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Scottish version: Dare to know.
A group of native Scots, nearly all of them educated at Scot-
tish universities and most living within blocks of one another in
Edinburgh, along with regular visitors from Glasgow and other
nearby towns, made up the cast of enlightened scholars. They
were primarily university professors, ministers, and lawyers/
solicitors; as one historian calls them, the teachers, preachers,
and pleaders of the city. The Scottish Enlightenment spanned
two generations: the more influential group was born before
1740, and the second wave was the following generation.
A short list of the most active participants includes Adam
Ferguson (1723 1816), considered the founder of sociology
because of his book Essay on the History of Civil Society (1768);
William Robertson (1721 1793), one of the founders of mod-
ern historical research and noted for his History of Scotland
(1759); William Smellie (1740 1795), the printer and publisher
who compiled and edited the first edition of The Encyclopedia
Britannica (published in installments from 1768 to 1771);
William Cullen (1710 1790), one of the leading early medical
researchers and chemists of the time; Sir John Clerk of Eldin
(1728 1812), who became the Clausewitz of naval warfare
because of his book An Essay on Naval Tactics (1790 1797);
Robert Adam (1728 1792), the influential architect; Robert
Burns (1759 1796), the great poet; and Sir Walter Scott
THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH 129
(1771 1832), who invented the historical novel and who
came of age during this vibrant period. Onto the list should also
be added two men who never lived in Edinburgh but who vis-
ited and maintained an active correspondence with the scholars
there: Ben Franklin (1706 1790), the statesman and talented
polymath who discovered electricity; and Erasmus Darwin
(1731 1802), Charles Darwin s grandfather and the author of a
precursor theory of evolution. John Playfair (1748 1819) and
James Hall (1761 1832) were key figures as well.
But beyond this impressive group, five individuals made
contributions so monumental that they still reverberate to this
day, over 200 years after their deaths. David Hume developed
and published his influential philosophy of human nature, which
argued for the primacy of man s passions. Adam Smith (1723
1790), one of Hume s best friends, used parts of Hume s philos-
ophy while writing The Wealth of Nations, the book that started
the field of economics and allowed governments to finally under-
stand the effects of laws on their nation s economy. Joseph Black
(1728 1799) isolated carbon dioxide, thus discovering that the
atmosphere was made up of a mix of gases, and inspired Antoine
Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry. James Watt
(1736 1819), who worked in Black s lab, went on to invent the
practical steam engine. Finally, there was James Hutton, the
father of geology and the discoverer of the antiquity of the earth.
Hutton s relationship with Hume is unknown, for there is no
record to show that the two ever met (it is difficult to imagine that
they did not know each other, however, given that they shared a
mutual friend in Black). The others were all Hutton s friends,
130 THE MAN WHO FOUND TI ME
Joseph Black being the most important. It was Black who shared
his love of chemistry and helped Hutton navigate the social and
intellectual network that was the Scottish Enlightenment.
Based on the observations left by those who interacted with
Hutton after he moved back to Edinburgh, the doctor turned
farmer turned natural philosopher must have been regarded as
a curiosity by those who encountered him. As one mineralogist
wrote to another after meeting Hutton during a visit to Edin-
burgh, Dr. Hutton is the oddity you described, but a mighty
good sort of man. Just returned from his farm in the Borders,
surrounded by rocks and chemicals in his overcrowded flat, he
would have been hard to take seriously. Even his attire was off;
he was described as being careless in what he wore, and often
found in direct collision with the accepted fashions. But not
Joseph Black. An internationally known scientist before the end
of the 1750s, probably the brightest of the many stars at the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, and connected to every prominent citizen
in the city, Black was the very essence of an insider. In fact, one
historian of the period calls Black the minence grise of the era.
Black quickly realized the unique talents possessed by Hutton,
and if Black said he was good company, then just about everyone
else in Edinburgh soon felt the same way.
