John Call Dalton

“ When it has nothing more to rest on than the sands of the beach, its branches and trunk decay, but its roots and stump remain for many years whitening in the sun, like a skeleton on the plains.
The chain of islands from Port Royal toward Charleston harbor included Parry, Saint Helena, Edisto, John's and James islands; in the opposite direction, toward the Savannah river, Daufuskie, Turtle, and Jones' islands. ”

“ All modern experience concurs in shewing that the heat of combustion is primarily dependent on the quantity of oxygen combining. The heat evolved by the combustion of phosphorus and hydrogen is very nearly, if not accurately, in proportion to the oxygen spent. The heat by the combustion of charcoal is not in a much less ratio: and I find the heat in burning carbonic oxide, carburetted hydrogen and olefiant gas is the same as in burning hydrogen gas, provided the combining oxygen is the same. ”

“ Away from Hampton Roads, through the mouth of the Chesapeake, past the capes of Virginia, and then at sea, with prows toward the south, the stately procession moved along, every vessel in its place. The flagship led the van, with other men-of-war trailing behind, like ripples, in two diverging lines. Then came the transports in three columns, formed by the three brigades, and lastly a few gunboats brought up the rear. The vessels of the first brigade formed the right column, and as the sun went down the Virginia shore was just sinking out of sight. ”

“ The tenacity of brass is greater than that of either copper or zinc according to Muschenbroek. His experiments give brass nearly twice as strong as copper, and 18 times as strong as zinc. It seems to me most probable that the tenacity of brass increases with the increase of zinc in the alloy to a certain proportion, when it becomes a maximum, and thence diminishes with the further increase of zinc, but experiments are yet wanting, I presume, to ascertain what proportion of the two metals must be taken to form the alloy of greatest tenacity. ”

“ It is plain then that oxygen gas or any other elastic fluid, may have a small specific heat in the sense above defined, and yet have an almost unlimited quantity of heat. I am not aware of any one established fact that does not admit of an explanation upon the hypothesis that heat exists in definite quantities in all bodies, and is incapable of any change, except perhaps into one of the other equally imponderable bodies, light or electricity. ”

“ But when the regiment wheeled into column, and from the quiet enclosure of Lafayette Place passed into Broadway, the spectacle that met us was a revelation. From the curbstone to the top story, every building was packed with a dense mass of humanity. Men, women, and children covered the sidewalks, and occupied every window and balcony on both sides, as far as the eye could reach. ”

“ Both Raymond and Thomson observe that phosphuretted hydrogen water precipitates silver from its solutions of a black colour. I find that a solution of sulphate of silver containing one grain of the metal, requires water containing 90 grain measures of phosphuretted hydrogen to saturate it; the whole of the silver falls readily and leaves nothing but the acid in the water. Now the weight of 90 measures of this gas is nearly 1⁄9 of a grain; hence the proportions of metal and phosphorus are as 10 to 1, which shows that they combine atom to atom, or 90 silver to 91⁄3 phosphorus. ”

“ A fort, or at least an earthwork, would seem almost impregnable against artillery. It has no masonry walls to crumble or batter down. Solid shot may bury themselves [Pg 59] in its ramparts without doing the least harm; and when a shell explodes there, it only throws up a volcanic eruption of earth and sand, that settles back again nearly in the same place. The day after the battle at Hilton Head, the walls of the fort were practically as good as ever, and within a week or two its scarred outlines were all smoothed over again. ”

“ From several experiments I am led to conclude that each atom of oxide of gold takes 3 of sulphur, and parts with 1 of oxygen to the remaining sulphur; thus a trisulphuret of gold is formed, and an oxide of sulphur; the liquid, being afterwards treated with oxymuriate of lime, is found to require twice the oxygen of the gold for its saturation, when a corresponding portion of sulphuric acid may be precipitated by muriate of barytes. ”

