J. R. Partington quotes - page 2

The earliest chemical theory was qualitative in the strictest sense. (J. R. Partington)
The strife was stilled, order and unity were restored, as soon as Avogadro's great idea was seen in its true light, and the concept of the molecule was introduced into chemistry. A formula which had required pages of reasoning from a purely chemical standpoint to establish, and that insecurely, was fixed by a single numerical result. View quote
J. R. Partington
In Alexandria two streams of knowledge met and fused together... The ancient Egyptian industrial arts of metallurgy, dyeing and glass-making... and... the philosophical speculations of ancient Greece, now tinged with ancient mysticism. View quote
J. R. Partington
Such ideas as those of matter, force, element, number, space, time, etc., came to us from the ancient Greeks. View quote
J. R. Partington
The treatises written in Greek... in Alexandria, are the earliest known books on chemistry. View quote
J. R. Partington
The results of a scrutiny of the materials of chemical science from a mathematical standpoint are pronounced in two directions. In the first we observe crude, qualitative notions. View quote
J. R. Partington
The study of astrology was connected with that of chemistry in the form of an association of the metals with the planets. View quote
J. R. Partington
The statement of a law of nature involves the formation of a concept. View quote
J. R. Partington
Side by side with the production of metals, the Egyptians and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia perfected the arts of making glazed pottery... and the production of glass. ...vessels were baked in tall closed furnaces. "Egyptian blue" was made in Egypt by heating silica with malachite and lime... applied with soda as a blue glaze on faience, and the blue glass is also colored with copper. Some early... Egyptian and Babylonian blue glass are coloured with cobalt. View quote
J. R. Partington
The Alexandrian chemists were very near to a recognition of gases. View quote
J. R. Partington
An explanation of a phenomenon is regarded, apparently instinctively, as the most general possible when it is a mechanical explanation. The "mechanism" of the process is the ultimate goal of experiment. Now this mechanism in general lies beyond the range of the senses; either by reason of their limitations, as in the case of the atomic structure of matter, or by the very nature of the supposed mechanism, as in the theory of the ether. The only way to bridge the gap between the machinery of the physical process and the world of sense-impressions is to think out some consequence of that mechanism. This we will call the hypothesis. The hypothesis, resting still on the mechanical basis, is yet beyond the range of direct experimental investigation; but if, by mathematical reasoning, a consequence of the hypothesis can be deduced, this will often lie within the range of experimental inquiry, and thus a test of the soundness of the original mechanical conception may be instituted. (J. R. Partington)
As an instance of the remarkably far-reaching effect which a single mathematico-physical concept has had upon the development of chemical theory, one has but to recall the state of chemistry just before the revival of Avogadro's law by Cannizzaro, to be impressed by its confusion. View quote
J. R. Partington
To a person whose experience has never been brought into relation with the object sulphur, the name signifies nothing; to the scientist... his concept involves the ideas of specific gravity, crystalline form, element, atom, and the like, derived from past experiences. His concept is distinguished from the other by involving... number or quantity. View quote
J. R. Partington