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Cruciblesthestor002077mbp.Pdf > I From Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission CRUCIBLES: THE STORY OF CHEMISTRY is told, in all its fascination, through the lives of the men and women who devoted themselves completely to it: TREVISAN most famous of the ancient alchemists* PARACELSUS first physician to make use of chem- istry in the cure of disease* PRIESTLEY the clergyman who discovered oxygen. CAVENDISH first to discover the composition of water. LAVOISIER father of modern chemistry. DALTON architect of atomic theory. VOEHLER pioneer in organic chemistry. MENDELEEFF gave us our first Table of the Elements. The CURIES discovered and isolated radium, iHOMSON discoverer of the electron. LANGMUIR first applied the electron theory to chemistry, LAWRENCE inventor of the cyclotron. EINSTEIN, FERMI, UREY, OPPENHEIMER and others the men who harnessed atomic energy. Premier Books are designed to bring to a larger reading public, at small cost, reprints of outstanding books previously published at much higher prices. CRUCIBLES: THE STORY OF CHEMISTRY From Ancient Alchemy to Nttdear Fission BERNARD JAFFE / 1 t Att&or of OUTPOSTS OF SCIENCE BLICATIONS, ING, Grmwtchf Com. Copyright MCMXXX, MCMXLH, MCMXLVm, Bernard Jaffa Copyright 1957, Bernard Jaffe CRUCIBLES: THE STORY OF CHEMISTRY was originally published by Simon and Schuster, Inc., and is reissued at 50$ in this newly revised PREMIER edition through arrangement with that company, Afl rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof. Second PREMIER printing, January 1960 PREMIER BOOKS are published by FAWCETT WORLD LIBRARY 67 West 44th Street, New York 36, New York Printed in the United States of America PREFACE the period since the first publication of this book in DURING1930 death has taken many of the pioneers of modern chemistry. Marie Curie became a victim of radium-the ele- ment of her returned own discovery. Frederick G. Banting from the first World War with the idea that he would try to conquer diabetes, and he did. He then lost his life in an air- plane accident while in the service of Great Britain during the second World War. Death also took the great Joseph J. Thomson, discoverer of the electron, and his brilliant student, Ernest Rutherford, discoverer of the proton. Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, two of the leading architects of the new nuclear age, are also no longer with us. Their work is ended. But they left behind them others who continued the search which the alchemists started centuries ago. By 1930 scientists had already changed a few elements into dif- ferent elements, but their transmutations were on a submicro- scopic scale. Furthermore, they were aware by 'this time that modern alchemy might soon release the energy inside the nu- cleus of the atom, and supply mankind with a new source of energy which would dwarf our resources of coal, oil, and water to power. This led me, twenty-seven years ago, write in the first edition, "As man pries off the covers that hide the secrets of the atom^he may unearth wonders which may bring the millennium when men will guide the tiny atom in doing the world's work, while he has the leisure to do still greater things. Man may then find a program which will make him either robot or demigod. But in this mastery lurks also the danger of cosmic disaster. Some scientists groping and tinkering with this mighty force may unknowingly set ofi the most tremendous bomb which could destroy mankind." v * KANSAS CITY [MO) LIBRARY How well founded was this belief became public on August 6, 1945, when an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. To be sure, the alchemists had not been looking for a weapon which could destroy civilization. They were seeking a philoso- could turn the metals such as pher's stone which cheaper iron and lead into the more precious gold, and an elixir of life which would retard old age. To the social-minded scientist the conquest of nuclear energy means a modern philosopher's stone which, if used wisely, could improve the health and well- being of tens of millions of people all over the world. To bring the dramatic story of the conquest of the atom up to date the last four chapters of the 1948 edition of this book have been thoroughly revised. During recent years the world center of scientific research has gradually shifted to our own country. Anderson, Lawrence, Rabi, Urey, and Seaborg are but a few of our research workers who are bringing new laurels to American science. These had been joined during World War II by brilliant laboratory men from Nazi Germany intellectual free- and Fascist Italy. They found refuge here and dom, and an atmosphere where the pursuit of science for better living can be carried on* It is hoped that this new and abridged edition of Crucibles will provide the layman with an up-to-date picture of the development of our present knowledge of chemical science, especially of the conquest of nuclear energy, and its implica- tions; and also that it will stimulate teachers to lay greater stress on the drama of a dynamic chemistry. BERNARD JAFFE New York City January, 1957 vi CONTENTS I Bernard Trevisan (1406-1490) ...... 