Introduction to true physical chemistry

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov wrote “An Introduction to True Physical Chemistry” at the time when he was giving a course in physical chemistry to students of the Academy of Sciences in 1752. This work is a manuscript of this course ^[1] .

On May 15, 1752, the Office of the Academy of Sciences received the attitude of the conference, according to which Lomonosov “ presented in writing to the assembly what kind of chemical lectures he intend to give students and chemical experiments he intends to do ”. When exactly the course began is unknown. In May, Mikhail Vasilyevich was still going to start it, and in a report on his classes for September 1752, he writes that " he read chemical lectures for students, while showing chemical experiments ." In his monograph “The Life of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov”, the Soviet chemist and historian of chemistry, Boris Nikolayevich Menshutkin suggests that perhaps the beginning of the lectures coincided with the beginning of the new school year - July 11. According to Lomonosov, he dictated to students and interpreted the “ prolegomenes in Latin written by him for physical chemistry , which are contained on 13 pages in 150 paragraphs with many figures on six half sheets .” Lomonosov’s lectures at the Academy continued until 1753, as Mikhail Vasilyevich himself wrote, “ they have to be completed around Maya of this month in 1753 ” ^[2] .

“Introduction to true physical chemistry” is the first part of the textbook that Mikhail Vasilyevich intended to write. Before starting work on the text, the scientist prepared a course plan, according to which there should be three parts: “Introduction”, “Physical chemistry, experimental part” and “Physical chemistry, theoretical part”. According to the plan, the first part provides a summary of the general issues of the course. The experimental part was supposed to consider experiments on various types of substances ( salt bodies, mixed flammable , juices , metals , semimetals , earth and stones ). It was planned to devote the theoretical part to questions about the properties and changes of mixed bodies ( chemical compounds ), atomistics and, on this basis, to consider the theoretical questions of the chemistry of the main classes of substances ^[3] . The second part of the textbook, entitled " The Experience of Physical Chemistry, Part One, Empirical, " is the unfinished work of Lomonosov in 1754 and consists of a summary sketch of the first two chapters. The third part about theoretical physical chemistry was never written ^[4] .

The surviving text of the work contains 5 first completed chapters, the 6th chapter, ending in the 138th paragraph, and several unnumbered paragraphs of the 9th chapter ^[5] :

1. On physical chemistry and its purpose (§ 1-8)

2. On the private qualities of mixed bodies (§ 9-30)

3. On the means by which mixed bodies change (§ 31–51)

4. On chemical operations (§ 52-107)

5. On the birth of mixed bodies (§ 108-129)

6. About the chemical laboratory and the dishes (§ 130-137)

9. About the method of physical chemistry

The first chapter "On physical chemistry and its purpose" begins with the definition of physical chemistry. It was in his present work that Lomonosov first defined this term, although in his earlier works he wrote about the need to combine physics and chemistry: “ it is possible to combine physical truths with chemical ones and thereby more successfully learn the hidden nature of bodies ” ^[6] . Next, the scientist separates the concepts of physical and technical chemistry, which includes " everything related to the sciences of economics , pharmacy , metallurgy , glass making , etc. ". In the same chapter, according to Robert Boyle , he divides the qualities of bodies into “common” and “private”. Mikhail Vasilyevich considers the mass , the figure , the movement or the rest, the location of each tangible body to be general, and the color , taste , healing powers, adhesion of parts to particular ones. In paragraphs 5-7, Lomonosov defines the terms "mixed body", "constituents", "onset", "onset particles" and others. The last section of the chapter explains the task of chemistry, which consists in the study of the composition of bodies and the isolation of the principles ^{[5] [7]} .

The chapter "On the private qualities of mixed bodies" describes the particular qualities of the bodies and shows their dependence on the combination of particles that make up the corpuscles of the body. Then Lomonosov gives definitions of solid and liquid bodies , noting that, depending on the difference in the adhesion of the particles, the first can be hard or ductile , and the second - thick or thin. Other properties of bodies depend on how they are perceived by sight — transparency , translucency and opacity , brilliance and color. At the same time, all colors, as Lomonosov believed, consist of red, yellow, and blue and differ in taste and smell ^[5] .

The third chapter, “On the Means by which Mixed Bodies are Changing,” discusses the means by which you can change the composition and properties of mixed bodies, destroying adhesion between particles. The best such means, according to Mikhail Vasilyevich, is fire : “ there is not a single body in nature, of which the internal parts would be inaccessible to him and the mutual connection of which he could not destroy .” Further, Lomonosov writes that water and air , unlike fire, can “change the adhesion between particles” ^[5] .

In the fourth chapter, “Introduction ...”, the author gives a systematics of chemical operations, in which he, unlike his predecessors, describes operations not by external signs or means of influence, but by changes made with “components of bodies”, giving a list of common chemical operations, composed of loosening , compaction , dissolution , precipitation , digestion and sublimation ^{[5] [7]} .

In the fifth section - “On the Birth of Mixed Bodies”, Lomonosov describes the bodies and their various classes. Thus, it divides the bodies into organic and inorganic and classifies mixed bodies by genus: consisting of salts and salt spirits , sulfurous bodies, juices, metals, semimetals, earth and stones ^[7] .

In the unfinished sixth chapter, Lomonosov describes typical chemical laboratories and laboratory glassware , and in the ninth, he gives instructions on the method of presentation of the course in physical chemistry ^[5] .

Alexander Yerminingeldovich Arbuzov, in his book A Short Essay on the Development of Organic Chemistry in Russia (1948), writes that the course program that Lomonosov composed was “so thorough and wide that, perhaps, even withthe current state of physical chemistry, the first concentration can be read on this program " ^[8] .

Nikolai Alexandrovich Figurovsky in the article “Works of M. V. Lomonosov in Physics and Chemistry” writes that “An Introduction to True Physical Chemistry” is a “very detailed work containing a summary of the basic introductory provisions of theoretical (physical) chemistry intended for students to the study of chemistry, "and Lomonosov himself" appears here as an innovator of science, a convinced materialist and opponent of all mysticism and fantasy " ^[7] . In the book "Essay on the General History of Chemistry" (1969), Figurovsky, relying on the text "Introduction ...", notes that Lomonosov, "considered the theoretical theory of phenomena to be the main task of chemistry, and he understood theoretical chemistry as physical chemistry we understand by this name now " ^[9] .

The manuscript in Latin is stored in the Archives of the Academy of Sciences, along with an outline of the lectures of one of the students - Vasily Ivanovich Klementyev . In 1904, the translation of the Introduction into True Physical Chemistry into Russian , made by Boris Menshutkin ^[2] , was first published. In 1910, "Introduction ..." and a number of other works by Lomonosov were translated into German and published in the Ostwald Classics of Exact Sciences series under number 178 ^{[10] [11]} . In 1970, the manuscript was also translated into English and entered into the book “Mikhail Vasil'evich Lomonosov on the Corpuscular Theory” by Henry Lester ^[12] .

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