The Life and letters of Joseph Black, M.D.Constable, 1918 - 148 pages |
Common terms and phrases
Academy Adam Smith alkali appears atmosphere attention attraction balloon Belfast Black replied Black wrote body boiling calcined calx carbonate caustic alkali Cavendish Chair chalk chemical Chemistry chemists chloride College contained copper Crell Cullen degree described discovery dissolved doctrine earth Edinburgh effervescence experiments father fire fixed air friends gases give grains honour Hutton hydrogen inflammable inflammable air iron James James Watt John John Playfair JOSEPH BLACK Kay's portraits kelp laboratory latent heat Lavoisier Lavoisier's lectures letter lime London Lord Lord Hopetoun magnesia manner manufacture matter Medicine melted metals method mild mind mineral alkali mixed nature ounces oxygen patent Philosophy phlogiston potassium potassium carbonate precipitate Priestley produced Professor pyridine quantity quicklime Ramsay's received Robison sal ammoniac says silver Sir William Ramsay soda solution substances sulphur temperature theory thermometer tion University of Glasgow vapour vitriolic acid Watt weight
Popular passages
Page 55 - Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
Page 125 - ... with which all the manipulations of his experiments were performed. His correct eye and steady hand contributed to the one ; his admirable precautions, foreseeing and providing for every emergency, secured the other. I have seen him pour boiling water or boiling acid from a vessel that had no spout into a tube, holding it at such a distance as made the stream's diameter small, and so vertical that not a drop was spilt. While he poured he would mention this adaptation of the height to the diameter...
Page 77 - The explanation was so probable, that it was acceded to by the whole company, though, like many other plausible theories, it turned out wholly unfounded ; for when the allantois was brought down, no thread whatever was found attached to it. Dr. Black explained the cause of the ascent to his admiring friends ; but such was his carelessness of his own reputation and of the information of the public, that he never gave the least account of this curious experiment even to his class, and more than twelve...
Page 77 - He had the allentois of a calf filled with hydrogen gas, and upon setting it at liberty, it immediately ascended, and adhered to the ceiling. The phenomenon was easily accounted for: it was taken for granted that a small black thread had been attached to the...
Page 38 - ... and to be the cause of heat. But these other philosophers had assumed, or supposed one property only belonging to this subtile matter, viz. its great elasticity, or the strong repellency of its particles for one another ; whereas, Dr. Cleghorn supposed it possessed another property also, that is, a strong attraction for the particles of the other kinds of matter in nature, which have in general more or less attraction for one another. He supposes, that the common grosser kinds of matter consist...
Page 135 - Being at table with his usual fare — some bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of milk, diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand when the last stroke of the pulse was to be given, he...
Page 40 - This was the universal opinion on this subject, so far as I know, when I began to read my lectures in the University of Glasgow, in the year 1757. But I soon found reason to object to it, as inconsistent with many remarkable facts, when attentively considered ; and I endeavoured to show that these facts are convincing proofs that fluidity is produced by heat in a very different manner.
Page 22 - ... Nothing escapes — the cup rises considerably by absorbing air.' A few pages further on, he compares the loss of weight sustained by an ounce of chalk when calcined, with its loss while dissolved in muriatic acid. " These experiments laid open the whole mystery, as appears by another memorandum. ' When I precipitate lime by a common alkali, there is no effervescence : the air quits the alkali for the lime ; but it is lime no longer, but cc c : it now effervesces, which good lime will not.
Page 25 - To this I have given the name of fixed air, and perhaps very improperly ; but I thought it better to use a word already familiar in philosophy than to invent a new name, before we be more fully acquainted with the nature and properties of this substance.
Page 48 - A stranger when conducted to view the university of Edinburgh, might on seeing such courts and buildings, naturally enough imagine them to be almshouses for the reception of the poor; but would never imagine he was entering within the precincts of a noted and flourishing seat of learning.