Berzelius discovered selenium while examining certain substances found in the acid manufactured at Gripsholm, Sweden. He includes selenium among the metals; but as it is a nonconductor of electricity, also a most imperfect conductor of heat, and as, in other respects, it bears much analogy to sulphur, it is generally placed among the non-metallic combustibles (Brande, “Manual of Chemistry,” London, 1848, Vol. I. p. 435; Berzelius, “Lehrbuch der Chemie,” “Traité,” etc., Paris, 1846, Vol. II. p. 184; “Annales de Chimie et de Physique,” Vol. IX. p. 160; “Annals of Philosophy,” Vol. XIII. p. 401 and Vol. VIII, N.S. p. 104). The important rôle which the high electrical resistance of selenium has in its early days been made to play by Mr. Willoughby Smith, Dr. Werner Siemens and others, is alluded to at pp. 791–794 of Vol. IV supplement to “Ure’s Dict. of Arts,” etc., London, 1878.
For full accounts of Berzelius’ numerous contributions to science, attention is called to the following:
References.—“Royal Society Catal. of Sc. Papers,” Vol. I. pp. 330–341; “Gedächtnissrede auf Berzelius ...” Berlin, 1851; G. Forchammer, “J. J. Berzelius,” 1849; Poggendorff, Vol. I. pp. 172–175; “Afhandl. i Fisik. ...”; Jos. Thomas, “Dict. of Biography,” 1870, Vol. I. p. 341; “Report Smiths. Inst.” for 1862, p. 380; “Vetensk. Acad. Handl.”; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. VI. p. 478. See likewise, “Journal Frankl. Inst.,” 3rd Ser., Vol. XVI. pp. 343–348; Faraday’s “Experim. Researches,” Arts., 746, 870, 960, and Vol. II. pp. 226–228; Gahn at p. 226 of Becquerel’s “Eléments d’El. Ch.,” Paris, 1843; “Annalen der Physik,” Vol. XXVII. pp. 270, 311, 316, and Vol. XXXVI. p. 260; Gehlen’s “Journal für die Chem. und Phys.,” Vol. I. p. 115 and Vol. III. p. 177; John Black, “An Attempt ... Electro-Chem. Theory,” London, 1814; Gmelin’s “Chemistry,” Vol. I. pp. 400, 457–458, 461–462; “Encycl. Metrop.” (Galvanism), Vol. IV. pp. 221–222; “Sc. Am. Suppl.,” No. 284, p. 4523, for report of Helmholtz’s Faraday Lecture of April 5, 1881, taken from the “Chemical News”; Sturgeon’s “Annals,” Vol. VII. pp. 300–303; Vol. VIII. p. 80; Whewell, “History of the Inductive Sciences,” 1859, Vol. II. pp. 304, 347–348; Thos. Thomson, “An Outline of the Sciences ...” London, 1830, Chap. XIV. p. 532; Berzelius and Wöhler on Volcanoes, in Poggendorff’s “Annalen,” Bd. I. s. 221, and Bd. XI. s. 146; “Journal des Savants” for June 1892, pp. 375–385; J. Berzelius and F. Wöhler, Leipzig, 1901; “Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexikon,” Herm. Hofberg, Stockholm, pp. 88–89; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. LI, 1812, pp. 174–183 (“Nicholson’s Journal,” July 1812) for John Gough’s remarks on the hygrometer of Berzelius (Phil. Mag., Vol. XXXIII. p. 177); “Annales de Chimie,” Vol. LI. pp. 167, 171; Vol. LXXXVI for 1813, p. 146; Vol. LXXXVII. pp. 286, etc.; also Vol. LXXIII. pp. 198, 200–201, the last named giving an account of the ammoniacal amalgam which Berzelius and Pontin were the first to explain.
A.D. 1802.—Thompson (Sir Benjamin), Count Rumford, an eminent scientist, native of Woburn in Massachusetts, Knt., F.R.S., one of the founders of the English Royal Institution, publishes his “Philosophical Memoirs ... being a collection of ... Experimental Investigations ... of Natural Philosophy.”
Though more properly identified with important observations and researches on heat, the question of the nature of which, Dr. Edward L. Youmans says, he was the first to take out of the domain of metaphysics, where it had stood since the days of Aristotle, he has given accounts of some highly important experiments regarding the relative intensities and the chemical properties of light, heat and electricity, which can be seen at pp. 273, etc., Vol. LXXVI. part ii. of the Phil. Trans. for 1786. Heat spreads in every direction, whilst the electrical fluid may be arrested in its progress by certain bodies, which have on that account been called non-conductors, but he shows that the Torricellian vacuum affords, on the contrary, a ready passage to the electrical fluid while being a bad conductor of heat.
At p. 30 of George E. Ellis’ “Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson,” published in Boston (no date), is reproduced Rumford’s “Account of what expense I have been at toward getting an electrical machine” during 1771, and at pp. 481–488, Vol. I, also pp. 350, 351, Vol. III of the “Complete Works of Count Rumford,” published by the American Academy of Sciences, allusion is made to the galvanic influence in the construction of utensils.
References.—Sir W. Thomson, “Mathematical and Physical Papers,” London, 1890, Vol. III. pp. 123, 124; Phil. Mag., Vol. IX for 1801, p. 315; Silliman’s American Journal of Science, Vol. XXXIII. p. 21; “Biog. Universelle,” Tome XXXVII. p. 81; “Journal des Savants,” for Dec. 1881 and Jan. 1882; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. LVI., 1814, pp. 398–401 (necrology).
A.D. 1802.—Pepys (William Haseldine, Sr.), son of an English manufacturer of surgical instruments, who became F.R.S. and was one of the founders of the Askesian Society, as well as of both the London Institution and of the London Geological Society, constructs, during the month of February 1802, the strongest pile hitherto known. It consists of sixty pairs of zinc and copper plates, each six feet square, held in two large troughs filled with thirty-two pounds of water containing two pounds of azotic, or nitric, acid.
It is said that with this battery he succeeded in melting iron wires ranging in diameter from one two-hundredth to one-tenth of an inch, the combustion developing an extremely bright light, while platinum wires, one thirty-second of an inch in diameter, turned to white heat and melted in globules at the point of contact. Charcoal was permanently ignited a length of nearly two inches and the galvanic action was strong enough to light it after passing through a circuit of sixteen persons holding one another by the hand. Gold leaf displayed a bright white light, accompanied with smoke; silver leaf gave an intense green light without sparks, but with still more smoke; while sheets of lead burned actively, with accompaniment of very red sparks mixed with the flame (Figuier, “Exposition,” etc., Paris, 1857, Vol. IV. p. 347).
Later on, another battery was constructed by him for the London Institution. This consisted of 400 pairs of plates five inches square, and of 40 pairs one foot square. With it, Davy ignited cotton, sulphur, resin, oil and ether, melted a platinum wire, burned several inches of an iron wire one three-hundredth of an inch in diameter, and boiled easily such liquids as oil and water, even decomposing and transforming them into gases. It was during the year 1808 that Pepys finished the enormous battery of 2000 double plates already alluded to under the Cruikshanks (A.D. 1800) and the Davy (A.D. 1801) articles, and which is to be found described at p. 110 of the “Elements of Chemical Philosophy.”