Lithium

“ Lithium is the metallic base of the Alkali lithia. The metal is of a white, silvery appearance, and is much harder than sodium or potassium, but softer than lead. It is the lightest of all known solids, its specific gravity being little more than half that of water. It comes principally from South Dakota, California and Sweden.
In chemical laboratories it is converted into lithium carbonate for medicinal tablets and mineral waters.
Magnesium is a metal widely distributed over the globe, and chiefly mined in Austria, Germany and Greece. ”

“ Thus the transmutation of matter is well known within certain bounds to all scientists to-day like yourself, Professor Kennedy. It has even been rumoured but never proved that copper has been transformed into lithium - both members of the hydrogen-gold group, you will observe. Copper to lithium is going backward, so to speak. It has remained for me to devise this protodyne apparatus by which I can reverse that process of decay and go forward in the table, so to put it - can change lithium into copper and copper into gold. I can create and destroy matter by protodyne. ”

“ The spectroscope has shown that lithium, so far from occurring in only four or five minerals, is a substance very widely diffused in nature. In the waters of the ocean, in mineral and river waters, in most plants, in wines, tea, coffee, milk, blood, and muscle, this metal has been found. Dr. Roscoe states that the ash of a cigar, when moistened with hydrochloric acid, and held in a platinum wire in the flame of the Bunsen’s burner, at once shows the principal lines of sodium, potassium, calcium, and lithium. ”

“ Through creating what we call “hot sparks” in extreme vacuum we have succeeded in stripping in succession, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the valence, or outer, electrons from the atoms studied. In going from lithium, through beryllium, boron and carbon to nitrogen, we have thus been able to work with stripped atoms of all these substances.
Now these stripped atoms constitute structures which are all exactly alike save that the fields in which the single electron is radiating as it returns toward the nucleus increase in the ratios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, as we go from stripped lithium to stripped nitrogen. ”

“ Lithium.—Specimens of this metal not being available, I obtained a deposit of it on iron electrodes by electrolysis of the fused chloride. The action produced by electric radiation was sometimes an increase and sometimes a diminution of resistance, the increase of resistance being the more frequent. With some difficulty it was possible to adjust the sensitiveness so that the recovery was automatic, but it was not energetic nor did this power persist for a long time. ”

“ It is now obtained by fusing pure chloride of lithium in a small, thick, porcelain crucible, and decomposing it while in a fused state by a current of electricity. It is a white metal, like sodium, very oxidisable, fusing at 356°, and having a sp. gr. of ·59. It is the lightest metal known. It belongs to the ‘alkaline group,’ of which potassium, sodium, cæsium, and rubidium, are the other members. ”

“ Fifty tons of such a light metal as lithium is a pretty large volume of the stuff. Albrekt assumed that Carrel's shield was to be a square or disc of the metal, rather thick to absorb the radiation, which would be interposed between the By Jove! and Jupiter. When work began, after several days of planning, it became apparent that the construction task was something more than cutting out and fastening together chunks of lithium.
Instead of working inside the ship, the crew moved a furnace to the outside of the cargo hull and anchored it down. ”

“ Thus we have lithium, sodium, and potassium; beryllium, magnesium, and calcium; [Pg 221] boron, aluminium, and scandium; carbon and silicon; oxygen and sulphur; fluorine and chlorine—all with a difference of 16 approximately. But here we come to a break: silicon and titanium, phosphorus and vanadium, sulphur and chromium, chlorine and manganese, each show a difference of about 20. ”

“ Space and electricity are as at first, but temperature has altered, and thus, instead of the atoms of lithium being supplemented with atoms in all respects analogous with themselves, the atomic groupings which come into being when the second cycle commences form, not lithium, but its lineal descendant, potassium. ”

