Glossary

	Glossary
	of
	Archaic Chemical Terms

Part II (C-F)

Go to Part I (A-B), Part III (G-L), Part IV (M-R), or Part V (S-Z).

Cadet's fuming liquid (Cadet's liquid): heavy brown liquid first prepared by the French chemist Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt. Cadet's liquid is highly toxic, smells strongly of garlic, and spontaneously bursts into flame when exposed to air. It is mainly cacodyl oxide, ((CH₃)₂As)₂O, with other cacodyl compounds such as dicacodyl, ((CH₃)₂As)₂). Berzelius coined the name kakodyl (later changed to cacodyl) for the dimethylarsinyl radical, (CH₃)₂As, from the Greek kakodes (evil-smelling) and hyle (matter). For more on Cadet's liquid and other cacodyls compounds, see this 2001 article in Organometallics.

cadmia (cadmia fornacea or fornacum): an older name for the common zinc ore calamine (q.v.); also applied to a sublimed zinc oxide and to a cobalt ore. (The element now called cadmium is often found associated with zinc.) [Agricola]

calamine: Two ores of zinc were known by this name: zinc carbonate (ZnCO₃, also known as Smithsonite) and hydrous zinc silicate (Zn₂SiO₄^.H₂O). They were distinguished by Smithson in 1802, but the term continued to be applied to both ores. The silicate was sometimes distinguished as siliceous or electric calamine. calamine

calcareous earth: calcium oxide, CaO (lime, quicklime). [Black, Lavoisier]

caustic ...: calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)₂ (slaked lime)
mild ...: calcium carbonate, CaCO₃ (chalk, carbonate of lime, cream of lime).

calcareous gas: James Kier's name for what we call carbon dioxide, CO₂ (fixed air) [Kier]

calces: See calx.

calcination: formation of a calx, i.e., oxidation of a metal, often by roasting. [Bacon, Black; Lavoisier 1, 2, & 3; Rey]

calomel: mercury(I) chloride, Hg₂Cl₂.

caloric: a postulated elastic fluid associated with heat. [Avogadro, Davy, Dalton, Lavoisier, et al.]

calx (plural calces): a powdery solid formed by roasting a metal or mineral, most often a metal oxide. [Lavoisier 1, Rey, Stahl] Sometimes used for a particular calx, namely lime.

carbolic acid: phenol, C₆H₅OH.

carbonic acid: formerly referred to carbon dioxide, CO₂ (fixed air) [Dalton; but also Arrhenius, Maxwell, Mendeleev, Rutherford, J. J. Thomson et al.]

carbonic oxide: carbon monoxide, CO [Dalton, Gay-Lussac, Maxwell, Ramsay, T. Thomson et al.]

carburetted hydrogen: methane, CH₄ [Dalton 1 & 2, Prout]

Caro's acid: permonosulfuric acid (i.e., peroxymonosulfuric acid), H₂SO₅, first prepared by Heinrich Caro in 1898.

Cassel yellow: lead oxychloride, PbCl₂^.2PbO (mineral yellow).

cassiopeium: Auer von Welsbach's name for lutetium, Lu.

cathode rays (sometimes kathode rays in 19th-century English translations): streams of electrons issuing from the cathode of an evacuated tube. They were identified as what are now called electrons late in the 19th century. [Perrin, Rutherford, J. J. Thomson 1 & 2]

Celsius scale: temperature scale devised in the early 18^th century by a certain Elvius from Sweden (1710), a Christian of Lyons (1743), and the botanist Linnaeus (1740), apparently independently. Temperatures on this scale are denoted by °C. The normal freezing point of water is 0°C and the normal boiling point of water is 100°C. The scale was named after Anders Celsius who proposed a similar scale in 1742, but he designated the freezing point to be 100 and the boiling point to be 0. The modern Celsius scale is sometimes also called the Centigrade scale. (See Fahrenheit scale, Kelvin scale, Rankine scale, Réaumur scale.)

Centigrade scale: Celsius scale.

cerusa (or ceruse or cerussa): white lead, named for its resemblance to wax (κηρος).

chalk: calcium carbonate, CaCO₃ (carbonate of lime, cream of lime, mild calcareous earth). [Lavoisier; Priestley; T. Thomson]. Acid of chalk is carbon dioxide, CO₂ (carbonic acid, fixed air) [Lavoisier]

chamber crystals: nitrosyl sulfate, NO^.HSO₄, formed in lead chambers of sulfuric acid manufacture.

charcoal: either a charred carbonaceous material or its primary constituent, namely carbon. Lavoisier coined the term carbone (carbon) to distinguish the element from impure charred material; however, the distinction was not universally adopted right away--even in translation of Lavoisier's work. [Dalton 1 and 2]

chrome ...

