Chemical element Quotes

“Atomic theory”

“History of chemistry”

“Earth (historical chemistry)”

“Wikipedia: Chemical element”

“Videos for each element by the University of Nottingham”

“The composition of a compound is stated in terms of the elements which unite to form it, and can be obtained by its decomposition.”

“As earth is an element... it deserves an accurate investigation to discover which is the most simple and elementary of all the substances to which the name earth has been applied.”

“1. Small particles called atoms exist and compose all matter; 2. They are indivisible and indestructible; 3. Atoms of the same chemical element have the same chemical properties and do not transmute or change into different elements.”

“[T]he purpose of my paper would be entirely attained if I succeed in turning the attention of investigators to the relationships in the size of the atomic weights of nonsimilar elements, which have, as far as I know, been almost entirely neglected until now.”

“He was... the first to define the relation of an element to a compound, and to draw the distinction we still make between compounds and mixtures.”

“It was a great achievement of the early chemists—with the crude experimental techniques available also with the ever-astonishing power of human reason... to discover this reduction of the world to its components, the chemical elements. Such reduction does not destroy its charm but adds understanding to sensation, and this understanding only deepens our delight.”

“Although the idea of a primal "element" or common principle is to be found in every old-world philosophical system, the ancient philosophers were by no means in agreement as to its character. Anaximenes... taught that it was air, Herakleitos of Ephesus that it was fire, and Pherekides that it was earth.”

“He concludes... that the Paracelsian elements—their "salt," "sulphur," and "mercury"—are not the first and most simple principles of bodies; but that these consist, at most, of concretions of corpuscles or particles more simple than they, and possessing the radical and universal properties of volume, shape, and motion.”

“Hitherto chemists are not agreed upon the number of simple principles or elements, of which all corporeal substances are composed. ...Others believe that earth and phlogiston are those principles which are the constituent parts of all corporeal substances. The greatest number seem to admit only the peripatetic elements.”

“Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration...”

“"Chemical Elements", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Paul Strathern, Mary Archer and John Murrell (25 May 2000)”

“Although the problem of transmuting chemical elements into each other is much older than a satisfactory definition of the very concept of chemical element, it is well known that the first and most important step towards its solution was made only nineteen years ago by the late Lord Rutherford, who started the method of the nuclear bombardments.”

“Whether a homogeneous substance is an element or a compound can be determined only by a series of quantitative experiments: if it has been separated into two or more homogeneous substances, and formed by the union of two or more homogeneous substances, it is a compound; if it has not been separated into unlike portions, nor formed by the union of unlike substances, it is an element.”

“The supremacy of the old philosophy may be said to have been first distinctly challenged by Robert Boyle. The appearance in 1661 of his book, The Sceptical Chemist, marks a turning-point in the history of chemistry. ...In this treatise Boyle sets out to prove that the number of the peripatetic elements or principles hitherto assumed by chemists is, to say the least, doubtful.”

“Prior to the time of Black all forms of gaseous substance were regarded as substantially identical in fact, as being air, as understood by the Ancients a simple elementary substance. It was Black's study of carbonic acid which first clearly established that there were essentially distinct varieties of gaseous matter.”