“ Further Experiments on Radium and Copper.
§ 99. A little later Madame Curie and Mademoiselle Gleditsch [123] repeated Cameron and Ramsay’s experiments on copper salts, using, however, platinum apparatus. They failed to detect lithium after the action of the emanation, and think that Cameron and Ramsay’s results may be due to the glass vessels employed. Dr. Perman [124] has investigated the direct action of the emanation on copper and gold, and has failed to detect any trace of lithium. ”

“ It’s a batch reaction rather than a flow reaction such as the Bending Converter uses. But it’s as simple to build as a Bending Converter.”
“Jesus,” said Mike the Angel softly.
Lithium hydride. LiH. An atom of hydrogen to every atom of lithium. If a hydrogen nucleus is driven into the [101] lithium nucleus with sufficient force, the results are simple:
Li7 + H1 → 2He4 + energy
An atom of lithium-7 plus an atom of hydrogen-1 yields two atoms of helium-4 and plenty of energy. One gram of lithium hydride would give nearly fifty-eight kilowatt-hours of energy in one blast. ”

“ And boron is such a one; its atomic weight is 11, and its compounds are expressed by BX3. Lithium and beryllium are metals; carbon has no metallic properties; boron appears in a free state in several forms which are intermediate between the metals and non-metals. Lithium gives an energetic caustic oxide, beryllium forms a very feeble base; hence one would expect to find that the oxide of boron, B2O3, has still more feeble basic properties and some acid properties, all the more as CO2 and N2O5, which follow after B2O3 in their composition and in the periodic system, are acid oxides. ”

“ An additional step of reasoning leads to the conclusion that if, instead of the flame of sodium alone, we were to introduce into the path of the beam a flame in which lithium, strontium, magnesium, calcium, &c., are in a state of volatilisation, each metallic vapour would cut out a system of bands, corresponding exactly in position with the bright bands of the same metallic vapour. The light of our electric lamp shining through such a composite flame would give us a spectrum cut up by dark lines, exactly as the solar spectrum is cut up by the lines of Fraunhofer. ”

“ Here the regularity extends even beyond the elements themselves, for their corresponding compounds have, with few exceptions, equal specific volumes also. An altogether different, but on the whole more remarkable, relation is furnished by the alkaline metals lithium, sodium, potassium, and rubidium ”

“ If the still more electro-positive metal rubidium is used, the discharge can be produced by the light from a glass rod just heated to redness; but there is no discharge till the glass is luminous. Elster and Geitel arrange the metals in the following order for the facility with which negative electrification is discharged by light: rubidium, potassium, alloy of sodium and potassium, sodium, lithium, magnesium, thallium, zinc. With copper, platinum, lead, iron, cadmium, carbon and mercury the effects with ordinary light are too small to be appreciable. ”

“ Lithium, the featherweight of the metallic family, which will float in water, and has only one fifth the weight of aluminum, may before long be commandeered by the aeronauts, if a way can be found to protect it from the corroding action of air and water, while rubidium, that is as soft as fresh putty or wax at ordinary temperatures, zirconium, that possesses many of the qualities of thorium, and ruthenium, that is extremely infusible, are all certain to fill a want in the arts before long. ”

“ It certainly seemed like a dual transformation of [133] copper into lithium and sodium, and emanation into argon. They also observed that apparently carbon-dioxide is continually evolved from an acid solution of thorium nitrate (see below, § 100) . It is worth while noticing that helium, neon and argon occur in the same column in the Periodic Table with emanation; lithium and sodium with copper, and carbon with thorium; in each case the elements produced being of lighter atomic weight than those decomposed. ”

“ In all, the theory accounts for three series of hydrogen, and yields satisfactory results for helium atoms which have lost an electron, or lithium atoms which have a double positive charge. But for atoms which retain more than a single electron it seems no longer to hold. ”

“ Just now they went by weights, but ought not cobalt to come before nickel, even if it was heavier? Cobalt was more like iron, and ought to come right after iron.
Chapter 3. Lithium He had chosen Yale in the hope of sometime studying under Boltwood, the chemist who first perceived that the metal radium slowly changes into lead. As a mere freshman he presented himself in Dr. Boltwood’s office, was sharply questioned, was recognized as being something more than a freshman, and received the smiling suggestion that he master differential equations and vector analysis. ”

