Matter of light

In the old Phlogiston Theory, phlogiston is equivalent to minus oxygen in the later theory it was sometimes assumed to be hydrogen (Cavendish, Kirwan, Priestley), or the matter of light (Macquer). Practically every chemist adopted the theory during the eighteenth century. 

But the Innate Fire is very different from Moisture. It partakes of the spirituality of Light, and the Humid Radical is of a nature midway between the extremely subtle and spiritual matter of Light, and gross, elementary, corporeal matter. It partakes of the nature of both, and connects these two extremes. It is the seal of the visible and palpable treaty of light and shadows the point of union and of commerce between the Heavens and the Earth. 

All mixts which go through a rigorous or very exact analysis lose, as we have said, the sulphur principle which composed these mixts. The more the artist perseveres to discover it, the less he finds it. We have therefore no positive knowledge of the sulphur principle by means of our analysis, or by the decomposition of mixts. This made me think that one could perhaps discover something in the composition of artificial mixts. In fact, several operations of this nature have given me indications that it is the matter of light which is our sulphur principle, the single active principle of all mixts. 

Qualitatively and quantitatively, then, solar rays contributed to the weight of the calx, lending credit to Romberg s idea that it must be the sole active principle in the universe, or the sulphur principle. He preferred to call it the matter of light rather than the matter of fire because fire evoked much ambiguity ... 

Now that the involvement of the matter of light in these processes had been established, all that remained was to figure out exactly how the matter of light acted on bodies to produce the sulphurous matters known to chemists. That was to be the subject of another memoire. 

Bundles of miniature candles packed into circular or square boxes are known as cakes for obvious reasons. They are the simplest of fireworks to set up because one merely places them on level ground, on a waterproof sheet if necessary. However, the fuse that connects all of the tubes runs in a spiral inside the base of the box, and the end that terminates on the outside wall of the box can be difficult to locate (especially in the dark) and be rather slow in operation. Some tens of seconds might elapse before the first tube ignites, but do not be tempted to return to the firework once the fuse is lit. As always. It is a matter of light the blue touch-paper and retire immediately . 

Macquer supposed that metals and combustibles contain a large amount of the matter of light in a combined state, which he called phlogiston, identical in all bodies. The air, or rather its purest part, combines with metals and combustibles and increases their weight, phlogiston at the same time separating as... 

Macquer criticised this theory of phlogiston and included Buffon (without naming him) among those who have written on chemistry without troubling to read what had been written before. Macquer s own theory that phlogiston is the matter of light (see p. 85) was at first adopted by Fourcroy, who combined it with Lavoisier s theory ... 

Hermbstadt s latest view of combustion was that on burning phosphorus, for example, the combined matter of light in the phosphorus united with some of the caloric or matter of heat (Warmestoff) of the oxygen gas to form pure light , whilst the rest of the caloric escaped as sensible heat. The bases of the phosphorus and oxygen combined to form phosphoric oxide. Light is a compound of the matter of light and caloric. 

In 1796 Wiegleb held that phlogiston is the matter of light he thought the red colour of nitrous fumes proved the presence of fire (cf. Mayow, Vol. II, p. 589). Water is an element and is contained in various gases. Wiegleb proposed a new nomenclature. In some experiments on the reduction of minium by sulphur he concluded that loo parts of lead increase in weight by 20 parts on conversion into minium. In 1799 he still refused to admit the new theoiy of the composition of water. 

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