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Chlorine : Chlorine, History

In 1648 Glauber obtained a strongly acid spirit of salt by heating moist salt in a charcoal furnace and condensing the fumes in a receiver. A mixture of salt, alum and copperas (ferrous sulphate) heated in the furnace gave a better yield, and a product of the reaction was Glauber's salt, sodium sulphate, Na2SO4,10H2O. In 1658 Glauber (in his De Aatura Sali-um) obtained spirit of salt by distilling salt with concentrated sulphuric acid and condensing the vapours in water. Boerhaave (1732) calls the concentrated solution so prepared spiritus salts Glauberi, In 1772 Priestley found that the product of the action of sulphuric acid on salt was a permanent gas, which could be collected over mercury, but was very soluble in water. The solution of the gas was spirit of salt, which was then called the marine acid, or muriatic acid (from Latin muria = brine, a word used by Cicero). Lavoisier (1789), in speaking of the acid, was able to say only that: "we have no idea whatever of the nature of its radical, and only conclude, from analogy with the other acids, that it contains oxygen as its acidifying principle." Muriatic acid was, therefore, regarded as the oxide of an unknown element. In 1774 Scheele examined the action of muriatic acid on black oxide of manganese, or manganese dioxide. He found that this dissolved in the cold acid with the production of a dark brown solution, which on warming gave off a greenish-yellow gas, which had a powerful odour of aqua regia, and bleached vegetable colours. Scheele regarded this gas as muriatic acid deprived of its phlogiston by the manganese, and since he considered hydrogen to be phlogiston, this amounts to the same thing as muriatic acid deprived of hydrogen: Muriatic acid - H. This is correct. In 1785 Berthollet found that a solution of the new gas in water, when exposed to light, gave off bubbles of oxygen and left a solution of muriatic acid. In accordance with Lavoisier's theory of acids, he therefore considered that the gas was a compound of muriatic acid and oxygen, or oxymuriatic acid. He recognised, however, that it was not acid, which was a difficulty. Gay-Lussac and Thenard in 1809 heated sodium in muriatic acid gas, and found that hydrogen was evolved and common salt remained. The hydrogen, they supposed, came from water existing in combination in the gas, but they were unable to obtain oxygen from the latter or to oxidise charcoal heated to whiteness in the gas. Nevertheless, they decided in favour of Lavoisier's view, and rejected the alternative that the gas was a compound of "oxymuriatic acid," which was really an element, and hydrogen. The elementary nature of oxymuriatic acid was, however, strongly urged by Davy in 1810. He heated charcoal, sulphur, phosphorus and metals in the gas, but never obtained any known oxygen compound. He proposed to regard it as an element, and called it chlorine (Greek chloros = pale green). In Berthollet's experiment, the oxygen came from the water, the hydrogen of which united with the chlorine to form muriatic, or hydrochloric, acid: H2O + Cl2 = 2HCl + O. Dry chlorine, Davy found, did not bleach. "I merely state what I have seen," says Davy, "and what I have found. There may be oxygen in oxymuriatic gas, but I can find none." After a little controversy, this view was accepted.

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