In 1775, when lavoisier was reading his "Theory of Combustion Oxidation" at the French Academy of Sciences across the English Channel, the factory jointly founded by British inventors Watt and Bolton began to produce and sell steam engines in large quantities. The steam engine transformed fire into power, and a power revolution took place, which added endless power to people.
As the birthplace of steam engine and industrial revolution, British science and technology flourished during this period. The following are British chemists David, Faraday and Dalton who established atomism.
Humphry davy was born in Penzance, England. His father is a woodcarver and his mother is very hardworking, but their life is not rich. My parents raised David and his four brothers and sisters with great pains, hoping that Humphrey and his younger brother would receive a good education.
David was lively and emotional when he was young. He likes telling stories and reciting poems. He often writes some crooked poems to make fun of his friends and teachers. His best homework is to translate classical literature into contemporary English. Even his favorite homework can't compare with David's love for fishing and hiking. Sometimes I have a good time and forget to attend class. Fortunately, his tenacious mother attached great importance to his studies and was very patient, which enabled him to finish his studies better.
In this free and happy childhood, David had enough time to think and imagine, and formed his passionate, positive, independent, not blindly obedient and creative personality. His school is a good middle school in Cornwall at the end of 18 century. David learned a lot here, such as theology, geometry, foreign languages and other subjects. He also read many philosophical works, such as Kant's transcendentalism books.
Big brother after family changes.
/kloc-After the age of 0/5, David began to drop out of school because his father was seriously ill and his family was poor. 1794, my father died of illness. David, who is less than 16 years old, suddenly feels the responsibility as a big brother. From 65438 to 0795, he changed the habit of urchins and became the apprentice of porras, a surgeon and physiologist in Penzance. There, David met many knowledgeable people and was very motivated. He has made a huge self-study plan, and there are seven foreign languages alone. He also started his initial chemical experiment training with ready-made drugs and instruments. 1797, David read the Canon of Chemical Zinc written by Nicholson and lavoisier's great chemical works, which greatly enriched his chemical knowledge. During this period, he met Gregory Watt, the son of james watt, the inventor of the steam engine, and Kitty, who later succeeded David as the president of the Royal College. Kitty allowed David to use his books, and introduced to David the very complete library owned by Clifton's Bolesse family, which gave David a chance to read widely and laid a solid foundation for future inventions.
In Clifton, British physicist Bedoz established a gas research institute to study the physiological effects of various gases on human body, hoping to find some gases with medical effects and find out which gases are harmful to human body. The institute needed an excellent chemist, so Bedo hired David. The first gas that David studied was nitrous oxide. American chemist Mitchell believes that nitrous oxide is harmful to human body, and anyone who inhales this gas will be fatally hit. David didn't blindly follow Mitchell. After repeated experiments, he found that nitrous oxide was harmless to human body. After inhaling this gas, people will feel intoxicating, so David suggested that nitrous oxide can be used for surgery. David's paper on the effect of nitrous oxide on human body was published in 1800, which made a comprehensive evaluation of the anesthetic effect of nitrous oxide and was considered as the best anesthetic ever. Since then, dentists and surgeons have begun to use nitrous oxide as an anesthetic; Circus clowns should also take a little nitrous oxide before they go on stage, because it has a strange effect on people's facial nerves and can make people laugh wildly with different meanings. Nitrous oxide is called "nitrous oxide" and will spread. In addition, David also studied the physiological effects of various gases including nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide on human body. Obviously, it is very dangerous to study these two gases, but David insisted on doing it and encouraged his brother John David to do this risky experiment.
David showed strong quantitative experimental research ability when doing gas research, and his volume analysis experimental technology was very clever. The characteristic of his research work is that he is willing to spend a lot of labor, but he can get experimental results at an amazing speed, and he shows special creativity in adapting existing instruments to new research topics. He is not interested in repeating and proving other people's discoveries, but he shows great perseverance in innovation.
David's works on the respiratory function of nitrous oxide made him famous, and his chemical career got a good start.
After the news that Volta invented the reactor was announced, Nicholson and karis reported that they used Volta reactor to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. After learning these new discoveries, David immediately devoted himself to this research field and published papers, such as 1800 Chemistry and Technology published in Nicholson Journal of Natural Philosophy. In his research, David not only used the advanced experimental tool Volta reactor at that time, but also kept the clearest head all the time, and explored whether the previous practice and theory were still inadequate. Volta always thought that the current in the stack was produced after two different metals came into contact, but David was the first chemist to realize that this "contact theory" was insufficient. He believes that current is not only produced by contact, but actually by chemical reactions in the stack. He also pointed out that in an electrolytic cell, a compound is broken down into its components due to the action of current. David's view has been widely valued and supported in France and Germany.
