About this Item
8vo. 110, [2] pp. Some spotting. Modern quarter vellum, boards, black spine title. Very good. [171] 'Memoirs on the Metals of Soda and Potash, by Messrs. Gay-Lussac and Thenard. With researches on ammonia gas by Mr. Berthollet. [Being] Extracts from the Proceedings of the Society of Arcueil. Translated into Italian with notes by Mario Giardini.' There should be two issues of this pamphlet, the other is described as having a pagination error at pp. 57-64, which is corrected here, suggesting a second state, which this should be. / Chemist L.J. Thenard collaborated with Gay-Lussac in the study of metals, and together they arrived at the separation of sodium and potassium by chemistry, which had already been achieved through Volta's battery. The book was dedicated to Francesco Carelli, knight of the order of the Two Sicilies (etc.), by M. Giardini, who recalled how Davy's recent discovery on the "nature of alkalis and alkaline earths, "had attracted the attention of all European chemists, and so he published this vol. (p.5 ), which contains: Method employed by Mr. Davy [Metodo Impiegato dal Sig. Davy, p. 9] for the decomposition of soda ash and potash; Attempts [Tentativi . . . , p .11] employed by Davy to know the nature of alkaline earths; Extract of the memoirs read at the Inst. National from Mar. 7 to Feb. 27, 1809 [Estratto, p. 18] by Messrs. Gay-Lussac and Thenard; Process for obtaining the metals of potash and soda [Processo per ottenere I metallic, p. 21] ; Properties of the metal of potash [Proprieta del metallo della potassa]; Properties of fluoric acid and particularly of its action on the metal of potash [p. 48+]; Action of the metal of potash over oxides, metal salts, earthy, alkaline [p. 63]; Of the metal of soda [p. 68]; Nature and properties of muriatic acid and oxygenated muriatic acid [p. 71]; Memoir on the analysis of ammonia [p. 88] by Mr. Berthollet, read at the Institute at Mar. 24, 1808. / Crosland describes this Italian 'Society of Arcueil' as one of social standing and personal relationships â Â" not a proper scientific association or academy as is typically thought of; rather, in this case, Napoleon's support of science is reflected with this loose associated body â Â" here a 'society.' / "In the field of research, Berthollet's work was above all a model for Gay-Lussac. On a personal level, Berthollet was a pleasant man and a good friend; yet it was the man of science that Gay-Lussac took as his model. What mattered most was his conception of scientific activity. Even if his subject, chemistry, distanced him from the great mathematics on the one hand, and biology on the other, he remained open to a certain multidisciplinary approach. It was applied chemistry that interested him, the kind that justifies the scientific approach by the search for applications, in the tradition of the Encyclopedie." - Maurice Crosland, Gay-Lussac, savant et bourgeois, p. 43. REFERENCES: See: Maurice Crosland, The Society of Arcueil: A View of French Science at the Time of Napoleon I. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1967. Seller Inventory # S14065
Contact seller
Report this item
