Social Studies Connection

Historical background: Nitric acid & Copper

Origins

Nitric acid is one of the compounds that have played an important rle in alchemy,chymistry, and crafts. The first clear European recipe for its preparation is in the Latin treatise Liber de inventione veritatis, which appeared around 1300. Together with further works this treatise formed a corpus initially considered to be of arabic origin, compiled by Jabir ibn Hayyan, known in Europe under the latinized form of his name Geber. In the medivial Arabic world doubts had already benn expressed as to whether this alchemist had actually ever lived. Confusion concerning the authorship of the works under Jabir's name continued well into modern times. H. Kopp , who dealt extensively with history of nitric acid , originally considered Jabir to be the author of the corpus and thuscof l,de inventione veritatis. It has been recognized subsequently that these books are of European origin, influenced by Arabic sources, called the Pseudogerberian corpus, it was born generally accepted as a source that had introduced nitric acid in Europe.

This compound brought deep changes in alchemy and in crafts , especially what concerned new approaches to assaying , because it allowed the separation of gold from the rest of the metals in a wet process. Simultaneously , reactions of nitric acid with these metals led to new compounds and thus to the broadening of knowledge taht gradually contributed to the development of chemistry. Yet, further studies of alchemy and early chemistry have revealed that the history of nitric acid is more complicated. A serious obstacle in this study is old terminalogy, which makes it difficult to decipher texts with sufficient reliability. With these problems considered, there appear signs that nitric acid could have been known before 1300 and not only in Europe. This history of this compound therefore investigation is still ongoing.

Copper was discovered by Known since ancient times at no data in not known. Origin of name: from the latin word: "cuprum" meaning the island of "Cyprus"

The discovery of copper dates from prehistoric times. There are reports of copper beats dating back to 9000 BC found in Iraq. Methods for refining copper from its ores were discovered around 5000 BC and a 1000 or so years later it was being used in pottery in North Africa. Part of the reason for it being used so early is simply that it is relatively easy to shape. However is somewhat too soft for many tools.

A Historical Sidelight: Ira Remsen on Copper and Nitric Acid

Ira Remsen (1846-1927) founded the chemistry department at Johns Hopkins University, and founded one of the first centers for chemical research in the United States; saccharin was discovered in his research lab in 1879. Like many chemists, he had a vivid "learning experience," which led to a heightened interest in laboratory work:

"While reading an article of chemistry I came upon the statement, "nitric acid acts upon copper." I was getting tired of reading such absurd stuff and I was determined to see what this meant. Copper was more or less familiar to me, for copper cents were then in use. I had seen a bottle marked nitric acid on a table in the doctor's office where I was then "doing time." I did not know its peculiarities, but the spirit of adventure was upon me. Having nitric acid and copper, I had only to learn what the words "act upon" meant. The statement "nitric acid acts upon copper" would be something more than mere words. All was still. In the interest of knowledge I was even willing to sacrifice one of the few copper cents then in my possession. I put one of them on the table, opened the bottle marked nitric acid, poured some of the liquid on the copper and prepared to make an observation. But what was this wonderful thing which I beheld? The cent was already changed and it was no small change either. A green-blue liquid foamed and fumed over the cent and over the table. The air in the neighborhood of the performance became colored dark red. A great colored cloud arose. This was disagreeable and suffocating. How should I stop this? I tried to get rid of the objectionable mess by picking it up and throwing it out of the window. I learned another fact. Nitric acid not only acts upon copper, but it acts upon fingers. The pain led to another unpremeditated experiment. I drew my fingers across my trousers and another fact was discovered. Nitric acid acts upon trousers. Taking everything into consideration, that was the most impressive experiment and relatively probably the most costly experiment I have ever performed. . . . It was a revelation to me. It resulted in a desire on my part to learn more about that remarkable kind of action. Plainly, the only way to learn about it was to see its results, to experiment, to work in a laboratory."

-Ira Remsen

Jābir ibn Hayyān

Ira Remsen