David also found that if there was no oxygen in the water between the metal sheets, the stack could not work well, and concluded that the redox reaction between zinc and copper (or silver) was the reason for the current generated by the zinc-copper (or silver) stack. It is further inferred that if nitric acid is used instead of water or salt solution in the stack, the effect of the stack will be better, because nitric acid is more oxidizing than oxygen. David also used an electric pile, in which electrodes were placed in two containers, so that the solutions in these containers were connected by wet asbestos ropes.
The above research results were published in 180 1, from which we can see David's innovative spirit again.
At the royal college
This year, David was selected as a lecturer at the Royal College. He was happy to write to his mother: "You have probably heard of the Royal Academy established by Count Langford and other nobles?" This is a very gorgeous building, but talented people are not organized to play a prominent role. Count Langford suggested that I work there. "The fact is, as David said, since the Royal Academy of Sciences absorbed fresh blood like David (David later discovered his assistant Faraday and elected him to the Royal Academy of Sciences), it has become one of the most famous scientific institutions in the world. The purpose of the Royal College is to spread knowledge, provide technical training for most people, encourage the invention and improvement of new and useful machines, and hold lectures regularly to publicize the above results. During David's tenure, such speeches were given more frequently. He is an excellent speaker himself, and he has successfully attracted a large number of college students, scientists and science lovers, including many arty and idle young ladies. Therefore, David became a celebrity in London in a short time, and science became more fashionable in London. The Royal College has become the center of British scientific research and an important place to teach science.
When David first arrived at the Royal College, his lectures were all about technical topics. 1805, he won the copley Prize for publishing a paper on tanning. From 1802 to 18 12. This is the first attempt to apply chemistry to agriculture. Before Justus von Liebig's works on agricultural chemistry were published, David's lectures were always regarded as the pioneering work of agricultural chemistry.
1806, David gave a lecture in Bakelin with the research results of electrochemistry, the content of which was the study of electrolytic water. He pointed out that when pure water is electrolyzed, the product only produces the theoretical ratio of hydrogen and oxygen, which is consistent with the experimental results obtained by Swedish chemist Bezayrie Uss. However, other chemists who study electrolyzed water point out that acid and alkali will appear around the electrode when electrolyzed water, and hydrogen and oxygen cannot be produced according to the theoretical ratio when electrolyzed. David answered the above questions with his precise experiments. He pointed out that the pure water redistilled in a silver instrument is put into a gold or agate container and electrolyzed in a hydrogen atmosphere (this can prevent the new ecological hydrogen and oxygen from reacting with nitrogen in the air), and only hydrogen and oxygen are produced. When water is electrolyzed, the reason why acid and alkali are produced around the electrode is that the purity of water is not enough (which contains salt). In the six years after Nicholson and karis's experiment of electrolyzed water was published, no chemist noticed the above problem, but David explained it. He also proposed the use of electrolysis as a chemical analysis method and discussed the migration of substances in solution during electrolysis. He found that when two cups were filled with electrodes and conductive solution, then the third cup was filled with neutral salt solution, and each cup was filled with turmeric or litmus indicator, and then the solutions in the three cups were connected with asbestos rope, the indicator would change color near the electrodes during electrolysis. If barium chloride solution is added to two cups with electrodes, the cup with sulfuric acid is placed between the two cups, and the solutions in the three cups are connected by asbestos rope, barium sulfate precipitation will occur in the middle cup during electrolysis, which proves that there is material transfer during electrolysis.
David is a staunch supporter of Bezayrie's electrochemical dualism. They divide chemical elements into positive and negative ones, and only elements with different electrical properties can combine to form neutral substances, which are decomposed by current polarization. Each element has positive and negative electrical properties, which determines their chemical affinity-elements with strong positive electrical properties have strong chemical affinity with elements with strong negative electrical properties, so they are very easy to combine to form stable compounds. Electrochemical dualism runs through the chemical theory at that time and plays a fundamental role in organization and classification. David discovered the sensational effects of many new elements through electrolysis, which prompted Bezayrie Uss to systematically put forward electrochemical dualism.
