Laval University

From the SelectedWorks of Fathi Habashi

May, 2020

Historical Collection of Extractive Metallurgy and Industrial Chemistry Fathi Habashi

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/fathi_habashi/632/ Historical Collection of Extractive Metallurgy and Industrial Chemistry 1

Introduction

Extractive Metallurgy and Industrial Chemistry are two closely related topics. In old books on industrial chemistry there is always one or two chapters dealing with the extraction of metals from their ores. Today, this area has developed greatly and extensive specialized literature is now available, for example, Handbook of Extractive Metallurgy in 4 volumes published in 1997 and Principles of Extractive Metallurgy in 4 volumes published in 1969 - 1998, as well as many conference proceedings volumes.

The Collection of Extractive Metallurgy and Industrial Chemistry is, at the origin, a gift of Dr. Fathi Habashi, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Mining, Metallurgical, and Materials Engineering of Laval University. The history of the collection goes back to 1967 when Habashi was employed by the Extractive Metallurgical Research Division of The Anaconda Company in Anaconda, Montana. He built up his collection of extractive metallurgy during his career and travels. As a result, Habashi took home a large number of books which date back from the end of the XIX century and many are in foreign language, especially Russian, but also Chinese and many European languages. He used to consult from time to time when writing on the history of metallurgy. In 1970, Habashi moved to Quebec City and in 1996 he retired from his teaching position at Laval University.

The collection includes around 200 titles. They are available for loan and are located in the Scientific Library. Some of these books are outlined below with a brief introduction to the most important authors in the history of extractive metallurgy.

1 Some books from “Habashi Collection” in the Science Library, Laval University Historical Collection

Henry Marion Howe, The Metallurgy of Steel (c1890)

Henry Marion Howe (1848–1922) was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard then appointed in 1872 superintendent of Bessemer Steel Works at Joliet, Illinois. From 1873 to 1897, he had a consulting firm in Boston and was lecturing at M.I.T. In 1897 he was appointed professor of metallurgy at Columbia School of Mines in New York. He authored:

Copper Smelting in1885, Metallurgy of Steel in 1890, Metallurgical Laboratory Notes in1902, and Iron, Steel, and Other Alloys in 1903. His book on copper smelting was the first American text on the subject. His book on steel was a large massive volume that contained extensive data and drawings of steelmaking equipment. Howe was president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1893, and the Institute honoured him by creating the Howe Memorial lecture in 1923.

Walther Nernst, Theoretical chemistry from the standpoint of Avogadro's rule & thermodynamics (1895)

Walther Hermann Nernst (1864-1941) was born in Briesen, West Prussia. He graduated in 1887 from the University of Wurzburg under Friedrich Kohlrausch. He joined Wilhelm Ostwald at Leipzig University, where van't Hoff and Arrhenius were already established, and it was in this distinguished company of physical chemists that Nernst began his researches. In 1894 he moved to Göttingen where he founded the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry and became its Director. In 1905 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry, later of Physics, in the University of Berlin, becoming Director of the newly-founded Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut in 1924. In 1889 he elucidated the theory of galvanic cells and derived equations which defined the conditions by which solids precipitate from saturated solutions. His heat theorem, known as the Third Law of Thermodynamics, was developed in 1906. His book Theoretische Chemie was first published in 1893 went through many editions and the fifth English edition appeared in 1923. Of his other books, Die theoretischen und experimentellen Grundlagen des neuen Wärmesatzes (1918) was published in English in 1926 as The New Heat Theorem. He co-authored Einführung in die mathematische Behandlung der Naturwissenschaften which reached its tenth edition in 1923.

Henry Enfield Roscoe and Carl Schorlemmer, A treatise on chemistry (1892-1900),

Henry Enfield Roscoe (1833-1915) studied in Heidelberg under Robert Bunsen then was appointed professor of chemistry at Manchester where he studied extensively vanadium compounds. He is best known for his nine- volume Treatise on Chemistry coauthored with his German collaborator Carl Schorlemmer then emigrated to England to become a professor of chemistry in Manchester. Carl Schorlemmer (1834-1892), who also studied in Heidelberg under Bunsen, was an old communist associate of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and a fighter at Baden in the uprising of the 1848 Revolution.

Manuel Eissler, The Metallurgy of Gold; a practical treatise on the metallurgical treatment of gold-bearing ores including the assaying, melting, and refining of gold (1900)

A practical treatise on the metallurgical treatment of gold bearing ores including concentration, chlorination, extraction, assaying, refining.

Robert H. Richards, Ore Dressing (1909)

Robert Hallowell Richards (1844–1945) graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1868 then held the title of professor of mineralogy and assaying at the Institute. In 1873 he became head of the Department of Mining and Metallurgy retiring in 1914. He authored Ore Dressing in 2 volumes in 1903 and 2 more volumes appeared later. These were the first books on the subject in USA. In 1909 they were summarized in one volume as Textbook of Ore Dressing. He was president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1873.

