Tedium

“ His works disquiet me, because I think the defect which his heroes and heroines find in their first marriage they will find also in their second, and their third, and their fourth; they will find that neither the second nor the third nor the fourth marriage is capable of sustaining indefinitely the sense of ecstasy which the tired business man experiences the first time he notices how pretty his stenographer is. Tedium is three fourths of life. Sensible men settle quietly down to endure it, sustained by their fortitude and their twenty-five per cent of creature comforts and incidentals. ”

“ Until dinner, which is served at six in the evening, the time drags endlessly long and with intolerable monotony. And, in general, this daily interval is the heaviest and emptiest in the life of the house. It remotely resembles in its moods those slothful, empty hours which are lived through during the great holidays in scholastic institutes and other private institutions for females, when all the friends have dispersed, when there is much leisure and much indolence, and a radiant, agreeable tedium reigns the whole day. ”

“ The natural transition from titanium and vanadium to copper and zinc by means of the elements of the iron group is demonstrated by all the properties of these elements, and in exactly the same manner a transition from zirconium, niobium, and molybdenum to silver, cadmium, and indium, through ruthenium, rhodium, and palladium, is in perfect accordance with fact and with the magnitude of the atomic weights, as also is the position of osmium, iridium, and platinum between tantalum and tungsten on the one side, and gold and mercury on the other. ”

“ Tellurium, te-lū′ri-um, n. an element by some classed as a metal, placed by others among the metalloids, brittle and crystalline, of high metallic lustre, bluish-white in colour, with close analogies to sulphur and selenium.—n. Tel′lurate, a salt of telluric acid.—adjs. Tel′lūretted, combined with tellurium; Tellū′rian, pertaining to the earth.—n. an inhabitant of the earth.—adj. Tellū′ric, pertaining to, or proceeding from, the earth: of or from tellurium.—n. Tel′luride, a compound of tellurium with an electro-positive element.—adjs. ”

“ Two oxides of the element are definitely known, viz., the dioxide, TeO2, and the trioxide, TeO3, whilst a monoxide, TeO, has also been described. The dioxide is formed by burning tellurium in air or by warming it with nitric acid. It is a colourless crystalline solid which readily fuses to a yellow liquid. The trioxide is an orange coloured solid which is formed when telluric acid is strongly heated. Tellurous acid, H2TeO3, is obtained when the tetrachloride is decomposed by water, or on dissolving tellurium in nitric acid and pouring the solution into water. ”

“ Tellurium may be obtained from the bismuth ore (the telluride of bismuth) by strongly heating the ore with a mixture of carbonate of potash and charcoal. A potassium telluride is formed which dissolves in water, forming a solution of a purplish-red colour, from which the tellurium deposits on exposure of the liquid to the atmosphere.
2. Schrötter gives the following method for the obtainment of metallic tellurium:—The raw material is treated with dilute hydrochloric acid as long as carbon dioxide is evolved, then with strong acid until all sulphuretted hydrogen is driven off. ”

“ But this is singularly to be noted, that the Spirits of the seven Metals, or of as many of them as are conjoyned in the Fire, are wonderfully provoked and stirred up, and Mercury chiefly, and they emit, and send out their forces amongst each other, for a mutual Victory and Transmutation; the one takes away the Virtue, Life, and Form from the other, communicating a new Nature and Form; so the Spirits or Vapours of Metals are stirred up by heat and mutual action and passion, and are transmuted from one Virtue to another, and at last to Perfection and Purity. ”

“ Tellurium in the Metallic form.—By the aid of heat it is oxidized in sulphuric acid, a portion of the oxygen of the acid oxidizing the metal, while sulphurous acid gas escapes. This solution is colorless, and is tellurous acid, dissolved in sulphuric acid. It melts at a low red heat, and volatilizes at a higher temperature. If tellurium is heated with free access of air, it takes fire, and burns with a blue color, the flame being greenish at the edges, while a thick white vapor escapes, which has a feeble acidulous odor. ”

