Chemical Reactions
Chemical reactions are the heart of chemistry. People have always known that they exist.
The Ancient Greeks were the firsts to speculate on the composition of matter. They thought that it was possible that individual particles made up matter.
Later, in the Seventeenth Century, a German chemist named Georg Ernst Stahl was the first to postulate on chemical reaction, specifically, combustion. He said that a substance called phlogiston escaped into the air from all substances during combustion.
He explained that a burning candle would go out if a candle snuffer was put over it because the air inside the snuffer became saturated with phlogiston. According to his ideas, wood is made up of phlogiston and ash, because only ash is left after combustion.
His ideas soon came upon some contradiction. When metal is burned, its ash has a greater mass than the original substance. Stahl tried to cover himself by saying that phlogiston will take away from a substance’s mass or that it had a negative mass, which contradicted his original theories.
In the Eighteenth Century Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, in France, discovered an important detail in the understanding of the chemical reaction combustion, oxigine (oxygen). He said that combustion was a chemical reaction involving oxygen and another combustible substance, such as wood.
John Dalton, in the early Nineteenth Century, discovered the atom. It gave way to the idea that a chemical reaction was actually the rearrangement of groups of atoms called molecules. Dalton also said that the appearance and disappearance of properties meant that the atomic composition dictated the appearance of different properties. He also came up with idea that a molecule of one substance is exactly the same as any other molecule of the same substance.
People like Joseph-Lois Gay-Lussac added to Dalton’s concepts with the postulate that the volumes of gasses that react with each other are related (14 grams of nitrogen reacted with exactly three grams of hydrogen, eight grams of oxygen reacted to exactly one gram of hydrogen, etc.)
Amedeo Avogadro also added to the understanding of chemical reactions. He said that all gasses at the same pressure, volume and temperature contain the same number of particles. This idea took a long time to be accepted. His ideas lead to the subscripts used in the formulas f...
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...st, stimulating a reaction between two reactants, just stimulating a reaction one molecule at a time. The molecules are stimulated in a pattern giving the wanted results. This discovery opens doors for nanoengineering and material sciences. It gives a good view of what happens, one molecule at a time.
Chemical reactions are a large part of chemistry. This paper is an overveiw of that extensive subject. It gives a good idea about the history of chemical reactions as well as the future. Hopefully, there will be no end to the expansion of chemistry and our knowledge. Since Scientists are still experimenting, chemical reactions will always be a part of chemistry.
Bibliography
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"One Molecule at a Time", Discover, January 1996
Pauling, Linus and Peter, Chemistry, W. H. Freeman and Co., 1975
"Reactions, Chemical," Encyclopedia Americana, 1982, Vol. 23
"Reactions, Chemical," Academic American Encyclopedia, 1991, Vol. 16
middle of paper ... ... The Web. 22 Feb. 2014. http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history>.
Through time it can be seen that the world’s history has a nature of repeating its self. Author Miller, was aware of this as he experienced a repitition of history of society’s flawed government. In the text The Crucible, the writer, Author Miller has identified and illustrated the problems society faced during the 1950’s setting by drawing parallels with the setting of the 1962 Salem witch hunt. This setting helps readers to understand the characters of John Proctor and Giles Corey.
B., Du Bois W. E. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979. University of Virginia Library. 4 Oct. 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. 37.
From the outside, the 1950’s was a great time for America. Society revolved around the idea of America being a middle-class nation. Americans worshipped conformity, and materialism satisfied the need to conform. However, the prosperity of materialistic America hid the growing, numerous problems. Dissent in any way was not tolerated; all injustice was stifled by a fear of difference. In “Fifties Society,” Alan Brinkley discusses the truth of the era; that the fear of nonconformity was hidden by the seemingly prosperous middle-class nation. Brinkley argues the Beat movement and “feminine mystique” show that the people who did not fit in reveal the true colors of 1950’s society.