“ The next enterprise of the expeditionary corps was the siege of Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah river. It was a formidable casemated work, situated just inside the entrance, and guarding the approach from below to the city of Savannah. It could not be successfully attacked by the navy, owing to its size and strength and the narrow limits of the river channel giving no room for the evolutions of a fleet. The only place where land batteries could be planted against it was Tybee island, between it and the sea, where there were but slender facilities for such an operation. ”

“ Gay Lussac and Thenard find a suboxide of sodium in the same way as that of potassium, and it is probably a compound of soda and sodium: the remarkable oxidation which produces soda is, I should imagine, the protoxide or one atom to one, as obtained by placing sodium in contact with water. A higher oxide is obtained as with potassium, by burning sodium in oxygen gas with a vivid heat. It resembles the yellow oxide of potassium in its appearance and properties. The degree of oxidation varies in the different experiments from 11⁄4 to 13⁄4 times the oxygen of soda. ”

“ No phosphuretted hydrogen that is not 70 or 80 per cent. pure, can, I imagine, be exploded by nitrous gas; even the purest requires sometimes more than one spark, when mixed in the most favourable proportions; and I have known instances in which the mixture has exploded after electrification for a few minutes. An excess or defect of nitrous gas, occasions oxygen or hydrogen to be found in the residual gas, just as when we explode with oxygen. One volume of phosphuretted hydrogen requires, as nearly as I can find, 31⁄2 of nitrous gas for mutual saturation. ”

“ On the other hand, a frigate or a sloop-of-war is vulnerable throughout. A single shot at the water line will make a leak, hot shot will set her on fire, and exploding shells may derange her machinery. Her oaken sides are a slight bulwark compared with the twenty feet of earth in the ramparts of a fort.
All this was thoroughly appreciated by the enemy, who were prepared for the attack and confident of success. Captured letters and documents showed that they had entire faith in their works and guns, and fully expected to sink the Yankee vessels and teach them a lesson for their temerity. ”

“ On considering all the circumstances, I am inclined to believe, that the properties which distinguish steel from iron are rather owing to a peculiar crystallization or arrangement of the ultimate particles of iron, than to their combination with carbone or any other substance. In all cases where steel is formed, the mass is brought into a liquid form, or nearly approaching to it, a circumstance which allows the particles to be subject to the law of crystallization. ”

“ But these were rare instances, and nothing of the kind happened at Hilton Head.
What the sea-island negroes appeared to excel in more than anything else was handling an oar, which they did in a way quite their own. In their long, narrow "dug-outs," hollowed from the trunk of a Georgia pine, each man pulling his oar in unison with the rest, they would send the primitive craft through the water with no little velocity. In lifting and recovering the oar they had a peculiar twist of the hand and elbow that no white man could imitate ”

“ Now if we assume the atom of vapour to be nearly of the same volume as that of hydrogen, and to consist of 1 atom hydrogen, 2 sulphur, and 1 carbon, it will require 7 atoms of oxygen to form water, sulphurous acid, and carbonic acid, which will accord very well with my experience. When vapourized hydrogen gas is electrified for some time, there is no change of volume, though there is some appearance of decomposition. ”

“ The house was occupied by regimental headquarters and the staff officers. In front were green fields and orchards, falling away in a gentle slope toward the city; and beyond was the broad Potomac, with the Virginia shore and Arlington Heights in the distance. In the rear were the lines of company tents, and an ample parade-ground, where the regiment was reviewed every day or two by the President, the Secretary of War, the general commanding, or some other high civil or military official, who was usually as much an object of inspection to the troops as the troops were to him. ”

“ The mixtures of lead, tin, bismuth and other soft and easily fused metals, are still more remarkable in this respect. They should be fused under a cover of oil or tallow in order to keep them of the same [Pg 222] proportions; otherwise, some of them, particularly the tin, is liable to great oxidation, and no two successive fusions will present the same alloy. Hence in some degree the use of fluxes in metallurgy which serve to cover the surface of the metals and prevent oxidation from the atmosphere.
When an alloy is made, it seldom happens that the metal is perfect and compact the first fusion ”