“ Thallium, as we shall afterwards see and as was observed on its discovery, has much kinship with lead and mercury, but some of its properties appertain to lithium and potassium. Naturally, where it is impossible to make measurements one is reluctantly obliged to limit oneself to approximate comparisons, founded on apparent signs which are not distinct and are wanting in exactitude. But in the elements there is one accurately measurable property, which is subject to no doubt—namely, that property which is expressed in their atomic weights. ”

“ O. Ruff and O. Johannsen (Zeit. elektrochem., 1906, 55, p. 537) electrolyse a mixture of bromide and chloride which melts at 520°. It is a soft, silvery-white metal, which readily tarnishes on exposure. Its specific gravity is 0.59, and it melts at 180° C. It burns on ignition in air, and when strongly heated in an atmosphere of nitrogen it forms lithium nitride, Li3N. It decomposes water at ordinary temperature, liberating hydrogen and forming lithium hydroxide. ”

“ Other elements do not interfere with this method. Sodium gives an intense and persistent yellow flame; lithium gives a carmine coloration, and may be identified in the presence of sodium by viewing through a cobalt glass or indigo prism; from potassium it may be distinguished by its redder colour; barium gives a yellowish-green flame, which appears bluish-green when viewed through green glass; strontium gives a crimson flame which appears purple or rose when viewed through blue glass; calcium gives an orange-red colour which appears finch-green through green glass ”

“ To overcome this difficulty, we have found it desirable to cover the source with a thin layer of celluloid of 2 or 3 mm. stopping power for α rays. By this procedure we have been able to avoid serious contamination and to examine the lighter elements by this method. We have been unable to detect any appreciable number of particles from lithium or carbon for ranges greater than 3 cms. If carbon shows any effect at all, it is certainly less than one tenth of the number from aluminum under the same conditions. ”

“ Again, if an exhausted tube containing metallic sodium be heated so as to convert the sodium into vapour, the tube viewed by the light of a sodium flame appear to contain a black smoke, and the light from the flame will no more pass through it than through a solid object; yet the tube appears perfectly transparent when viewed by ordinary light, and the light from a lithium or other coloured flame would also pass freely. ”

“ Crookes, speaking of the “dominant atomicities,” enumerates seven groups of these, for he says:
As the mighty focus of creative energy goes round, we see it in successive cycles sowing in one tract of space seeds of lithium, potassium, rubidium, and cæsium; in another tract, chlorine, bromine, and iodine; in a third, sodium, copper, silver, and gold; in a fourth, sulphur, selenium, and tellurium; in a fifth, beryllium, calcium, strontium, and barium; in a sixth, magnesium, zinc, cadmium, and mercury ”

“ Artificial radioactive isotopes and their inorganic or organic compounds. Remote-controlled mechanical manipulators specially designed for handling highly radioactive substances: — mechanical handling gear, fixed or mobile, but not being capable of being operated manually.
List B
(entry deleted)
Lithium ores and concentrates. Nuclear-grade metals: — crude beryllium, — crude bismuth,
— crude niobium (columbium) , — crude zirconium (hafnium-free) , — crude lithium, — crude aluminium, — crude calcium, — crude magnesium. Boron trifluoride. Anhydrous hydrofluoric acid. Chlorine trifluoride. ”

“ The figure at f represents what is observed in white light, as far as is possible by a drawing in black and white. It consists of a series of concave coloured curves, falling in between the arms of the cross, and looping round the axes, a figure very much like that afforded by brookite and triple tartrate of ammonium, potassium, and sodium, the substances already mentioned in Chapter VII. as being similarly very sensitive to change of wave-length. The figure in red monochromatic lithium light is shown at a in Fig. ”