Many new elements were discovered by electrolysis.
1807, David described the process of separating metal potassium and sodium in Backelin lecture. The year before, he began to study chemical elements with new electrolytic methods. Lavoisier once thought that chemists were not concerned with elements, but with objects that could not be decomposed at present. At that time, some people regarded alkali, soda and potassium oxalate (potassium carbonate extracted from plant ash) as objects that could not be decomposed, but lavoisier refused to include them in the list of objects that could not be decomposed. Inspired by lavoisier's article, David wanted to separate these chemical elements from potassium carbonate, sodium carbonate and alkali by electrolysis. He made a bold prediction: "If chemical combination has the characteristics I once boldly imagined, then no matter how strong the natural electricity (binding force) of the elements in the object is, it can't be infinite, and the power of our artificial instruments seems to be infinitely increasing. I hope that the new method (referring to electrolysis) will allow us to discover the real elements in objects. "
David used 250 pairs of metal plates to make the largest voltaic pile at that time, thus generating strong current and extremely high voltage. At first, he electrolyzed with a saturated solution of caustic potash, but he didn't separate metallic potassium, only hydrolyzed water. David decided to change this practice and electrolyze pure caustic potash, but dry caustic potash is not conductive. He burned caustic potash until it melted. After the current was turned on, a bright burning lavender flame appeared around the cathode platinum wire. David still got nothing.
After calm thinking, he judged that caustic potash did decompose, but the decomposition products burned immediately at high temperature. He felt relaxed and excited. There are other people's banquets and dances in the evening. David had no time to change clothes, so he changed into a new one outside and ran away like a gust of wind. Although the experiment is very tense, he never delays the party. His excellent eloquence and ability to write poems instantly were vividly displayed at the banquet. Praise from others makes him very happy. He fully enjoyed the passion of life in social life.
There is a lot of noise in London. It is said that David decomposes caustic potash, but David is getting more and more anxious. Becklin's lecture is only over a month away. How can we make the decomposition products visible to everyone? Earl Longford, the founder of the Royal Academy, married lavoisier's widow Mary in 1803 and moved to France. At present, the main support for the Royal College is the paid Becklin lecture, which can't be wrong. David put more energy into the experiment.
180765438+1October 6th, London fog. David took out a piece of caustic potash and observed it in the air. After a while, some water was adsorbed on its surface. "Isn't this a conduction ability?" David thought about it and immediately called his assistant to prepare for the experiment. They put caustic potash with wet surface on a small platinum plate and connected the platinum plate with the negative electrode of the battery with wires; The platinum wire connected to the anode of the battery was inserted into caustic potash, and the whole device was exposed to air. After electrifying, caustic potash began to melt and the surface boiled. David found that there was strong light on the cathode, which produced metallic particles similar to mercury near the cathode. Some particles burn immediately after formation, producing lavender flame and even explosion. Some particles are oxidized to form a white film on the surface. David reversed the current in the electrolytic cell and still found silvery white particles on the cathode, which may also burn and explode. David was ecstatic when he saw this amazing discovery. He jumped up in the room and wrote in his lab book: "Important experiments prove that potash is decomposed." He threw the pen away and there was a big ball of ink on it.
Later, David electrolyzed wet caustic potash in a closed crucible and finally got this silvery white metal. David threw it into the water. At first, it spun on the water and hissed, then it burned and released a lavender flame. He confirmed that he had discovered a new metal element. Because this metal is made of potash, it is named potash. Later, he made nonmetallic elements such as sodium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, boron and silicon by electrolysis, and became the person who discovered the most new elements in the history of chemistry.
David failed many times in the electrolysis of lime and heavy soil (BaO), because the melting points of lime and heavy soil were as high as 2580℃ and 1923℃ respectively, and calcium and barium would burn as soon as they appeared at such high temperature. 1808 In May, David received a letter from Bethelius, which mentioned that he and the doctor of the King of Sweden mixed lime and mercury for electrolysis and successfully decomposed lime. They also electrolyzed heavy soil in this way to make barium amalgam. Inspired by Bethelius, David mixed wet lime with mercuric oxide at the ratio of 3: 1 and put it in a platinum dish for electrolysis, resulting in a large amount of calcium amalgam. He carefully evaporated mercury, thus obtaining pure metallic calcium for the first time in the history of chemistry.
