Science Progress Volume 1, Pp. 557-739 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...it takes wings to itself and dissolves into thin air is the discovery of but little more than a century. The winged product we know is the gas imprisoned in limestone, on this account called by Black--who was the first to recognise its individuality--Fixed air, now known in our technical jargon as Carbon Dioxide, the compound which gives rise when joined to water to the very weak and unstable acid, carbonic acid. To the instructed ear, these two names carry oceans of meaning. If you know how the expression dioxide is arrived at you are acquainted with the theoretical basis--the molecular-atomic theory--on which chemistry rests. But when acids are mentioned, always think of sour-stuff--oxygen is par excellence the acid-giving element; the text-books may tell you of hydrogen as characteristic of acids and even mislead you into a temporary belief in non-existent nonsensities called hydrogen ions: trust them not but pin your faith to oxygen; learn to think of oxygen as the most wonderful element known to us and water as containing it in perhaps its most active form; at the same time, bear in mind that it has not only an acid aspect but is also the progenitor of earths. Iron, you know, is converted only too easily into the earthy substance iron-rust by combination with atmospheric oxygen under the conjoint influence of liquid water and carbonic acid--hence the need of protecting it by paint or of keeping it in a dry, warm place. At the smithy forge, iron and oxygen burn together into a brittle black scale--again an earthy substance. Those who have played with magnesium know that it not only burns brilliantly but that it is converted into a white earth. Zinc is systematically burnt to form zinc oxide, which is largely used as the basis of white...