An Elementary Study of Chemistry | Page 2

mind of the student, but also of enabling him to answer such questions
as arise in his laboratory work. They are, therefore, more or less
practical in character. It is not necessary that all of them should be
solved, though with few exceptions the lists are not long. The answers
to the questions are not directly given in the text as a rule, but can be
inferred from the statements made. They therefore require independent
thought on the part of the student.
With very few exceptions only such experiments are included in the
text as cannot be easily carried out by the student. It is expected that
these will be performed by the teacher at the lecture table. Directions
for laboratory work by the student are published in a separate volume.
While the authors believe that the most important function of the
elementary text is to develop the principles of the science, they
recognize the importance of some discussion of the practical
application of these principles to our everyday life. Considerable space

is therefore devoted to this phase of chemistry. The teacher should
supplement this discussion whenever possible by having the class visit
different factories where chemical processes are employed.
Although this text is now for the first time offered to teachers of
elementary chemistry, it has nevertheless been used by a number of
teachers during the past three years. The present edition has been
largely rewritten in the light of the criticisms offered, and we desire to
express our thanks to the many teachers who have helped us in this
respect, especially to Dr. William Lloyd Evans of this laboratory, a
teacher of wide experience, for his continued interest and helpfulness.
We also very cordially solicit correspondence with teachers who may
find difficulties or inaccuracies in the text.
The authors wish to make acknowledgments for the photographs and
engravings of eminent chemists from which the cuts included in the
text were taken; to Messrs. Elliott and Fry, London, England, for that of
Ramsay; to The Macmillan Company for those of Davy and Dalton,
taken from the Century Science Series; to the L. E. Knott Apparatus
Company, Boston, for that of Bunsen.
THE AUTHORS
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
COLUMBUS, OHIO

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. OXYGEN 13
III. HYDROGEN 28

IV. WATER AND HYDROGEN DIOXIDE 40
V. THE ATOMIC THEORY 59
VI. CHEMICAL EQUATIONS AND CALCULATIONS 68
VII. NITROGEN AND THE RARE ELEMENTS IN THE
ATMOSPHERE 78
VIII. THE ATMOSPHERE 83
IX. SOLUTIONS 94
X. ACIDS, BASES, AND SALTS; NEUTRALIZATION 106
XI. VALENCE 116
XII. COMPOUNDS OF NITROGEN 122
XIII. REVERSIBLE REACTIONS AND CHEMICAL
EQUILIBRIUM 137
XIV. SULPHUR AND ITS COMPOUNDS 143
XV. PERIODIC LAW 165
XVI. THE CHLORINE FAMILY 174
XVII. CARBON AND SOME OF ITS SIMPLER COMPOUNDS 196
XVIII. FLAMES,--ILLUMINANTS 213
XIX. MOLECULAR WEIGHTS, ATOMIC WEIGHTS, FORMULAS
223
XX. THE PHOSPHORUS FAMILY 238
XXI. SILICON, TITANIUM, BORON 257

XXII. THE METALS 267
XXIII. THE ALKALI METALS 274
XXIV. THE ALKALINE-EARTH FAMILY 300
XXV. THE MAGNESIUM FAMILY 316
XXVI. THE ALUMINIUM FAMILY 327
XXVII. THE IRON FAMILY 338
XXVIII. COPPER, MERCURY, AND SILVER 356
XXIX. TIN AND LEAD 370
XXX. MANGANESE AND CHROMIUM 379
XXXI. GOLD AND THE PLATINUM FAMILY 390
XXXII. SOME SIMPLE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS 397
INDEX 421
APPENDIX A Facing back cover
APPENDIX B Inside back cover

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE ANTOINE LAURENT LAVOISIER Frontispiece
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 14
JOHN DALTON 60
WILLIAM RAMSAY 82

DMITRI IVANOVITCH MENDELÉEFF 166
HENRI MOISSAN 176
SIR HUMPHRY DAVY 276
ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN 298

AN ELEMENTARY STUDY OF CHEMISTRY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
~The natural sciences.~ Before we advance very far in the study of
nature, it becomes evident that the one large study must be divided into
a number of more limited ones for the convenience of the investigator
as well as of the student. These more limited studies are called the
natural sciences.
Since the study of nature is divided in this way for mere convenience,
and not because there is any division in nature itself, it often happens
that the different sciences are very intimately related, and a thorough
knowledge of any one of them involves a considerable acquaintance
with several others. Thus the botanist must know something about
animals as well as about plants; the student of human physiology must
know something about physics as well as about the parts of the body.
~Intimate relation of chemistry and physics.~ Physics and chemistry
are two sciences related in this close way, and it is not easy to make a
precise distinction between them. In a general way it may be said that
they are both concerned with inanimate matter rather than with living,
and more particularly with the changes which such matter may be made
to undergo. These changes must be considered more closely before a
definition of the