"Oxyhydrochloride" is not a compound.
In the process of studying alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, David encountered another problem. He found that alkali is an oxide, but if acid contains oxygen, he is in trouble. He knew lavoisier's theory of acid and oxygen for a long time. lavoisier thought that oxygen was the origin of acidity, and all acids contained oxygen. Is the great chemist lavoisier wrong, or is David's understanding of acid incorrect?
When David studied the chemical properties of tellurium, he found that hydrogen telluride is an acid, but it contains no oxygen, which makes him wonder whether oxygen exists in all acids. In order to find more evidence, David began to study hydrochloric acid. According to lavoisier's viewpoint, a new yellow-green gas produced by Scheler's reaction between hydrochloric acid and manganese dioxide in 1774 is hydrochloric acid oxide, which is composed of oxygen and another unknown free radical, and hydrochloric acid oxide is formed by the combination of this free radical and more oxidation. But David tried his best, but he couldn't extract oxygen from hydrochloric acid oxide. He said: "Even if the charcoal is burned into a white-hot state by the electric pile, it can't make any changes in the oxidized hydrochloric acid gas. I have repeated this experiment many times and the results are the same, so I doubt whether there is oxygen in these substances. "
French physicists and chemists Gay-Lussac and Tanner also conducted the same experiment, and thought that there was no oxygen oxide in hydrochloric acid. On the contrary, hydrochloric acid oxides may have the properties of elements. But they firmly believe that the great chemist lavoisier's point of view is not wrong, so although they have opened the channel to discover that chlorine is a chemical element, the result is still nothing. Only David claimed that all the reactions of hydrochloric acid oxidation would not produce oxygen as long as there was no water. He thinks it is best to regard hydrochloric acid oxidation as an insoluble substance. He believes that the facts show the views held by lavoisier and the French school of chemistry, which looks beautiful and satisfactory on the surface, but judging from the knowledge already mastered, this is only a theory based on assumptions. So David confirmed with irrefutable facts that the so-called "hydrochloric acid oxide" is by no means a compound, but a chemical element. He named this element chlorine, meaning yellow-green. He believes that chlorine can help combustion like oxygen, and oxygen does not have to exist in the oxidation reaction. He also pointed out that all exothermic reactions are oxidation reactions. David's viewpoint well developed lavoisier's theory of combustion and oxidation.
"the greatest discovery"
When we marveled at David's spirit of breaking through authority, respecting facts and being innovative, when the audience of Becklin's lecture was impressed and lamented by David's constant discovery, David's health was overdrawn. Working like crazy made him very weak. Just before Buckling's lecture, he was invited to the prison to inspect the epidemic typhoid fever, but he himself was infected. After Baxlin's lecture, he couldn't hold on any longer, and gradually recovered after several rescues in the hospital. During this period, people came to visit in an endless stream, so the hospital had to hang a signboard at the gate to announce David's illness every day.
After leaving the hospital, David spent his rest at home. On this day, he received a letter and a 368-page beautifully bound book, the cover of which read: lecture by David. This book is written by hand and has many beautiful illustrations. The letter said, "I am an apprentice in a printing factory, binding books. I love science and have heard your four speeches. I will take my notes as a Christmas present. I would appreciate it if you could help me change the status quo. -Faraday "
David looked at it excitedly and remembered his life. He immediately wrote to Faraday and asked him to meet in a month.
179 1 Faraday was born in a blacksmith's family in London on September 22nd. He has no formal education except reading, writing and arithmetic. /kloc-at the age of 0/3, he became an apprentice to a bookbinder. Faraday read almost all the science books sent to this store for binding, including the electrical part of the Encyclopedia Britannica. A book that had a particularly far-reaching influence on him was the Conservation of Chemistry written by Mrs. Marcel (the wife of a physicist). He began to use his pocket money to buy some cheap instruments and medicines and began chemical experiments. With the help of a brother who is not rich, Faraday listened to David's lecture about Becklin. He felt very motivated, so he carefully arranged his speech and took out his unique skill of binding books. A hardcover collection of David's speeches was given to David.
Soon, David arranged for Faraday to be an assistant in his laboratory. Although there are a lot of chores such as cleaning and cleaning instruments, Faraday is glad to hear David and his assistants talk about science and their experimental process. David soon saw Faraday's talent, and gradually let him take part in experiments and even work independently.