1. J R Partington, A history of chemistry, volume 3 . London, UK: Macmillan, 1962
William Scheele’s life was one of humble beginnings. Born on December 19, 1742 he was one of a pack of 11 children. His formal training or education in science was of the bare minimum. By the age of fourteen, a firm by the name of Martin Anders Bauch in Gothenburg had accepted him as an apprentice as a pharmacist. This initial access to various chemicals, compounds, and books gave Wilhelm Scheele just he start he needed for beginning his career into chemistry. When the firm changed hands, Carl Wilhelm Scheele took a job with another company name Kjellström where, once again, he was provided the mean and permission to experiment. Scheele once again changed positions and moved to Stockholm where he continued in a pharmacy. Here his first discoveries were made (http://mattson.creighton.edu/History_Gas_Chemistry/Scheele.html). In 1769 with the help of a man named Anders John Retzius, Scheele isolated tartaric acid, a substance used on lenses, from cream of tartar (Tartaric Acid 1). Scheele made his big break however in 1770. Through various methods, Scheele was able to isolate oxygen. His discovery of “Fire Air� precipitated numerous awards including a membership to the Royal Academy of Sciences, a position never before, and not even to present day to be given to a pharmacist (http://mattson.creighton.edu/History_Gas_Chemistry/Scheele.html). His home town, in an effort to keep him, also found him a place to set up his pharmacy.
Helen Keller was born with the ability to hear and see, but at only nineteen months old, she contracted an illness that took that all away. She went on with her life and was a very successful woman; in fact, she became the first ever deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. This strong woman once said, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” This statement is very true in so many different ways. If you look around in today’s society you will see many celebrities and role models, all of whom the public look up to, who have gone through a trying experience at least one time in their lives. Both Oprah Winfrey and Robert Downey, Jr. are great examples of individuals who suffered through many trials and tribulations only to come out as stronger individuals.
I have thought it useful, in the interest of science,’ he wrote, ‘to make known the effects of charcoal upon man. I place a lamp, a candle, and a watch on my table, and commence the ceremony. It is a quarter past 10; I have just lighted the stove; the charcoal burns feebly’. (Lewes, 1859, pp.347‑8)
John Dalton John Dalton, born 6th September 1766, is known for developing the theory of the elements and compounds, atomic mass and weights and his research in colour blindness. He was born in Eaglesfield, Cumberland (now known as Cumbria). In school he was so successful that at the age of 12 he became a teacher. In 1785 he became one of the principles and in 1787 he made a journal that was later made into a book, describing his thoughts on mixtures of gases and how each gas acted independently and the mixtures pressure (which is the same as the gases volume if it had one). Therefore, the law of partial pressure was made.
Sootin, Harry, and Gustav Schrotter.Robert Boyle : founder of modern chemistry. New York: F. Watts, 1962. Print.
The first theory to do with the atom was by Democritus and Leucippus who first proposed the idea of the atom as an invisible particle that all matter is made of. However, the first real discovery of an element, besides those like Gold and Silver etc. (which people had been aware of before written history) was phosphorus, which was discovered by Henning Brand in 1649. In 1787, a French chemist called Antoine Lavoisier, made a list of all 33 known elements of the time. Between 1649 and 1869, the Periodic table was added to and in 1869 a total of 63 elements had been discovered. In 1864, John Newlands made a huge advancement in the arranging of these elements, as he was able to sort them in order of atomic weights and was also able to observe similar properties between elements. The creation of the Periodic table, however is considered to be done by Russian scientist Dimitri Mendeleev who proposed a table as a classification system for all of the elements that had been discovered and he even left spaces for elements that had not yet been discovered, but he predicted they would. The Periodic table contin...
Dalton’s idea is that all things are made of small bits of matter, these bits of matter where too small to be seen even with a microscope. Scientists began to think these small bits of matter were responsible for chemical changes. They thought that when these bits of matter combined, a chemical change took place. Dalton assumed that there was a special pattern in the elements and was partly responsible for the periodic table. Dalton in 1787 started to keep a journal.
These industrial cities created problems in three areas: working conditions, living conditions, and the social structure. First, cities built so rapidly were also built shoddily. Tenement houses were crammed together poorly built, and overcrowded. Whole families were packed into cellars, attics, or single rooms, with one house full of people. Good sanitation was non-existent, making clean water an available for the wealthy. Open sewers ran down streets carrying water with industrial (sewage) and human waste. Diseases such as cholera, typhus, and often reached large amount of individuals. Add to these problems malnutrition the air pollution, and one gets a picture of incomparable human misery. Drug abuse, alcoholism, and prostitution were natural outcomes of having to endure to these conditions.
To control the rates of chemical reactions is imperative to the continued existence of our species. Controlled chemical reactions allow us to move forward in society, constantly. We find new ways to provide light and heat our homes, cook our food, and pursue in crafts that benefit our society. There are, however, just as there are advantages, disadvantages to the efficiency of controlling the rate of reactions, which in some cases can be fatal to our scientific development and progression. The growth of humankind necessitates that we must be able to control the rate of chemical reactions.