“ After that begins the labor of the troops. Wharves must be built and roads cleared, before the barges and steamers can be used to advantage for transportation. Jones' island, the intended location of the battery, was like its neighbors, a marshy flat covered with reeds and tall grass. Its surface was so treacherous that a pole or a stick could be thrust down through its superficial layer of tangled roots into a fathomless underlying quagmire of soft mud. ”

“ By means of a neutral solution of nitrate of lead it may be found that 1000 lime water in volume, require about 600 sulphuretted hydrogen, because then a mutual saturation is observed by double affinity; that is, sulphuret of lead and neutral nitrate of lime are formed; but otherwise the liquid remaining is either acid or alkaline. Hydrosulphuret of lime, as well as the other hydrosulphurets, has a peculiar bitter taste. It forms a useful reagent in regard to metals, but is apt to be spoiled by keeping, owing to the acquisition of oxygen. ”

“ This time we were no longer obliged to take the crooked route through Wall's Cut and [Pg 96] around Jones' island, but steamed directly down into the Savannah river opposite the fort. As we approached this frowning stronghold that had so long held us at bay, its effect was something to be remembered. Its massive walls covering five or six acres of ground, and its double row of heavy guns, seemed well able to repel intruders. For nearly three months we had looked at it with a mingled feeling of desire and dread. It would have been dangerous at any time to show ourselves within a mile of it ”

“ From the foregoing detail of experiments on elastic fluids, it appears evident that such fluids exhibit matter under a form in which it has the greatest possible capacity for heat, when capacity is understood to denote the total quantity of heat connected with the fluid; but if the capacity or specific heat is meant to denote the quantity of heat necessary to raise the body a given number of degrees of temperature, then the elastic fluid form of matter is that which has the least capacity for heat of any known form of the same matter. ”

“ When a good ship is wrestling with such a sea, she does it almost like a living creature. She sways and settles, and rises and twists, and her beams groan and creak with the strain that is on them. But her joints hold, and she answers her helm ”

“ Thinking it might in part be owing to the iron, I transferred the acid to soda, by decomposing the nitrate of iron by the carbonate of soda; this nitrate of soda however, when treated with oxymuriate of lime, exhibited the same phenomenon as the nitrate of iron. When an acid is added the oxymuriatic acid itself is given out. These results will require further consideration. At present I am inclined to think the pungent gas is one atom of nitrous and one of oxygen or what I formerly considered as nitric acid. ”

“ The greatest possible quantity of heat which a given weight of elastic fluid can contain is when the dilatation of the fluid is extreme. For, condensation, whether arising from mechanical pressure or from increased attraction of the atoms of matter for each other, tends to dissipate the heat, by increasing its elasticity. Hence increase of temperature, at the same time that on one account it increases the absolute quantity of heat in an elastic fluid, diminishes the quantity on another account by an increase of pressure, if the fluid be not suffered to dilate. ”

“ There appear to be two nitrous acids; namely, the one which I have designated by that name, which may now be called subnitrous, or as Gay Lussac terms it pernitrous; and the other what I considered as nitric acid in the former volume, composed of 1 atom azote, and 2 of oxygen.
Real nitric acid then is that combination which is effected by uniting oxygen with a minimum of nitrous gas; or 1 measure of oxygen with 1.3 nitrous gas, (See Vol. 1, page 328) . The oxynitric acid, which I was led to infer from the last mentioned combination, (1 azote with 3 oxygen) does not appear to exist. ”

“ The green oxide being the most prominent compound next to the chromic acid, being commonly produced from it by any deoxidizing process, being the lowest oxide known, and combining with acids, is on these accounts entitled to the consideration of the protoxide; indeed there does not seem an instance where the protoxide of a metal is unknown, whilst the deutoxide and compound oxides are known. ”