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Black, Joseph

From Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
(1728-1799) French-born Scottish chemist noted for his work on carbon dioxide and the nature of heat. Joseph Black was a close friend of the geologist James Hutton and the economist Adam Smith with whom he shared a central role in the Scottish Enlightenment. Born in France the son of an Ulsterman and his Scottish wife, he was educated in Belfast but went to Glasgow University at the age of 16. He completed his arts course in 1748 and began to study medicine not through a determination to be a physician, but through the desire to study natural philosophy under a new lecturer in chemistry - William Cullen (1710-1790) who was one of the first teachers in Britain to base his teaching on principles of chemistry rather than on materia medica. After four years in Glasgow, Black moved to Edinburgh to complete his studies, choosing the subject of causticity and the character of the alkaline magnesia alba (magnesium carbonate) - commonly used for acidic indigestion as the topic for his MD…
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Full text Article Black, Joseph

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Black, Joseph (1728-1799)

From The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Place : Netherlands Subject : biography, physics Scottish physicist and chemist whose most important contribution to physics was his work on thermodynamics, notably on latent heats and specific heats. He is classed with Henry Cavendish and Antoine Lavoisier as one of the pioneers of modern…
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Full text Article Black, Joseph

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1728-99 Scottish chemist Born in Bordeaux, France, the son of a wine merchant, he was educated at Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In his MD thesis of 1754 he showed that the causticity of lime and the alkalis is due to the absence of the "fixed air" (carbon dioxide) present in limestone and the…
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Joseph Black.
The British chemist and physicist Joseph Black is best known for the rediscovery of “fixed air” (carbon dioxide), the concept of latent heat, and the discovery of the bicarbonates (such as bicarbonate of soda). Born April 16, 1728, Black was the son of expatriate Ulster merchant John Black and his…
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Full text Article 16 April 1728

From The Hutchinson Chronology of World History Full text Article 1728
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Full text Article Top 101 Scientists

From People You Should Know
Top 101 Scientists: Introduction LUIS W. ALVAREZ (b. 1911–d. 1988) ARCHIMEDES (b. 287–d. 212 BCE) ARISTOTLE (b. 384–d. 322 BCE) AVICENNA (b. 980–d. 1037) DAVID BALTIMORE (b. 1938–) DANIEL BERNOULLI (b. 1700–d. 1782) …
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Full text Article Sewall, Samuel

From Encyclopedia of American Literature Full text Article Volume 1
(b. 1652–d. 1730) British-born American diarist January 6, 1696, … Three courts sit tomorrow…. I had hoped that seeing God pardoned all Israel's iniquities, He would pardon mine, as being part of Israel. —The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (1878–1882) Judge Samuel Sewall was born at Bishop Stoke, …
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Full text Article Physics

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Introduction Physics is a branch of science in which the theoretical and the practical are firmly intertwined. It has been so since ancient times, as physicists have striven to interpret observation or experiment in order to arrive at the fundamental laws that govern the behaviour of the universe. …
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During the period 1750–1900, a large increase in literacy and reduced costs in printing and publishing led to large numbers of books being published. This in turn resulted in the establishment of public and private libraries around the world, which led to even more people having access to these…
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