Although observers of the Scottish Enlightenment often
treat David Hume as the preeminent thinker of that period,
Joseph Black (he later became David Hume s doctor) was the
first to make a profound discovery. In the 1750s, while still a
medical student at the University of Edinburgh, Black burst
THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH 131
onto the scientific scene when he discovered carbon dioxide, the
first-ever instance of isolating one of the gases in the atmo-
sphere; indeed, before Black s discovery, no one had imagined
that the atmosphere was a mixture of individual gases.
The path to this discovery was particularly significant for
Hutton because it involved a common mineral that would later
serve as proof of his theory of the earth. The experiment started
out modestly enough. Attempting to help resolve a conflict
between two of his professors, Black sought to discern the most
efficient way to dissolve urine stones, a common affliction in the
eighteenth century. He chose to experiment with magnesia alba,
a type of limestone (limestone was already recognized for having
certain medicinal characteristics). While making some simple
measurements, he stumbled across an amazing thing. When the
magnesia alba was heated, it lost 40 percent of its weight (it is
hard to imagine today, but Black was among the first chemists to
use a scale, a tool almost as important as the microscope). Black
applied the term fixed air to the weight that was lost. Black s
next step was to investigate the properties of the fixed air that
had been released. If trapped and unmixed with the surround-
ing air, this fixed air killed living things, such as mice. Since this
toxic fixed air was clearly in the atmosphere (the process of
burning limestone is common enough), it followed that there
must be other components of the atmosphere that acted to dilute
the toxic properties. The realization that the atmosphere was
made up of a mix of discrete gases was a revelation, setting the
stage for Lavoisier to propose the oxygen theory in 1774 and
found modern chemistry.
132 THE MAN WHO FOUND TI ME
The paper that formally described Black s discovery,
Experiments on Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and other Alcaline
Substances, published in 1756, was immediately recognized as
seminal. Black, only twenty-eight years old and just out of med-
ical school, was quickly deemed the leading chemist of his gen-
eration. Over the next two years, Black made another important
discovery: He deduced the existence of latent heat. When a
compound is in the process of changing states (for example, liq-
uid water converting to steam), the compound continues to
absorb heat, even though its temperature remains unchanged. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
Scottish version: Dare to know.
A group of native Scots, nearly all of them educated at Scot-
tish universities and most living within blocks of one another in
Edinburgh, along with regular visitors from Glasgow and other
nearby towns, made up the cast of enlightened scholars. They
were primarily university professors, ministers, and lawyers/
solicitors; as one historian calls them, the teachers, preachers,
and pleaders of the city. The Scottish Enlightenment spanned
two generations: the more influential group was born before
1740, and the second wave was the following generation.
A short list of the most active participants includes Adam
Ferguson (1723 1816), considered the founder of sociology
because of his book Essay on the History of Civil Society (1768);
William Robertson (1721 1793), one of the founders of mod-
ern historical research and noted for his History of Scotland
(1759); William Smellie (1740 1795), the printer and publisher
who compiled and edited the first edition of The Encyclopedia
Britannica (published in installments from 1768 to 1771);
William Cullen (1710 1790), one of the leading early medical
researchers and chemists of the time; Sir John Clerk of Eldin
(1728 1812), who became the Clausewitz of naval warfare
because of his book An Essay on Naval Tactics (1790 1797);
Robert Adam (1728 1792), the influential architect; Robert
Burns (1759 1796), the great poet; and Sir Walter Scott
THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH 129
(1771 1832), who invented the historical novel and who
came of age during this vibrant period. Onto the list should also
be added two men who never lived in Edinburgh but who vis-
ited and maintained an active correspondence with the scholars
there: Ben Franklin (1706 1790), the statesman and talented
polymath who discovered electricity; and Erasmus Darwin
(1731 1802), Charles Darwin s grandfather and the author of a
precursor theory of evolution. John Playfair (1748 1819) and
James Hall (1761 1832) were key figures as well.