... green: mixture of chromic oxide, Cr₂O₃, and cobalt oxide.
... red: basic lead chromate, PbCrO₄^.PbO.
... yellow: lead chromate, PbCrO₄ (Leipzig yellow, paris yellow).

chromic acid: chromium(VI) oxide, CrO₃, or its formal hydrate, H₂CrO₄

chymical: Sometimes the modern term alchemical is more accurate than chemical. Similarly chymist often means alchemist. [Boyle]

Cleve's acid and salts: named for the 19th-century Swedish chemist, Per Cleve.

... acid: 4-amino-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid, C₁₀H₉NO₃S
... salts: two chloride salts of triammineplatinum complex ions, [Pt(NH₃)₃Cl]Cl and [Pt(NH₃)₃Cl₃]Cl

cobalt

black ...: a native, earthy cobalt
... bloom: see red cobalt
... blue: a pigment containing cobalt(II) oxide, CoO; zinc oxide, ZnO; and chalcedony, an amorphous quartz, SiO₂
... green: a green pigment, solid solution of cobalt(II) and zinc oxides, CoO and ZnO
red ...: erythrite, a native cobalt arsenate, Co₃(AsO₄)₂^.8H₂O
... violet: cobalt(II) phosphate, Co₃(PO₄)₂^.2H₂O, a pigment in oil paints
... yellow: cobalt(III) potassium nitrite, K₃Co(NO₂)₆^.xH₂O

colcothar: iron(III) oxide, Fe₂O₃, by-product from sulfuric acid manufacture (Paris red) [Lavoisier]

columbium: older name for niobium, Nb.

congo ...

... blue: C₁₇H₁₂N₃O₇S₂Na₂, also known as diamine blue, Niagara blue, and trypan blue; a blue dye and antimalarial compound
... red: C₃₂H₂₂N₆O₆S₂Na₂, a red azo dye and acid-base indicator that changes from blue to red as the pH rises.
... yellow: an orange-yellow dye, C₂₄H₁₈O₄N₅SNa

copperas: see vitriol.

blue ... = copper sulfate, CuSO₄
green ... = a native iron(II) sulfate, FeSO₄^.7H₂O
white ... = copiapite (native Fe₄S₅O₁₈^.H₂O)
yellow ... = zinc sulfate, ZnSO₄.

corpuscle: generally (and still) a small particle; in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a competing name for the electron. [J. J. Thomson 1 & 2]

corneous metals: metal chlorides, particularly of silver, mercury, or tin. Because of resemblance to horn, chlorides of these metals are sometimes called horn silver, mercury, or tin.

corrosive sublimate of mercury: mercuric chloride, HgCl₂. [Scheele]

Coupier's blue: azodiphenyl, C₂₄H₁₈N₂, a blue dye.

creech: calcium sulfate, CaSO₄

cresol ...

... purple: m-cresolsulfonphthalein, C₂₁H₁₈O₅S, an acid-base indicator that changes from red to yellow as the pH rises through 2.
... red: o-cresolsulfonphthalein, C₂₁H₁₈O₅S, an acid-base indicator that changes from yellow to red as the pH rises through 8.

crocus: a yellow or reddish powdered calx (oxide)

... of antimony (... antimonii or ... metallorum): an impure antimony oxysulfide
... of copper (... veneris): cuprous oxide, Cu₂O
... of iron (... martis or crokefer): iron sesquioxide or iron peroxide [Scheele]
... of lead (... saturni): red lead

Crookes tube: a highly exhausted electrical discharge tube, named for William Crookes, who experimented with such tubes

crystal violet: hexamethyl-p-rosaniline hydrochloride, C₂₅H₃₀N₃Cl, an acid-base indicator that changes from green to blue as the pH passes through 1.0.

dephlogisticated marine acid: chlorine, Cl₂ (oxymuriatic acid). See marine acid. [Priestley, Scheele]

diuretic salt: potassium acetate, KC₂H₃O.

didymium: a mixture of praseodymium, Pr, and neodymium, Nd, believed to be an element until 1885. [Mendeleev, Newlands]

dram (drachm): See apothecary measures.

