Chemical properties Condensation with other compounds

The high quality numerical data on physical and chemical properties of atoms, molecules, and compounds present a good starting point for the development of a knowledgebase. The task is to condense the information contained in a series of individual data into a quantitative parametric model which will reproduce the primary data with a certain accuracy. If this is successful it can be used to predict new, as yet unknown data for which the same kind of accuracy can be expected. Furthermore, the parameters could also be of use in other models which in turn give new types of data. 

Working in his father s business, which produced niter (saltpeter, potassium nitrate) from seaweed by treating it with strong acids, Courtois noticed that when he added excess sulfuric acid, clouds of violet vapor rose over the solution, then condensed into dark, shiny crystals. Courtois investigated the chemical properties of the new material during the next few months and prepared some of its compounds. However Courtois was busy with the war effort (niter is a component of gunpowder), and he may have been feeling the financial strain of his research, so he told two other chemists about his crystals and asked them to continue the work. 

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