Without burdening the memory with technical nomenclature I wish to say a few words about chemistry for the benefit of the public at large and the student who may be interested in pursuing the subject further.
We learn from the text books that organic chemistry treats of things which have organs to breathe, eat, and grow, like animals and vegetables, while inorganic chemistry pertains to rocks, metals gases, etc. According to the atomic theory there are 71 original elements which go into the makeup of everything. These elements consist of infinitesimally small atoms which combine with other atoms to make flesh, bone, wood, coal, water, air, acids and everything that exists. Here are the 71 elements:
[The elements listed in the table below were those known in Loyd's time. I have taken the liberty of giving the currently known values of the atomic weights, so they differ slightly from those listed by Loyd. It should also be noted that the element listed as Didymium was later found to actually be a mixture of two different elements (cerium and lanthanum). Ironically, the name Didymium was derived from the Greek term for twin element (due to its noted chemical similarity to lanthanum). — jws]
| Name | Sym | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Aluminium | Al | 27.0 |
| Antimony | Sb | 121.8 |
| Arsenic | As | 74.9 |
| Barium | Ba | 137.3 |
| Beryllium | Be | 9.0 |
| Bismuth | Bi | 209.0 |
| Boron | B | 10.8 |
| Bromine | Br | 79.9 |
| Cadmium | Cd | 112.4 |
| Caesium | Cs | 132.9 |
| Calcium | Ca | 40.1 |
| Carbon | C | 12.0 |
| Cerium | Ce | 140.1 |
| Chlorine | Cl | 35.5 |
| Chromium | Cr | 52.0 |
| Cobalt | Co | 58.9 |
| Columbium | Ch | 92.9 |
| Copper | Cu | 63.5 |
| Didymium | Di | 142.3 |
| Erbium | Er | 167.3 |
| Fluorine | F | 19.0 |
| Gallium | Ga | 69.7 |
| Germanium | Ge | 72.6 |
| Gold | Au | 197.0 |
| Hydrogen | H | 1.0 |
| Indium | In | 114.8 |
| Iodine | I | 126.9 |
| Iridium | Ir | 192.2 |
| Iron | Fe | 55.8 |
| Lanthanum | La | 138.9 |
| Lead | Pb | 207.2 |
| Lithium | Li | 6.9 |
| Magnesium | Mg | 24.3 |
| Manganese | Mn | 54.9 |
| Mercury | Hg | 200.6 |
| Molybdenum | Mo | 96.0 |
| Nickel | Ni | 58.7 |
| Nitrogen | N | 14.0 |
| Osmium | Os | 190.2 |
| Oxygen | O | 16.0 |
| Palladium | Pd | 106.4 |
| Phosphorus | P | 31.0 |
| Platinum | Pt | 195.1 |
| Potassium | K | 39.1 |
| Rhodium | Rh | 102.9 |
| Rubidium | Rb | 85.5 |
| Ruthenium | Ru | 101.1 |
| Samarium | Sm | 150.4 |
| Scandium | Sc | 45.0 |
| Selenium | Se | 79.0 |
| Silicon | Si | 28.1 |
| Silver | Ag | 107.9 |
| Sodium | Na | 23.0 |
| Strontium | Sr | 87.6 |
| Sulfur | S | 32.1 |
| Tantalum | Ta | 180.9 |
| Tellurium | Te | 127.6 |
| Terbium | Tb | 158.9 |
| Thallium | Tl | 204.4 |
| Thorium | Th | 232.0 |
| Thulium | Tm | 168.9 |
| Tin | Sn | 118.7 |
| Titanium | Ti | 47.9 |
| Tungsten | W | 183.8 |
| Uranium | U | 238.0 |
| Vanadium | V | 50.9 |
| Ytterbium | Yb | 173.1 |
| Zinc | Zn | 65.4 |
| Zirconium | Zr | 91.2 |
It will be seen that each of the elements has its chemical symbol and atomic number. These atoms; will combine with other atoms to produce acids, salts, bases or compounds only in multiples of those numbers. Hydrogen (H) is the lightest of all known substances and is therefore designated as 1. It is fourteen times as light as air. From which we might readily estimate its usefulness for ballooning.
