Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Chemist, 1841, Vol. 2: Or Reporter of Chemical Discoveries and Improvements, and Protector of the Rights of the Chemist and Chemical Manufacturer
WE have now fulfilled our engagements with the public for theypast year and a year in the science of Chemistry at the present time is an epoch, in comparison with the like period previous to the discoveries of black, cavendish, priestley, lavoisier, davy, watt. None who are acquainted with the works of those illustrious men can fail to trace to their labours that total revolution, from vague hypothesis 'and chimerica'l conjecture, to sound theory and accmately defined laws which new supply their place in that science, the most extended in its range of objects, and the most important in its application to the arts Of man. Nothing surely can be wanting to shew the value of their services to mankind but the mere record of their researches in Light, Heat, and electro-chemistry the discoveries of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen as simple bodies, as the elements of water and the atmosphere, and as affording satisfactory explanations of the phenomena of respiration and combustion; of the composition of the Alkalies and Earths, and the development of the character Of Chlorine; the researches on Nitrous Oxide, and the invention and perfection Of the safety lamp by the transcendent power Of that chief Of Chemists who has left behind him' so many proofs to give the world assurance of a man the construction and varied application of the steam engine by the immortal watt, needs from us no comment - it is sufficient to conclude in the words of black, that it is the noblest gift Of philoso phy to the arts.
Since the time Of these men, whose works are their best monument, what rapid progress has it not made; nay, indeed, we may add, what daily progress is it not making! Let us only refer to the' beautiful applications Of the Daguerreotype to the fine arts, by which in a few minutes correct likenesses can be taken with the perfection Of nature, instead Of the mawkish ?atteries and crudities Of art. Not less valuable, though perhaps less astounding, is the process Of Electrotype, by one application Of which is superseded one of the most destructive and dangerous manufacturing Operations Of any employed in the arts. The use Of mercury in the processes Of gilding and silvering is for ever exploded by the simple aid of solution and electric action.
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