0
SOME CHEMICAL RELICS RALPH E. OESPER University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, Ohio
THE
uames of Peter Waage (1833-1900) aud his hrother-in-law Cato Maximilian Guldherg (1836-1902) are iiidissolubly linked in their ''Lan. of Mass Action." W a q e was professor of chemistry and director of the chemical laboratory iu the Vnirersity of Christiania (now Oslo). He puhlished a numher of smaller papers
Balance. Silver Bottles. and Ladle Used by Gvldbers and Wease
peared iu t,he Forh,a.,ndlinyer of 1879 (in Sorrl-egian).' One of the reartions that \\.as studied in detail mas the equilibrium: BaSO, (solid)
+
K3COa (solution)
.
BaCOi (solid)
+
KS04 (solution)
Siure glass is seriously attarked by all esrept very dilute solutions of potassium rarhonate, and erperially a t high temperatures, they used silver and platiuum C. M. Gvldberg and Peter
Waege
in various fields of inorganic, organir, arid mineral chemistry, and had a good reputation in chemical rircles both a t home and ahroad, especially in Eugland. Guldherg was a mathematirian as well as a competent physical chemist. He taught at. the Royal Artillery aid Engineering School of Sorway from 1860 uutil1867, when he accepted a lectureship at, the university, which, being the only uniwrsity in Norway a t the time, was called the Royal Frederick University. In 1869 he was given the chair of applied mat,hematics. The joint researches on chemical affinity were carried out in the university laboratory. The results and the discussions were published in three papers. The first two received litt,le attention because they appeared in the relatively inaccessible Forhandlinger i VidenskabsSelskabel i Christiania (1864, in Norwegian) and as a uuiversity publication (in 1867, in French). Consequent,ly,parts of t,he t,heory were disrovered independently by others. Guldberg and Waage's work really became knowu to the general chemical public in 1879 when the complete account appeared in the Journal fur prnlctische Chemie (in German). The text also ap-
Old Chemical Laboratmy at t h e U n i v e n i t y of Christiania (now Oslo1
bottles in which to carry out the reactions. When working at the boiling point of water, the bottle vas closed with a rubber stopper rarrying a, glass tube about
' All three papers are available (in German) in No. 104 of Ostwald's Klossiker der eznelrn IViss~nschaft,Leipzig, 18!1!1. .4n excellent commentary i~ineludeclthere.
194
0.7 meter long and drawn down to a fine tip at both ends. I n this way practically no water was lost during the reaction; the steam condensed in the tube and flowed back. The loss over nine hours heating at 99100' was only 0.052 g. The balance used in these "Studies of Chemical Affinity" is preserved in the laboratory a t the University
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
of Oslo. Some of the silver bottles and a silver ladle also employed in these researches are also there. The pure silver equipment is badly tarnished, which is only natural in a laboratory atmosphere. These relics again show that simple equipment combined with devoted and alert minds can yield results of permanent and far-reaching value.
