Dr Joseph Black (1728-1799),

Dr Joseph Black (1728-1799), Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow University(1756) and Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University (1766): Three important handwritten, 18th century, leather bound notebooks of his lectures, commencing 13th June 1775, and written up as: 'Notes of Dr Black's Philosophical Lectures on Chemistry/Corrected and Enlarged by the Joint Labour of George Buchan Hepburn (later Sir George, 1st Baronet FRSE FSA) and Alexander Law, Advocates'. The first lecture significantly discussing Heat, a subject which Black had pioneered through the study of specific or latent heat in 1761.The notes from this lecture state: 'Chemistry is the effect of Heat, and of Mixture upon all bodys, or mixtures of bodys...Heat is easily communicated-it passes continually from hotter to colder Bodys and affects every species of matter-In this communication of it to colder bodys Density is no obstacle...'Subsequent headings and dates in Volume I include: Expansion/Thermometers ('Sir Isaac Newton on the degrees of heat gives an account of many experiments with an oil thermometer-He took a mass of red hot iron as hot as common fire could make it and suddenly exposed it at a window where he let it remain till cooled...')/Fluidity/Vapour/Ignition/Inflammation 12th Lecture, dated 26th June/Inflamability 13th Lecture, 27th June/Mixture/Mixture & Progress of Chemistry/Progress of Chemistry & Attraction/Chemical Attraction/Chemical Apparatus/The Elements and Objects of Chemistry/Elements and objects of Chemistry/Saline Substances, 17th Lecture, 1st July/Alkalis/Acids 19th Lecture, 4th July and 20th Lecture, 5th July/Compound Salts 21st Lecture, 6th July/Salts/Of Earthy & Stoney Substances 26th Lecture, 12th July/Earth 27th Lecture 13th July. The first volume ends on a page marked 200 after a brief discussion as to the discovery of porcelain manufacture.Volume II starts with 'Inflamable Substances' (Lecture dated 4th August 1775) and continues with a lecture on Charcoal (Lecture 38/7th August); Lecture 39/9th August; Lecture 40/10th August; Lecture 41/11th August; Lecture 42/28th November 1775; Lecture 43 on Metals/30th November; Lecture 44 on Metals/1st December; Lecture 45 on Metals/4th December; Lecture 46 on Metals/5th December; Lecture 47 on 7th December on Mercury and Metals; Lecture 48 on 8th December; Lecture 49 on 11th December; Lecture 50 on December 12th; subsequent pages titled: 'Of Regulus of Antimony'/'Of Bismuth'/'Of Linck...This metal which is also called spelter is more tough than Bismuth'/'Of Cobalt'; Lecture 51 on 14th December, including: Tin and Copper; Lecture 52 on 15th December; Lecture 53 on 18th December; Lecture 54 on 19th December. The Second Volume ends on Page 188 with the note that: 'In this abridged course of lectures, Doctor Black it would appear found it necessary to omitt the table of Elective Attractors which will be found in the Appendix no.10 page 40'.Volume III commences with the title: 'Notes of Doctor Black's Lectures on Chemistry/54th Lecture/Continued 19th Dec. 1775'. It continues with: Lecture 55 on Water/ 20th December; Lecture 56 on Vegetable Substances/21st December; Lecture 57 on Vegetable and Animal Substances/22nd December. On Page 37, Black concludes: 'Upon the Whole Chemistry is as yet but an opening Science closely connected however with the usefull and ornamental arts and worthy the attention of a liberal mind.-And it must always become more & more so: for tho' it is only of late that it has been looked upon in that light, the great progress already made in Chemical Knowledge, gives us a pleasant prospect of rich addition to it.'After the conclusion of the Lecture notes, Volume III includes the following subjects;(1) The Appendix introduction with a heading, stating: 'What follows is taken from the Papers of the Gentleman to whom we are indebted for the account of the Chemical Apparatus'.(2) The Preparation of Mercury and Mercury combined with Brimstone.(3) Of The Preparation of Iron referred to Vol II/Pag 132.(4) Of Regulus of Antimony and Antimonial Preparations.(5) The Preparations of Antimony(6) The Chemical History of Lead with regard to Acids(7) Of Silver Ores and the Method of Separation(8) Elective Attractions with an associated table, 'divided into four general parts', illustrating the attraction of elements, compounds, acids or alkalis.(9) The Analysis of Water, referred to Vol.3 page 3d.(10) Some discussion on physiology, including: urine; fluid secretion, Saliva and related Sediment or Calculus.(11) The Index, commencing with 'Absorbent Earth' and 'Absorption'Each book about 26 x 20cm (3)Provenance: Sir George Buchan-Hepburn, thence by direct family descent, The Property of a Gentleman. All three volumes with library bookplate for Buchan-Hepburn Bart. of Smeaton Hepburn. During Dr. Black's lifetime, many manuscript copies of his lectures were made by his students. Compare, for example: University of St. Andrews (Reference GB227/MS38181-38186, dated to 1771-1775), comprising volumes of notes from Black's lectures; some notes by unknown students, and some notes taken by Henry Beaufoy (died 1795), later a Whig MP for Minehead. These manuscripts include lectures 91-106, and include the subjects of Metals, Mercury, Semi-Metals, Antimony, Bismuth, Zinc, Lead and Tin.Black was succeeded as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in 1766 by John Robson, FRSE (1739-1805) who in 1799 prepared Black's lectures for publication. Black's work has remained relevant; his theory of specific or latent heat, proposed in 1761, is a definition which has remained in use (see for example 'The Penguin Reference Library/Dictionary of Science'/2014 Edition page 626). Indeed, latent heat has long been considered significant; Thomas Thomson MD, FRS, writing in 1815, reminded his readers that Black 'was the first person who pointed out that every substance is possessed of a peculiar specific heat, or that different bodies have different capacities for heat'. However, the most significant compliment to Black's work was the attention given to it by the great French Chemist, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) and his wife Marie-Anne. Madame Lavoisier, who involved herself with all her husband's work, learnt English as a means by which to update Lavoisier on the work of British chemists. Presumably, therefore it was through Marie-Anne that Black's work was brought to Lavoisier's notice. Lavoisier's re-examined Black's experiments, in what was eventually to be termed Quantitative Analysis, an area which had been implied by Black's graduation thesis on Magnesia Alba, published in 1754. The following two years, 1755-56, saw Black's discovery of Magnesium (Element No.12 on Dmitry Mendeleyev's Periodic Table); this pointed the way towards the principle of The Conservation of Mass when Black summarised: 'We have already shewn by experiment that Magnesia Alba (Magnesium Carbonate) is a compound of peculiar earth and fixed air'. Here again, though, Lavoisier is the one most often understood to have discovered the idea that the mass of different matter remains constant, following a chemical reaction between them.Mendeleyev is justly celebrated on his Periodic Table by Element 101, so perhaps Black's discovery of Magnesium should be similarly remembered, and that an Element yet to be discovered, should be named after him.