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| Dr. Abel Wolman |
By Jim Bishop, Beak International Inc.
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| Dr. Abel Wolman |
The chemical profession has made dramatic changes since Dr. Wolman started his career in the 19th century. It is interesting to review some other historical contributions to the analytical sciences.
Hennig Brand did, indeed discover phosphorus while trying to turn base metals into gold, but what is more interesting is that he was experimenting with his own urine in his quest to find the "philosopher's stone". (Remember that as late as 1800, a "philosopher" was what we now call a "scientist".) The "philosopher's stone" was a material that early alchemists (the precursors of today's scientists) believed could promote the transmutation of substances; that is, turn common materials into gold.
It would be interesting to learn why he was looking for the philosopher's stone in his own urine, and where he would have looked next.
Also, he may have been referred to as the first chemist to have discovered an element, but to modern science he is known as "the last of the alchemists".
A.L. Lavoisier not only helped demolish the phlogiston theory, he transformed alchemy into chemistry. He began by demonstrating that diamonds are just another form of carbon, like coal is. He did so in 1772 by pooling his money with other chemists and purchasing a diamond, which he placed in a closed vessel and heated until the diamond disappeared. The vessel was then opened and found to contain carbon dioxide, thereby demonstrating that diamond was a form of carbon.
From this small start, he eventually rewrote and rationalized all of the alchemists' versions of "chemistry" and he established careful, precise measurement as the basis for chemical laws. He is, today, universally acknowledged as "the father of modern chemistry".
Making "modern times" possible
Iron is a metal we use in almost every conceivable human undertaking. From cars to cannons, from buildings to bridges, we are surrounded by things made of iron. And yet, as a widely available commondity, iron has only been with us since the 1700s.
Iron by itself is a stronger metal than copper or bronze, but it is only when transformed into steel that it becomes the everlasting, unbending backbone of our buildings, vehicles, and weaponry. The difference between iron and steel is carbon; in fact, Lavoisier had determined in the late 1800s that pig iron contains 4% carbon and steel has no more than 2%.
England's Henry Bessemer developed a process for producing steel that made mass production possible. The process was based on injecting oxygen in air into molten iron to remove excess carbon as carbon monoxide. Ironically, the process did not work well on English iron, due to the presence of high levels of phosphorus, which resulted in steel that cracked easily when formed into implements, or when subjected to stress.
Considering that major uses of steel included railroad construction and train wheels, it is no surprise that death on the rails was very common in the 19th and early 20th century, because wheels, rails, boilers and pistons made of inferior steel would fall apart under stress, resulting in frequent, tragic crashes. Fortunately, a number of workers (Thomas, Gilchrist, Mushet) discovered that the phosphorus problem could be eliminated by adding limestone to the Bessemer furnace.
Bessemer had earlier come up with the idea of using graphite in place of lead in "lead" pencils, and with the concept of an elongated cannon projectile which would develop spin and therefore travel further. This was a happy fit with the development of steel for cannon construction, since the spin placed such stress on the barrel that the majority of cast-iron cannons would split or burst.
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