Oxygen (O) being 16 times as heavy as H has 16 for its atomic number and unites with other elements in proportions of 16, 32, 48, 64. In uniting these elements to form compounds, numbers are placed after the symbols as in algebra, to indicate the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th powers. Just as we get a clear idea of the work in a mathematical expression like A2 + H3 - XY = Z, the chemist describes his formula in symbols like HCl + NaHO= NaCl + H2O which produces sail water, or C3H5 (ONO2)3 which is the formula for nitroglycerine which Hudson Maxim, the great authority on explosives, gave me the other day.
Here are some of the combinations for acids, which you will notice, all contain hydrogen:
Nitric acid NHO3.
Hydrochloric acid HCl.
Sulphuric acid H2SO4.
Hydroiodic acid HI.
Phosphoric acid H3PO4.
Hydrobromic acid HBr.
Then we get the different salts by putting metals in the acids in place of H, as well as hydrates and bases which pertain to the chemical nomenclature.
The different multiples of an element will produce entirely dissimilar compounds. H2O is the formula for water and indicates that two atoms of H to one atom of O form water, O being 16 times heavier than H shows that H forms the 9th part of water. Now increase the proportion of O and what was a tasteless liquid becomes a thick, syrupy compound with a bitter taste and disagreeable odor which will not freeze by intense cold. No use has yet been discovered for this curious compound.
Air consists of one-fifth oxygen to four-fifths nitrogen, and yet five dissimilar compounds result from their combinations: Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is N2O. Nitric oxide is NO. Nitrous anhydride is N2O3. Nitrogen peroxide is NO2, and nitric anhydride is N2O5.
Anything may be decomposed, burned or changed by chemical action but nothing is destroyed, every atom can be accounted for and restored. It is somewhat akin to Sir Walter Raleigh's wager that he could weigh the smoke from his tobacco. He carefully preserved and weighed the ashes from his cigars, which, deducted from the original weight of the tobacco, showed exactly how much had escaped in smoke.
Broadly speaking there are two principles in chemistry: Analysis, which analyzes or dissects a compound to discern its ingredients; and synthesis which combines the elements to form other compounds. The modern chemist knows intelligently which of nature’s products contain the elements required to produce a new combination and in separating them will save the other elements and form valuable bi-products.
It requires but little knowledge of chemistry to realize how blindly the old alchemists were groping in the dark, or how absurd are the popular stories of great chemical discoveries having been hit upon by accident
Nothing explains the principles of analysis better than the little game of questions, which I heartily recommend to my young friends. Think of any thing and I will guess it in fifteen questions to which you need reply but “yes” or “no. ” All right, you have thought of “a sticker,” have you? Well, does it belong to the animal kingdom? “No.” That’s good, there are already 10,000 things which I know it is not. Does it belong to the vegetable kingdom? “No.” Good, now there are a whole lot of things I know it isn’t, and I know it belongs to the mineral kingdom, so I ask at once, is it metal? “Yes!” Is it sold at the hardware store? “Yes.” Is it a kind of tool? “Yes.” Does it have to be sharpened? “No.” That was a foolish question, but I was wasting no time, so I will lump a lot of queries. Now listen. Is it one of the following articles: A fire shovel, spoon, poker, stove lifter, cake turner, hammer, cork screw, or pincers? “Yes!” Hurrah, it is one of eight, and you can reduce eight to one in three questions, so I get it in ten queries. Ingenious people may originate clever questions which eliminate thousands of articles, just as the chemist eliminates and proves more by what there is not. Than by what there is. It reminds me of what a little boy wrote about salt. “It is something that makes our taters and things taste awful bad when there isn’t any. ”
The clever reader will see that this principle is well illustrated in this little lecture on chemistry; no rules or formulas being given you are expected to draw all information you can from the lessons which are not given!
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