A General System of Chemical Knowledge: and Its Application to the Phenomena of Nature and Art. in Eleven Vols

A General System Of Chemical Knowledge: And Its Application To The Phenomena Of Nature And Art. In Eleven Vols — Antoine-François De Fourcroy. This encyclopedic 18th-century treatise offers a comprehensive, experimentally grounded survey of metals and their chemistry, balancing detailed metallurgical descriptions with foundational chemical theory. The excerpt focuses on iron, detailing production from iron oxide in charcoal-fired furnaces, slag formation, and the refining distinction between crude and true iron, and it classifies crude irons (white, grey, black, and spotted) by oxygen and carbon content. It then surveys steel and alloys, including natural and cementation steels, and enumerates properties such as grain variability, hardness, tempering behavior, and magnetic changes. Oxidation, corrosion, and interactions with air, water, and acids are treated at length, followed by alloying with elements like arsenic, nickel, manganese, tin, zinc, cobalt, and others, noting brittleness and ductility shifts. The discussion extends to copper, and to chemistry and old debates, clarifying siderite and threefold oxidation-state views. The volume situates these topics in metallurgy, mining, and industrial practice, and concludes by introducing a subsequent treatment of copper and related ore processing, while emphasizing practical methods such as assaying, cupellation, and parting.