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Bull. Hist. Chem. 13- 14 (1992-93)

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Bull. Hist. Chem. 13- 14 (1992-93) ll. t. Ch. 13 - 14 (2 2 tr nnd p t Ar n lt nftr, vd lfr, th trdtnl prnpl f ltn r ldf qd nn ft n pr plnr nd fx vlttn, tn, rprntn "ttr." S " xt Alh", rfrn prnd fr t rrptn." , pp. 66, 886. 25. Ibid., p. 68: "... prpr & xt lnd n pr 4. W. n, "tn Clavis Str Key," Isis,1987, tll t n ..." 78, 644. 26. W. n, The "Summa perfectionis" of pseudo-Geber, 46. hllth, Introitus apertus, BCC, II, 66, "... lphr xtr dn, , pp. 42. n ..." 2. l, "tn Alht," rfrn , pp. 224. 4. frn 4, pp. 24. 28. [Ern hllth,] Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King 48. bb, Foundations , rfrn , p. 28. Edward Unfolded, MS. Gl Unvrt, rn 8, pp. 80, 4. l, " xt Alh", rfrn , p. 64. p. 0. bb, Foundations, rfrn , pp. 22222. 2. MS. rn 8, p. Cf. l Philalethes,Introitusapertus, . Wtfll, Never at Rest, rfrn 8, p. 8. in Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, n Mnt, rfrn 2, l. II, p. 2. r t ll b fl t v bth tn prphr 664. (Cbrd Unvrt brr, Kn MS. 0, f. 22r nd th 30. Ibid., MS. rn 8, pp. 2. rnl (hllth, Introitus apertus, in Bibliotheca chemica curi- 31. Ibid. osa, l. II, p. 66: 32. Ibid., pp. 6. Newton: h t trr prptr ltn , t 33. Ibid. nrl trx prptr nrl n p ltntr, t 4. l, "tn Alht," rfrn , p. 20. tn r vltl, t l [lphr] n tr rvlvntr . [Ern hllth,] Sir George Riplye' s Epistle to King ntnt n ntr , d ntr tt t & trrn d Edward Unfolded, n Chymical, Medicinal, and Chyrurgical AD- prf llnt. Intrt. prt p. 0. DRESSES: Made to Samuel Hartlib, Esquire (ndn, 6, p. 22. Philalethes: Ch tn tr t Mnrl rr, 6. h rd "nl" th tn tr fr "rnl" r "nt." ltn rpt, & tn r vltl, ntr d t hllth t n h nfnhd nrpt f th Vade mecum Cl hlphr n Cntr , d Cntr t rvr Philosophicum (rth brr, MS. Sln 6, 0v. Atrl, rrdn rr d prf jbr. .h xplntn f rrdblt prdt f prt n th b tl npl n th lhl trdtn tlzd b hllth. Cf. n, rfrn 26, p. 8, n tn th William R. Newman teaches in the History of Science Depart- Summa: rptr n r [.. ppr ndrn] lt trrtt ment at Harvard University, Science Center 235, Cambridge, nttt t lphrtt djtv t fnt nr, dfl MA 02138. His publications include the monograph "The h d ddntr n l. Et Md d, n x lt 'Summa perfectionis' of pseudo-Geber" and the forthcoming trrtt rnt vv btnt ntrxttrbtr rnt vv ntn volume "Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an t, t d prt n rtr, pr t lphrt trnn Alchemist of Harvard in the Scientific Revolution." vlr ptt. Et n x ll d rn dn brr t lvr ptt ll. r h tr drlntr tprt rrr fr t n nr pr dntntt rrtt nvrt." 8. I. tn, Opticks, vr, Yr, Y, 2, p. 400. ROBERT MAYER AND THE . A. hr, Atoms and Powers, rvrd Unvrt r, CONSERVATION OF MATTER Cbrd, MA, 0, pp. 2 nd 64. 40. r tn dtntn btn "vlr Chtr" nd Kenneth L. Caneva, University of North Carolina at "rt" phlph, . M. ttn, "tn Alhl Greensboro Std," n A. G. b, d., Science, Medicine, and Society in the Renaissance, l Wtn bltn, Yr, Y, 2, pp. Robert Mayer (1814-1878) is well known as one of the discov- 6, nd 0. erers of the principle of the conservation of energy. A physi- 4. frn 8, p. 86. cian from the kingdom of Württemberg in southwestern Ger- 42. I. Chn, Isaac Newton's Papers & Letters on Natural many, Mayer sailed to the Dutch East Indies in 1840, where he Philosophy, rvrd Unvrt r, Cbrd, MA, 8, p.22. was startled by the brighter-than-expected color of the blood he Al bb, Foundations, rfrn , p. 2. let from European sailors recently arrived in the tropics. 4. bb, Foundations, rfrn , p. 220. Reflecting on the implications of Lavoisier's combustion 44. l r, frthrr, tht tn td th lh theory of animal heat, and of his own failed childhood attempt t rr th th prn f "pr" (nd hn vd n to construct a perpetual motion machine, Mayer employed a ttr, hn th rln v tht rr th prnpl widely invoked analogy between organisms and machines to f vltlt nd hn ttntn. Slrl h thn tht tn conclude that there must be a constant numerical relationship 28 Bull. Hist. Chem. 13 - 4 (1992-93) between heat and "motion" (1). Two years later he published his first paper, "Remarks on the Forces of Inorganic Nature", in Liebig's Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie. That paper contained his calculation of the mechanical equivalent of heat; as he put it, the fall of a given weight through a distance of 365 meters is equivalent to a rise in temperature of one degree Celsius of an equal weight of water. Although this essay cannot develop the full context of Mayer's reflections, it is important to recognize that the line of reasoning sketched above yielded Mayer a number, not a general concept of energy (he said "Kraft", or force), let