Georg Lunge, The Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid and Alkali: with the Collateral Branches - A Theoretical and Practical Treatise (1909-1917)

Thomas Edward Thorpe, A dictionary of applied chemistry (1919)

Thomas Edward Thorpe (1845–1925) studied at Owens College in Manchester under Henry Roscoe from 1863 to 1870, then went to Heidelberg to study under Robert Bunsen where he got his doctorate. He held a series of professorship in chemistry in Glasgow, Leeds, and Royal College of Science (1885–1894) and 1909–1912. From 1894 to 1909 he held an appointment as the first Government Chemist, and from 1899 to 1903 was Foreign Secretary. He is well known by Dictionary of Applied Chemistry in 5 volumes which he edited between 1894 (first edition) and 1916 (second edition).

Arthur F. Taggart, Elements of ore dressing (1951)

Arthur Fag Taggart (1884- 1959) graduated from Stanford University in 1909, went to Bolivia in 1910 on a technical assignment, on his return in 1911 he joined Yale University as assistant professor, then moved to Columbia in 1919 to occupy the chair of Mineral Engineering. After retirement in 1951 he worked as consultant. He is well known through his Handbook of Ore Dressing published in 1927.

Foreign Language Books

Leopold Gmelin, Gmelin Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie (1924-1980)

Among the foreign books one can find a reprint of the first edition of Leopold Gmelin’s three-volume work Handbuch der theoretischen Chemie published by Verlag Chemie in Heidelberg in 1817. The book contains a portrait of Gmelin. The importance of this work lies in the fact that Gmelin was the author who attempted for the first time in the history of chemistry to cite the original literature; i.e., he not only acknowledged his contemporary chemists and their work as other authors before him did, but he systematically indicated where their work was published. When he prepared new editions of the book the lists of references increased. This was the motive behind which the German Chemical Society decided to continue preparing new editions and creating the Gmelin Institute for that purpose.

Leopold Gmelin (1788-1853) was born in Göttingen into a family of chemists, travelled to Tübingen, Vienna, and Italy, then settled down at the University of Heidelberg in 1813. He held the first chair of chemistry at the University of Heidelberg in Germany in 1817 - - the same year he published his Handbook; he was 29. His "Handbuch" was expanded in successive editions into a multi-volume reference work. He systematically arranged all facts concerning every element and compound, giving references to the pertinent literature. In 1922 the German Chemical Society assumed the continuation of this monumental work (eighth edition). Later the Gmelin Institute was founded in Frankfurt to keep the Handbuch up to date.

The book is rather difficult to read because it is printed in the old German letters (Gothic). The book starts with an introduction in 4 pages in which the author defines chemistry as a part of natural science and then goes on to explain the plan of the book. The book is composed of four parts: Cohesion (7 pages), Adhesion (6 pages), General Chemistry (37 pages), and Special Chemistry (1499 pages) -- thus the bulk of the book is in the last part. Under General Chemistry the topics discussed are: Chemical Affinity, Saturation, Neutralization, Decomposition, and related topics.

The Special Chemistry is composed of two parts: Chemistry of Unweighable Matter (light, heat, electricity), and Chemistry of Weighable Matter which in turn is composed of two large sections: Inorganic Compounds and Organic Compounds (Tables 1 and 2). Under Inorganic Compounds 10 nonmetals, 11 light metals, and 25 heavy metals. It should be noted that sodium was known as natronium, magnesium as magnium, beryllium as glycium, aluminum as aluminium, and tungsten as Scheel. Volume One covers all the material up to and including the nonmetals, Volume Two covers the metals, and Volume Three the organic compounds. No equations and no drawings can be seen in the book. Occasionally few Tables showing analysis of material and finally an index of 29 pages. The book can be easily mistaken for a novel.

Incidentally, the fifth edition was prepared in 1852-53 without the organic compounds part. Later, Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (1838-1906) in Saint Petersburg undertook up- dating this part which eventually developed into the Beilstein Handbook now well known to organic chemists. Gmelin was honored in Germany in 1988 by a postage stamp issued on the occasion of his 200th Birthday Anniversary.

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli , Crystallographia Hungarica (1776)

Crystallographia Hungarica by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723–1788) [Figure ] was published in 1776 and recently translated in Hungarian. Scopoli was born in Tyrol and obtained a medical degree from the University of Innsbruck. He worked as the physician of the mercury mines of the Austrian Empire at Idria in Carniola (Krain in German) from 1754 to 1769. He investigated thoroughly the hygiene and diseases of the miners, lectured on mineralogy and chemistry. He was appointed Professor at the Mining Academy in Schemnitz in Hungary, now Banska tiavnice in Slovakia, in 1769. In the last period of his life Scopoli worked as the Professor of Chemistry and Botany at the University of Pavia in Italy. His scientific heritage comprises more than thirty major studies published in Latin, German, e.g., Mineralogische Vorlesungen, 1771, Principia mineralogiæ systematicæ et practicæ, 1772, in Italian 1778, in German 1786, Fundamenta chemiæ, 1777, in Italian 1780, in German 1786, and Anfangsgründe der Metallurgie, 1789.