9 II Tlieoplirastus Paracelsus (1493-1541) .... 20 HI Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) ...... 32 IV Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) 48 V Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) . s 62 Vl-John Dalton (1766-1844) 77 VH John Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848) .... 93 Vm-Friedrich Voehler (1800-1882) 108 LX Dmitri Ivanovitch Mendeleeff (1834-1907) . 125 X Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) 140 XI Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) ... 155 XH Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) .... 172 HE Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887-1915) . 188 XIV Irving Langmuir (1881- ) 205 XV Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901- ) ... 217 XVI Men Who Harnessed Nuclear Energy . 221 I TREVISAN HE LOOKS FOR GOLD IN A DUNGHILL THE DARK interior of an old laboratory cluttered with INfurnaces, crucibles, alembics, stills and bellows, bends an old man in the act of hardening two thousand hens' eggs in huge water. he removes the shells and pots of boiling Carefully he heats in a flame gathers them into a great heap. These gentle until they are white as snow, while his co-laborer separates the all the whites from the yolks and putrifies them in manure of white horses. For eight long years the strange products are distilled and redistilled for the extraction of a mysterious white liquid and a red oil. With these potent universal solvents the two alchemists hope to fashion the "philosopher's stone." At last the day of final testing comes. Again the breath-taking suspense, again failurel their stone will not turn a single one of the base metals into the elusive gold. for had not the Secretly had the old man worked at first, Arabian master of alchemy, Geber himself, admonished his not let the of disciples- 'Tor heaven's sake do facility making it to gold lead you to divulge this proceeding or to show any of those around you, to your wife, or your cherished child, and advice still less to any other person. If you do not heed this you will repent when repentance is too late. If you divulge this work, the world will be corrupted, for gold would then be for bazaars." made as easily as glass is made the The quest of the Golden Grail obsessed him. As far back as he could remember, Bernard Trevisan had thought and dreamed of nothing else. Born in 1406 of a distinguished Italian he had family of Padua, oldest of the northern cities, been reared on his grandfather's stories of the great search of the alchemists. Stories of failures, all, but he would succeed where the others hact failed. Encouraged by his parents, Ber- His nard began his great adventure at the age of fourteen. heir's family approved, for they hoped to multiply the young patrimony a thousandfold. But as the years of failure passed -had and his fortune slowly dwindled they lost faith as others his of done. They pitied him and attributed pursuit alchemy to nothing short of madness. 9 10 CRUCIBLES: THE STORY OF CHEMISTRY But no failures or discouragement could dampen the hopes of the alchemist. Undeterred by the fiasco of the eggshell ex- a periment, carried on with the aid of Gotfridus Leurier, monk of Citeaux, he continued his labors with superhuman patience. "I shall find the seed," he whispered to himself, "which will grow into great harvests of gold. For does not a metal grow be if like a plant?" "Lead and other metals would gold they had time. For 'twere absurd to think that nature in the earth before. bred gold perfect in the instant; something went There must be remoter matter. Nature doth first beget the imperfect, not see in then proceeds she to the perfect. Besides, who doth out daily practice art can beget bees, hornets, beetles, wasps of the carcasses and dung of creatures? And these are living creatures, far more perfect and excellent than metals." For ten more long years, Bernard Trevisan followed the dissolved will-o'-the-wisp teachings of Rhazes and Geber. He salts. and crystallized all kinds of minerals and natural Once, twice, a dozen times, even hundreds of times, he dissolved, coagulated and calcined alum, copperas, and every conceivable animal and vegetable matter. Herbs, flowers, dung, flesh, ex- crementall were treated with the same painstaking care. In alembics and pelicans, by decoction, reverberation, ascension, descension, fusion, ignition, elementation, rectification, evapo- ration, conjunction, elevation, sublimation, and endless other strange operations, he tried everything his tireless ingenuity could conjure.
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