alone of its conservation. Of central importance in the exposition of his theory of force was an analogy between force and matter - the fundamental concepts, he argued, of (respectively) physics and chemistry. Both force and matter are quantitatively invariable and qualitatively variable. Just as matter is, in the normal course of nature, neither creatable nor destructible, so, too, is force neither creatable nor destructible, at least as far as the processes of inorganic nature are concerned. It is thus tempting to suspect that Mayer transferred to the new concep- tual entity "force" the well-known chemical principle of the conservation of matter. The only thing wrong with this explanation is that there was no such principle in the chemistry and physics texts of the first half of the 19th century, at least not in Germany. The substance of the principle was, to be sure, tacitly assumed as a working principle by chemists, but it had no visibility as a fundamental principle, let alone the fundamental principle upon which the brt Mr science of chemistry is based. In a real sense Mayer had to "discover" for himself the principle we know of as the conser- over terms. I've looked at about 30 works by 17 authors from vation of matter. Nor was it a simple business for him to settle the 1820s till the early 1840s, including the well-known texts upon the analogy between force and matter. He first had to of Baumgartner, Berzelius, Biot, Leopold Gmelin, Kastner, define for himself the meaning of force and to decide what its Mitscherlich, Pouillet, and Wailer. Most list as the general fundamental characteristics were. It was only gradually and properties of matter things like extension, impenetrability, with great conceptual difficulty that Mayer concluded that divisibility, porosity, elasticity, compressibility, inertia, and force, too, cannot be created or destroyed under any circum- motility, rarely also weight or gravity ("Schwere"). Some stances. He never doubted the indestructibility and uncreata- don't even mention mass as an important concept, let alone its bility of matter, but whether those characteristics apply also to conservation. force was precisely the difficult question to answer. A con- One of the standard reference works of the day was Gehler' s fused application of the parallelogram of forces to central- Physical Dictionary, published in 11 multipart volumes be- force motion, coupled with residual uncertainty as to the status tween 1825 and 1845. Neither the short article on "Mass" nor of the vital force and attachment to a widely invoked image of the long one on "Matter" specifically mentioned its conserva- the solar system as an "organism," led him to conclude until tion or indestructibility (2). To be sure, passing mention of around 1844 that force is continuously produced in the sun via such a principle did occur here and there in the course of the neutralization of a portion of the planets' centrifugal force. particular discussions, quite as Lavoisier's oft-quoted enun- In other words "organisms," unlike machines, are truly capable ciation of it was tucked away in the section of his Traite dealing of creating force effectively out of nothing. with vinous fermentation. Thus Lam6 referred to "the inde- The nonexistence of an explicit principle of the conserva- structibility of matter and the constancy of the quantity of vis tion of matter is as unambiguous as it is startling. The viva" in his discussion of the constancy of the quantity of heat overwhelming majority of German chemistry and physics in certain reactions, but he otherwise passed in complete texts and handbooks of the period contain no explicit mention silence over the conservation of matter (3). Interestingly of anything like the conservation, indestructibility, or un- enough, the two other incidental references I've encountered to creatability of matter, mass, or substance. One needn't quibble something like the conservation of matter have to do with Bull. Hist. Chem. 13 - 14 (1992-93) 29 reactions involving oxygen - perhaps a faint resonance of the voisier?) of the fact that the weight of the chemical reagents historical association of that principle with Lavoisier. before and after a reaction must be unchanged, but rather the Such silence is perhaps doubly surprising since not only had explicit enunciation of a particular principle and the kinds of Lavoisier enunciated the principle of the conservation of assumptions which finally made that enunciation reasonable in matter in 1789, but in Germany Immanuel Kant had laid down ways it hadn't been before.
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