was obtained from the three undecompounded acids, the boracic, the fluoric, and the muriatic acids; but as you are entirely unacquainted with these bodies, I shall reserve the account of their decomposition till we come to treat of their properties as acids.

Thus in the course of two years, by the unparalleled exertions of a single individual, chemical science has a.s.sumed a new aspect. Bodies have been brought to light which the human eye never before beheld, and which might have remained eternally concealed under their impenetrable disguise.

It is impossible at the present period to appreciate to their full extent the consequences which science or the arts may derive from these discoveries; we may, however, antic.i.p.ate the most important results.

In chemical a.n.a.lysis we are now in possession of more energetic agents of decomposition than were ever before known.

In geology new views are opened, which will probably operate a revolution in that obscure and difficult science. It is already proved that all the earths, and, in fact, the solid surface of this globe, are metallic bodies mineralized by oxygen, and as our planet has been calculated to be considerably more dense upon the whole than on the surface, it is reasonable to suppose that the interior part is composed of a metallic ma.s.s, the surface of which only has been mineralized by the atmosphere.

The eruptions of volcanos, those stupendous problems of nature, admit now of an easy explanation. For if the bowels of the earth are the grand recess of these newly discovered inflammable bodies, whenever water penetrates into them, combustions and explosions must take place; and it is remarkable that the lava which is thrown out, is the very kind of substance which might be expected to result from these combustions.

I must now take my leave of you; we have had a very long conversation to-day, and I hope you will be able to recollect what you have learnt.

At our next interview we shall enter on a new subject.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street, London.

CONVERSATIONS ON CHEMISTRY;

In Which The Elements Of That Science Are _Familiarly Explained_ And Ill.u.s.trated By Experiments.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

_The Fifth Edition, revised, corrected,_ _and considerably enlarged._

VOL. II.

ON COMPOUND BODIES.

_London:_ Printed For Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row.

1817.

CONVERSATION XIII.

ON THE ATTRACTION OF COMPOSITION.

MRS. B.

Having completed our examination of the simple or elementary bodies, we are now to proceed to those of a compound nature; but before we enter on this extensive subject, it will be necessary to make you acquainted with the princ.i.p.al laws by which chemical combinations are governed.

You recollect, I hope, what we formerly said of the nature of the attraction of composition, or chemical attraction, or affinity, as it is also called?

EMILY.

Yes, I think perfectly; it is the attraction that subsists between bodies of a different nature, which occasions them to combine and form a compound, when they come in contact, and, according to Sir H. Davy's opinion, this effect is produced by the attraction of the opposite electricities, which prevail in bodies of different kinds.

MRS. B.

Very well; your definition comprehends the first law of chemical attraction, which is, that _it takes place only between bodies of a different nature_; as, for instance, between an acid and an alkali; between oxygen and a metal, &c.

CAROLINE.

That we understand of course; for the attraction between particles of a similar nature is that of aggregation, or cohesion, which is independent of any chemical power.

MRS. B.

The 2d law of chemical attraction is, that _it takes place only between the most minute particles of bodies_; therefore, the more you divide the particles of the bodies to be combined, the more readily they act upon each other.

CAROLINE.

That is again a circ.u.mstance which we might have supposed, for the finer the particles of the two substances are, the more easily and perfectly they will come in contact with each other, which must greatly facilitate their union. It was for this purpose, you said, that you used iron filings, in preference to wires or pieces of iron, for the decomposition of water.

MRS. B.

It was once supposed that no mechanical power could divide bodies into particles sufficiently minute for them to act on each other; and that, in order to produce the extreme division requisite for a chemical action, one, if not both of the bodies, should be in a fluid state.

There are, however, a few instances in which two solid bodies, very finely pulverized, exert a chemical action on one another; but such exceptions to the general rule are very rare indeed.

EMILY.

In all the combinations that we have hitherto seen, one of the const.i.tuents has, I believe, been either liquid or aeriform. In combustions, for instance, the oxygen is taken from the atmosphere, in which it existed in the state of gas; and whenever we have seen acids combine with metals or with alkalies, they were either in a liquid or an aeriform state.

MRS. B.