At that time, steam engines were widely used, coal mining was in short supply, and mine gas explosions occurred frequently. For example, a gas explosion occurred in Newcastle coal mine on the Tyne River in England, killing thousands of miners. David responded to the call of "Coal Mine Disaster Prevention Association" and developed a safety miner's lamp. With Faraday's help, David added a wire mesh cover outside the miner's lamp. The barbed wire led away the heat of the miner's lamp flame, so that the combustible gas could not reach the ignition point and the gas would not explode. This safe miner's lamp has been used for over 100 years, saving the lives of thousands of miners in Qian Qian all over the world.
18 13 autumn, David took Faraday to Europe for a trip and academic visit, which lasted for one and a half years. Faraday, as an assistant and entourage, has to do a lot of services for David and his wife, but he has the opportunity to meet many famous scientists, such as Ampere, Cervar Road, Gay-Lussac and Volt, listen to their speeches and conversations, learn about their scientific research activities and broaden his scientific horizons. As wollaston, a British chemist who is familiar with Faraday, said, "Faraday's university is Europe, his teacher is David, and the master he serves is an outstanding scientist whom Faraday knows because of David's fame."
During his years working with David, Faraday published papers covering almost all fields of chemistry. He succeeded in obtaining liquid chlorine; Smelting stainless steel earlier; The reaction of silver compounds with ammonia was studied. A variety of organic compounds have been separated, the most important of which is benzene; The equivalent law of electrolysis was discovered. Of course, Faraday's greatest contribution is in the electromagnetism of physics. He discovered all the principles of generators and motors through experiments, which greatly promoted the progress of society. He can therefore be on par with Galileo, Newton, Maxwell and Einstein.
18 16 Faraday began to hold a series of lectures at the Royal College of England, and achieved brilliant success. 1825, he succeeded David as the director of the laboratory. As Faraday's reputation is getting higher and higher, people often say, "David's greatest discovery is Faraday's discovery." Such a joke made David jealous of Faraday. 1824, David opposed Faraday's election as a member of the Royal Society (not the Royal Academy of Sciences), and he was the only one among 25 people who voted against it. Although Faraday was successfully elected, it was very regrettable and sad.
Sir humphry davy.
18 13 When David and Faraday were in France, they asked Napoleon to establish a scientific reward system. Because of David's great contribution, he won a prize of 3,000 francs. There was a war between Britain and France at that time, but David thought that science had no national boundaries, so he and his assistant Faraday had been visiting France. During this period, David was also elected as an academician of the French Academy of Sciences.
1820, David learned that Sir Banks was ill. He had been the president of the Royal Society before David was born, and David immediately rushed back to London. After Banks' death, there were obviously only two people running for the presidency of the Royal Society. One is David. The other is wollaston. David firmly believed that he would win the election, and wollaston announced his withdrawal on the eve of the election, so David was elected as the president of the Royal Society in 1820, and he held this position from 1820 to 1827. Since then, the Royal Society has become more active and attracted a large number of scientists. David hopes that these colleagues will do their best and get the greatest support from the British government. He also suggested that the British Museum should follow the example of the Natural History Museum in Paris, not only for everyone to visit, but also become a research center.
The Royal Society demanded to know the cause of the corrosion of the copper bottom shell of the ship, and David began to study the subject again. He found that if a more positively charged metal sheet (called a protective layer) was fixed on the copper sheet, the copper would not be corroded by seawater again. However, during the test, marine life and plants were tightly attached to the protective layer, which caused serious resistance to the ship's driving, so this study was never successful.
1826, due to family reasons, David finished his last speech in Buckling. Since then, due to his deteriorating health, he retired from scientific research and began to treat diseases in Europe. 1826, David won the highest honor and was made Sir humphry davy.
When talking about David's illness, people often associate him with his passionate and almost crazy style and his bold behavior in chemical experiments. When describing his brother, his younger brother John David said, "Humphrey's bold behavior in the experiment is quite famous. He almost forgot the danger when he did the experiment, and this adventure happened every day. " David once hurt his eyes in the experiment of preparing nitrogen trichloride. Years of poisoning and crazy work have made David extremely weak. Although he went to Europe to visit famous doctors, it didn't help. 1829 died early in Geneva, Switzerland, and lived for 5 1 year.
After David's death, his brother compiled a complete work for him, called The Complete Works of Sir humphry davy, with nine volumes, which became an important document in the history of chemistry.