Oil of vitriol

In the days of alchemy and the phlogiston theory, no system of nomenclature that would be considered logical ia the 1990s was possible. Names were not based on composition, but on historical association, eg, Glauber s salt for sodium sulfate decahydrate and Epsom salt for magnesium sulfate physical characteristics, eg, spirit of wiae for ethanol, oil of vitriol for sulfuric acid, butter of antimony for antimony trichloride, Hver of sulfur for potassium sulfide, and cream of tartar for potassium hydrogen tartrate or physiological behavior, eg, caustic soda for sodium hydroxide. Some of these common or trivial names persist, especially ia the nonchemical Hterature. Such names were a necessity at the time they were iatroduced because the concept of molecular stmcture had not been developed, and even elemental composition was incomplete or iadeterminate for many substances. 

Chemical Designations - Synonyms Battery acid Chamber acid Fertilizer acid Oil of vitriol Chemical Formula H2SO4. 

Also known as oil of vitriol, battery acid, oleum ... 

Sulfuric acid (H2S04) wins the prize for being the number one chemical produced worldwide. This acid is a colorless, odorless, thick liquid. The concentrated form of the acid is also called oleum, the Latin word for oil. In fact, it is so thick that it was once called oil of vitriol, a nickname given to the concentrated chemical because of its corrosiveness. 

Ethylene, the oil-forming gas , was prepared already in 1795 from spirits of wine and oil of vitriol by the five Dutch chemists, Deiman, Troostwyk, Bondt, Louwerenburgh, and Crells. 

By the care of my zealous assistant, Mr. W.C. Roberts, the hydrogen employed in these experiments was purified to the highest degree by passing it in succession through alcohol, water, caustic potash, and tubes of 0.7 meter each, filled with broken glass impregnated with nitrate of lead, sulphate of silver, and oil of vitriol. The gas was inodorous, and burned with a barely visible flame. ... 

AN ALCHEMIST WITH A RETORT AN ALCHEMIST PREPARING OIL OF VITRIOL ALCHEMICAL APPARATUS FOR RECTIFYING SPIRITS... 

The process of making oil of vitriol, by burning sulphur under a hood fitted with a side tube for the outflow of the oil of vitriol, is represented in Fig. XIII. p. 92. 

There seems no doubt that Paracelsus discovered many facts which became of great importance in chemistry he prepared the inflammable gas we now call hydrogen, by the reaction between iron filings and oil of vitriol he distinguished metals from substances which had been classed with metals but lacked the essential metalline character of ductility he made medicinal preparations of mercury, lead and iron, and introduced many new and powerful drugs, notably laudanum. Paracelsus insisted that medicine is a branch of chemistry, and that the restoration of the body of a patient to a condition of chemical equilibrium is the restoration to health. 

The first industrial preparation of sulfuric add from green vitriol (ferrous sulfate), according to Hermann Kopp, was by Johann Christian Bernhardt in 1755 (9,10). A fuming sulfuric acid known as Nordhausen oil of vitriol was manufactured at Nordhausen, Thuringia, from partially dehydrated green vitriol (11). 

Hermann Kopp found the earliest mention of the British process in Robert Dossie s Elaborately laid open m 1758. Dossie spoke only of glass receptacles for the acid (9). In his Institutes of Experimental Chemistry in the following year, he stated that this process had greatly lowered the price of oil of vitriol and had made possible the use of this acid in the preparation of aqua foitis (nitric acid) from saltpeter (7). 

In 1771 G. W. Scheele investigated a green variety of fluorspar from Garpenberg and a white one from Gislof in Scania. He found that the green specimen contained a trace of iron but that the white one did not. When he heated the pulverized mineral with oil of vitriol [sulfuric acid], he noticed that the inner surface of the glass retort became corroded,... 

Oil biomolecules consisting of glycerols and fatty acids (triglycerides) that are liquid at room temperature Oil of Vitriol concentrated sulfuric acid Optical Isomer isomers that differ in their ability to rotate light in opposite directions Organic Chemistry chemistry of carbon-based compounds... 

Oil of vitriol was prepared by heating a natural vitriol, most typically green (iron) vitriol. This yielded sulfur trioxide which combined with the moisture of the air to give a fairly concentrated sulfuric acid. The name, oil of vitriol, was derived from its source, and from its viscous nature. Acid (or spirit) of sulfur was made by the combustion of common sulfur, the sulfur dioxide produced reacted with the moisture and the oxygen of the atmosphere to give a much more dilute solution of the same acid, mixed with some unoxidized sulfur dioxide. 

Hombergs concern to establish the identity of acid of sulphur and oil of vitriol (see above) was not unique. Others of the chemical community recognized the importance of establishing the identity of chemical composition. This pattern is most visible among the neutral salts. Louis Lemery showed the identity of the artificial iron vitriol and the natural green variety. In his paper Sur le fer sur Taimant, he expressed his purpose explicitly ... 

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