But beyond this impressive group, five individuals made
contributions so monumental that they still reverberate to this
day, over 200 years after their deaths. David Hume developed
and published his influential philosophy of human nature, which
argued for the primacy of man s passions. Adam Smith (1723
1790), one of Hume s best friends, used parts of Hume s philos-
ophy while writing The Wealth of Nations, the book that started
the field of economics and allowed governments to finally under-
stand the effects of laws on their nation s economy. Joseph Black
(1728 1799) isolated carbon dioxide, thus discovering that the
atmosphere was made up of a mix of gases, and inspired Antoine
Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry. James Watt
(1736 1819), who worked in Black s lab, went on to invent the
practical steam engine. Finally, there was James Hutton, the
father of geology and the discoverer of the antiquity of the earth.
Hutton s relationship with Hume is unknown, for there is no
record to show that the two ever met (it is difficult to imagine that
they did not know each other, however, given that they shared a
mutual friend in Black). The others were all Hutton s friends,
130 THE MAN WHO FOUND TI ME
Joseph Black being the most important. It was Black who shared
his love of chemistry and helped Hutton navigate the social and
intellectual network that was the Scottish Enlightenment.
Based on the observations left by those who interacted with
Hutton after he moved back to Edinburgh, the doctor turned
farmer turned natural philosopher must have been regarded as
a curiosity by those who encountered him. As one mineralogist
wrote to another after meeting Hutton during a visit to Edin-
burgh, Dr. Hutton is the oddity you described, but a mighty
good sort of man. Just returned from his farm in the Borders,
surrounded by rocks and chemicals in his overcrowded flat, he
would have been hard to take seriously. Even his attire was off;
he was described as being careless in what he wore, and often
found in direct collision with the accepted fashions. But not
Joseph Black. An internationally known scientist before the end
of the 1750s, probably the brightest of the many stars at the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, and connected to every prominent citizen
in the city, Black was the very essence of an insider. In fact, one
historian of the period calls Black the minence grise of the era.
Black quickly realized the unique talents possessed by Hutton,
and if Black said he was good company, then just about everyone
else in Edinburgh soon felt the same way.
Although observers of the Scottish Enlightenment often
treat David Hume as the preeminent thinker of that period,
Joseph Black (he later became David Hume s doctor) was the
first to make a profound discovery. In the 1750s, while still a
medical student at the University of Edinburgh, Black burst
THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH 131
onto the scientific scene when he discovered carbon dioxide, the
first-ever instance of isolating one of the gases in the atmo-
sphere; indeed, before Black s discovery, no one had imagined
that the atmosphere was a mixture of individual gases.
The path to this discovery was particularly significant for
Hutton because it involved a common mineral that would later
serve as proof of his theory of the earth. The experiment started
out modestly enough. Attempting to help resolve a conflict
between two of his professors, Black sought to discern the most
efficient way to dissolve urine stones, a common affliction in the
eighteenth century. He chose to experiment with magnesia alba,
a type of limestone (limestone was already recognized for having
certain medicinal characteristics). While making some simple
measurements, he stumbled across an amazing thing. When the
magnesia alba was heated, it lost 40 percent of its weight (it is
hard to imagine today, but Black was among the first chemists to
use a scale, a tool almost as important as the microscope). Black
applied the term fixed air to the weight that was lost. Black s
next step was to investigate the properties of the fixed air that
had been released. If trapped and unmixed with the surround-
ing air, this fixed air killed living things, such as mice. Since this
toxic fixed air was clearly in the atmosphere (the process of
burning limestone is common enough), it followed that there
must be other components of the atmosphere that acted to dilute
the toxic properties. The realization that the atmosphere was
made up of a mix of discrete gases was a revelation, setting the
stage for Lavoisier to propose the oxygen theory in 1774 and
found modern chemistry.
132 THE MAN WHO FOUND TI ME
The paper that formally described Black s discovery,
Experiments on Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and other Alcaline
Substances, published in 1756, was immediately recognized as
seminal. Black, only twenty-eight years old and just out of med-
ical school, was quickly deemed the leading chemist of his gen-
eration. Over the next two years, Black made another important
discovery: He deduced the existence of latent heat. When a
compound is in the process of changing states (for example, liq-
uid water converting to steam), the compound continues to
absorb heat, even though its temperature remains unchanged. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]