“ It has a strong metallic lustre; a moderate flexibility; considerable softness, and feels heavy.
Before the blowpipe it burns with the colour and smell of tellurium, and has the same action with acids. The precipitate by water burns upon charcoal like tellurium ”

“ It is well known that alchemists, with their strange system of nomenclature, believed there was a certain mysterious relation between the seven metals then known and the seven planets; each metal was dedicated to a planet; tin was called Jupiter; silver, [Pg 325] Luna; gold, Sol; lead, Saturn; iron, Mars; quicksilver, Mercury; and copper, Venus. The crystallization of tin may be recognised also by rubbing a piece of this metal with hydrochloric acid; the fragments thus rubbed off exhibit specimens of branching crystals similar to the hoar-frost which we see in severe winter weather. ”

“ Antimony, bismuth, and arsenic are distinctly metallic as regards lustre, density, and some chemical properties, but are wanting in malleability. The recently discovered tellurium presents greater difficulties, for it has many of the physical properties of metal, and yet all its chemical properties are analogous to those of sulphur and selenium, which have never been regarded as metals. ”

“ Tellurium is also a rare substance generally found in combination with gold and silver. It is like bismuth, and is lustrous in appearance. Telluretted hydrogen is horrible as a gas. Tellurium, like selenium, sulphur, and oxygen, combines with two atoms of hydrogen. (Symbol Te, Atomic Weight 129) .
Fig. 393.—Casting plate-glass.
Arsenic, like tellurium, possesses many attributes of a metal, and on the other hand has some resemblance to phosphorus. Arsenic is sometimes found free, but usually combined with metals, and is reduced from the ores by roasting ”

“ Gibbs, we were withheld from announcing it, because the form of the crystals, the specific gravity, the colour, and perhaps some other characters, were not perfectly accordant with European descriptions, and with the specimens in our possession, which are from Saxony and Cornwall.
During the necessary chemical trials (which have, we trust, established the correctness of the above opinion,) we very unexpectedly discovered in some of the ores of tungsten, proofs of the existence of tellurium. The conclusion was induced by the phenomena, for nothing was farther from our expectations. ”

“ There was truth in alchemy, more truth than in astrology. The prime idea of alchemy, the transmutation of Matter, is absolutely true. Uranium, thorium, radium, have been detected in the act of secreting and producing other elements, which new elements, it is almost certain, change, possibly by way of hydrogen, into electricity—rapidly in the cases of uranium and thorium, very slowly in the case of radium—and from electricity devolve back into the primitive form of Matter, the Ether. ”

“ The ground beneath is utterly insane. But I see vast uncovered veins of rare metal—and crystal, precious crystal, enough to cover the mightiest Temple we could build! Oh, that Mortia were so blessed! In all this terrifying world, the richness of the crystal and the marvelous metal do redeem. ”

“ Elements which are similar as regards their chemical properties have atomic weights which are either of nearly the same value (e.g. platinum, iridium, osmium) or which increase regularly (e.g. potassium, rubidium, cæsium) .
‘3. The arrangement of the elements, or of groups of elements, in the order of their atomic weights, corresponds to their so-called valencies as well as, to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties—as is apparent, among other series, in that of lithium, beryllium, barium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and iron. ”

“ He says, that when a circuit of electricity is completed in water by means of two surfaces of tellurium, oxygen is given off at the positive surface, and instead of hydrogen at the negative surface, a brown powder is formed and separated, which he regards as a hydruret of tellurium; and he conceives that the reason why that metal prevents the metallization of potash is, that it has a stronger attraction for hydrogen than that possessed by the alkali. ”