Dutch oil (Dutch liquid, Oil of the Dutch chemists): ethylene chloride, C₂H₄Cl₂, first prepared by the action of chlorine on ethylene (hence olefiant gas) in 1794 by four Dutch chemists Johann Rudolph Deimann, Adrien Paets van Troostwyck, Anthoni Lauwerenburgh and Nicolas Bondt. [Wurtz]

earth: a metal oxide (calx); see calcareous earth, magnesian earth, siliceous earth. [Dalton, Priestley, Scheele, T. Thomson]

elastic fluid: usually a descriptive term for gas (air) [Black, Dalton, Gay-Lussac, Lavoisier, T. Thomson et al.]; however, certain elastic fluids were postulated that correspond to no actual material (caloric, ether, phlogiston). A gas is an "elastic fluid," elastic in that it is compressible in a reversible way and fluid in that it flows.

electron

nuclear ...: in some early models of the nucleus before the discovery of the neutron, electrons were posited to be part of the nucleus
positive ...: sometimes a positron (the oppositely charged anti-particle of the electron); sometimes a positive ion (i.e., an atom from which an electron was stripped)

emanation: a radioactive gas (radon) produced in the decay of other radioactive elements. Specifically, thorium emanation (also thoron) is ²²⁰Rn (half life = 55 s) produced from the decay of thorium; radium emanation is ²²²Rn (half life = 3.8 d) produced from the decay of radium; actinium emanation (also actinon) is ²¹⁹Rn (half life = 4 s). See niton and table of isotopes. [Rutherford 1 & 2, Soddy 1 & 2]

Epsom salts: magnesium sulfate, MgSO₄^.7H₂O; see bitter salt.

ether (physics; also aether, sometimes luminiferous ether): a hypothetical elastic fluid postulated to support the transmission of light. [Clausius, Röntgen, J. J. Thomson 1 & 2]

ether (chemistry): Originally the name of a volatile compound resulting from the action of an acid on alcohol. The current meaning is an organic compound whose formula is ROR', where R and R' are alkyl or aryl groups; especially diethyl ether, C₂H₅OC₂H₅. Some ethers in the older sense include:

acetic ...: ethyl acetate, C₂H₅O₂C₂H₃
muriatic ...: ethyl chloride, C₂H₅Cl
nitric ...: ethyl nitrate, C₂H₅NO₃ (aether nitri) [Scheele].
nitrous ...: ethyl nitrite, C₂H₅NO₂ (spirit of nitre)
sulfuric ...: diethyl ether [Gay-Lussac]

Ethiops (or Aethiops) mineral: mercury(I) sulfide, Hg₂S, a black substance

ethyl: in addition to the hydrocarbon radical C₂H₅- (sometimes spelled aethyle) ...

Ethyl gas (or Ethyl gasoline or sometimes simply Ethyl): leaded gasoline, i.e., gasoline including tetraethyllead, (C₂H₅)₄Pb, as an additive
ethyl red: according to Hackh's dictionary, C₂₃H₂₃N₂, a quinoline dye and acid-base indicator that changes from colorless to red as the pH rises through 5.4; current chemical catalogs say C₁₇H₁₉N₃O₂.

Euchlorine: name given by Humphry Davy to a bright green gas he believed to be a compound of chlorine and oxygen; in fact, it seems to have been mixture of clorine dioxide and and chlorine. [H. Davy, J. Davy]

Everitt's salt: potassium ferrous ferrocyanide, K₂Fe[Fe(CN)₆], named after Thomas Everitt.

Fahrenheit scale: temperature scale devised in 1717 by D. G. Fahrenheit and denoted by °F. The normal freezing point of water is 32°F and the normal boiling point of water is 212°F. (See Celsius scale, Kelvin scale, Rankine scale, Réaumur scale.)

ferrum: Latin for iron, hence the symbol Fe

flores martiales: ferriammonium chloride, NH₄FeCl₄. See flowers and Mars.

flowers: a solid, often an oxide, obtained by sublimation. For example: flowers of arsenic, phosphorus, tin, and zinc [Lavoisier, Priestley] are the respective oxides, As₂O₃, SnO₂, ZnO (also called pompholix). Flowers of antimony is antimony oxysulfide, Sb₂O₃^.Sb₂S₃ (also called antimony red); flowers of sulphur, though, is simply sublimed sulfur.

fluor and fluor spar (or fluorspar): Fluor was originally applied to readily fusible minerals, particularly those containing fluorine, espeically fluorite (calcium fluoride, CaF₂). Fluorspar for CaF₂ dates to the late 18th century; fluorite to the 1860s.

fossil alkali: sodium carbonate (common mineral alkali, marine alkali, soda)

fulminate: a compound containing the CNO^- ion, named because such compounds are explosive (from Latin, fulminare, to strike with lightning

funiculus: an invisible membrane postulated to hold up a column of mercury in the Torricellian experiment [Linus]

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Glossary

of

Archaic Chemical Terms

Part II (C-F)