Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
130
At
a
later
time,
Lavoisier
devised
and
conducted
an
experiment
which
laid
bare
the
change
of
composition
that
happens
when
mercury
is
calcined
in
the
air.
He
calcined
a
weighed
quantity
of
mercury
for
many
days
in
a
measured
volume
of
air,
in
an
apparatus
arranged
so
that
he
was
able
to
determine
how
much
of
the
air
disappeared
during
the
process;
he
collected
and
weighed
the
red
solid
which
formed
on
the
surface
of
the
heated
mercury;
finally
he
heated
this
red
solid
to
a
high
temperature,
collected
and
measured
the
gas
which
was
given
off,
and
weighed
the
mercury
which
was
produced.
The
sum
of
the
weights
of
the
mercury
and
the
gas
which
were
produced
by
heating
the
calcined
mercury
was
equal
to
the
weight
of
the
calcined
mercury;
and
the
weight
of
the
gas
produced
by
heating
the
calcined
mercury
was
equal
to
the
weight
of
the
portion
of
the
air
which
had
disappeared
during
the
formation
of
the
calcined
mercury.
This
experiment
proved
that
the
calcination
of
mercury
in
the
air
consists
in
the
combination
of
a
constituent
of
the
air
with
the
mercury.
Fig.
XVII.
(reduced
from
an
illustration
in
Lavoisier's
Memoir)
represents
the
apparatus
used
by
Lavoisier.
Mayow's
supposition
was
confirmed.
Lavoisier
made
many
more
experiments
on
combustion,
and
proved
that
in
every
case
the
component
of
the
atmosphere
which
he
had
named
oxygen
combined
with
the
substance,
or
with
some
part
of
the
substance,
which
was
burned.
By
these
experiments
the
theory
of
Phlogiston
was
destroyed;
and
with
its
destruction,
the
whole
alchemical
apparatus
of
Principles
and
Elements,
Essences
and
Qualities,
Souls
and
Spirits,
disappeared.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
