Societies and Academies

Abstract

MANCHESTER. Literary and Philosophical Society, July 22.—Dr. H. Wilde: Some new multiple relations of the atomic weights of elementary substances, and the classification and transformations of neon and helium. In several of the author's papers on the origin of elementary substances, published by the society (1878–1906), special attention was directed to the seventh series of his classification, on account of the magnitude jnd importance of its primary members in the economy of nature, viz. nitrogen, silicon, iron, and gold. Silicon in combination with oxygen constitutes more than half the weight of the earth's crust, and is the principal constituent of glass for all the purposes of civilised life. The policy of several writers in doubling the atomic weights of four of the gaseous members of this series, viz. neon, argon, krypton, and xenon, induced the author to review the multiple relations of the seventh series with the important result (i) that six triads are formed out of the eight principal members of the series, in which the sum of the atomic weights of the extreme members is double the atomic weight of the means, and are all multiples of seven. Triads of atomic weights have been fully recognised by Dumas, Faraday, and other philosophical chemists, as indubitable evidence of community of origin, of transmutation, and important factors in the classification of elementary substances. Radium (as was indicated in Dr. Wilde's tables of elements some years previous to its discovery) is one of the synthetic transformations of helium, and is the next higher member of the series to barium, as was since confirmed by Mme. Curie. Helium is also shown in the author's table of 1878 as the analytic transformation ultimate of radium and other members of the second series of elements. The positions of helium and neon, as the transformation ultimates of the second and seventh series respectively, are further interesting in connection with the recent announcements that these elements have been found in glass vessels and tubes in which they had no previous existence. Assuming the reality of these observations, the phenomena ntot only admit of explication from Dr. Wilde's classifications, but also account for the discordant results obtained by the experimenters engaged in the research. One of the investigators could only find neon, while others, working independently, found helium alone, and in other cases a mixture of both gases. These results were of sufficient interest to induce the author to ascertain the composition of various glasses used in the arts. The principal and most important constituent of the glasses tabulated by Dr. Wilde is silicon, the transformation ultimate of which is neon. The next important constituents of the glasses are barium, calcium, and lead, all members of the second series of elements, the transformation ultimate of which is helium. The alkali methods, sodium and potassium, are constituents of nearly all glasses, and their transformation ultimates (with others of the first scries) will be hydrogen and neon, but without helium. All the silicates of the first and second, and some of other series, are easily vitrified in small quantities in laboratory crucibles. Their spectra can then be examined during electrification in tubes (under suitable conditions of temperature and pressure) for the discovery of new elements and the identification of those already known.