Roberto Piontelli , Scientific papers, 1935-1971

Roberto Piontelli (1909–1973) [Figure ] was born in Lodi near Milan in Italy, received degree in engineering from Milan Polytechnic in 1931, a degree in physics in 1933 and a degree in chemistry in 1935, both from Pavia University. He was appointed Professor of Electrochemistry at University of Milan in 1942 then Professor of Physical Chemistry and Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Electrochemistry and Metallurgy at the Polytechnic of Milan from 1948. He was nominated Member of the Accademia delle Scienze in Turin, received the Gold Medal of the Ministry for Education, and the Donegani Gold Medal for light metals.

Electrochemistry was born in Italy in 1800 at the discovery of Volta's pile at the University of Pavia. No wonder that many Italian chemists excelled in electrochemistry. In 1948 Roberto Piontelli together with some colleagues formed what a study group which became later known as the Cimité International de Thermodynamique et de Cinétique Electrochimique known as CITCE. Piontelli studied the structure of the double electrical layer at the electrode-solution contact, organized a laboratory for production of large metallic mono-crystals, and the electrochemistry of molten salts especially the electrolysis of cryolite baths for aluminum production. This led to development of a new aluminum manufacturing process by electrolysis of chloride-based baths. His works, mostly in Italian, were collected in 4 volumes and published in Milan after his death.

Emmanuel-Louis Gruner, Traité de métallurgie (1875-1878)

Emmanuel-Louis Gruner was born in Ittigen in Switzerland, a small town close to Bern. He studied at the university of Genève until 1827. The year after, he was admitted at the École polytechnique in Paris. Following his French citizenship, he entered the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris. He was a brilliant student. He became engineer for the Corps des mines after his academic career.

After some travels in Germany and Central Europe, Gruner settled in Saint-Étienne in 1834 where he found a job. In 1847, he moved to Poitiers where he was appointed chief engineer of mines services. He came back in Saint-Étienne in 1852 where he became director for the school of mines. From 1858 to 1872, he was professor of metallurgy at the École des mines de Paris. Until his retirement in 1879, he worked in various offices in the French administration.

Gruner authored several papers published in the Annales des mines many of which are treating of steel and cast iron metallurgy. Apart from his Traité de métallurgie in two volume, he published many books, including État présent de la métallurgie du fer en Angleterre with Charles-Romain Lan, Dunod editor, in 1862.

Russian Collection

Habashi’s contact with Russian metallurgists goes back to 1960s when he exchanged publications with Prof. Ivan Maslenitsky (1900- 1972) at the Leningrad Mining Institute. In 1975 his first two volumes Principles of Extractive Metallurgy were translated into Russian and consequently, he visited Russia many times and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Mining Institute. The Russian collection contains over 50 books on hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, electrometallurgy, metallurgy of copper, metallurgy of precious metals, technology of gold and silver, chemistry and technology of rare and less common metals, extraction of a solid phase, thermodynamics of liquid alloy systems, theory of metallurgical processes, theory of flotation, chemistry and technology of diffusion, etc.

Chinese Collection

Habashi’s contact with Chinese metallurgists goes back to 1982 when he was invited to give a short course on metallurgy and there he discovered that his first two volumes Principles of Extractive Metallurgy were translated into Chinese in 1974 – 78. Since then, he visited China a number of times lecturing and participating in conferences.

The collection contains 6 books on thermodynamics and hydrometallurgy by Professor Chung-yue Fu former professor at the Central South University of Technology in Changsha. Fu, who passed away in 1995 at the age of 82, was a pioneer of modern Chinese metallurgy [Figure ]. Other books include Physical Chemistry of Copper Metallurgy by Chun-peng Liu another old timer who past away in 2006 at the age of 90; he was teaching at the University of Kunming. Prof. Yong-nian Dai was also at Kunming and he is well known by his books on Vacuum Metallurgy of Nonferrous.

References

• Habashi, F. Readings in Historical Metallurgy, Volume 1. Changing Technology in Extractive Metallurgy, Métallurgie Extractive Québec, Québec, 2006, 800 pages. • Habashi, F. « Leopold Gmelin. Handbook of Theoretical Chemistry » Can. Chem. News 45 (3), 3–35 (1993) • Habashi, F. « Travelling in Siberia, Buryatia, and Mongolia » Proceedings SME Annual Meeting, Saint Louis, Missouri, March 2006 (CD) • Habashi, F. « Travelling in China » Proceedings SME Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, February 2007 (CD)