“ Zirconium is always, with the doubtful exception of its peroxy-compounds and the lower oxides, tetravalent. Cerium, as already described, can form two series of compounds, in which it is respectively tri- and tetravalent; thorium, like zirconium, is always tetravalent.
Titanium, Ti = 48·1
Though generally classed among the rare elements, titanium is probably at least as widely distributed in nature as most of the common metals. It occurs as the dioxide in small quantities in all the common silicate rocks and minerals, and in traces in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ”

“ And now, if those ashes shall be molten with a strong fire, then the ashes which arise out of the imperfect Metals, are turned into Glass, or scoria, but the ashes of the perfect Metals do reduce, and restore themselves into a malleable Body, whether it be Silver or Gold, according as it had this or that Metalline mixture in it; and if you proceed yet farther, with melting the aforesaid scoria in the fire, there will a new Regulus fall out, which contains in it that Metal, which is the noblest next Gold and Silver, viz. Lead, and Copper ”

“ It burns, and also, like sulphuretted hydrogen, precipitates many metals from solutions of their salts. It may be liquefied, the liquid boiling at 0° C., and on further cooling, it solidifies, the solid melting at −48° C. Many tellurides of metals have been examined by C. A. Tibbals (Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1909, 31, p. 902) who obtained the sodium and potassium tellurides by the direct union of their component elements and others from these by precipitation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Here I have a crucible containing some copper. Any substance in the group would do, even hydrogen if there was any way I could handle the gas. I place it in the machine—so. Now, if you could watch inside you would see it change; it is now rubidium, now silver, now caesium. Now it is a hitherto unknown element which I have named after myself, presium, now a second unknown element, cottium—ah! there we have gold. ”

“ Owing to the difficulties of the separation from the acidic oxides, silica, zirconia, and the pentoxides of columbium and tantalum, and from the basic oxides, alumina and the oxides of iron and tin, the estimation of titanium in a mineral or a steel is usually a difficult and tedious process. ”

“ An error, Messire Jacques! None of your formulas end in reality. Alchemy on the other hand has its discoveries. Will you contest results like this? Ice confined beneath the earth for a thousand years is transformed into rock crystals. Lead is the ancestor of all metals. For gold is not a metal, gold is light. Lead requires only four periods of two hundred years each, to pass in succession from the state of lead, to the state of red arsenic, from red arsenic to tin, from tin to silver. ”

“ In its tetravalent condition, titanium shows a close relationship to silicon; the similarity is manifested by the ease with which the dioxide replaces silica in many minerals, and the isomorphism of many titanates with corresponding silicates. Yet the strengthening of electropositive character, which always accompanies the change in atomic weight in descending a vertical column of the table, is very apparent in the case of titanium, and its ability to form salts in the tetravalent state is a very important property. ”

“ The alchemists believed that the metals were constructed after the manner of man, into whose constitution three factors were regarded as entering: body, soul, and spirit. As regards man, mystical philosophers generally use these terms as follows: “body” is the outward manifestation and form; “soul” is the inward individual spirit [18] ; and “spirit” is the universal Soul in all men. And likewise, according to the alchemists, in the metals, there is the “body” or outward form and properties, “metalline soul” or spirit, [19] and finally, the all-pervading essence of all metals. ”

“ In the giant stars, also extremely tenuous (the density of Betelgeuse can hardly exceed one-thousandth of an atmosphere) we observe the spectra of iron, manganese, titanium, calcium, chromium, magnesium, vanadium, and sodium, in addition to titanium oxide. The outer part of these bodies, from which light reaches us, must therefore be at a temperature of only a few thousand degrees, but vastly higher temperatures must prevail at their centres. ”

“ Recent experimental research has brought about profound modifications in the scientific notions regarding the chemical elements, and, indeed, in the scientific concept of the physical universe itself; and a certain resemblance can be traced between these later views and the theories of bygone Alchemy. The spontaneous change of one “element” into another has been witnessed, and the recent work of Sir William Ramsay suggests the possibility of realising the old alchemistic dream—the transmutation of the “base” metals into gold. ”