During a visit to Paris by the Swedish monarch Gustav III, a delegation of French scientists came to him and expressed deep respect in connection with the work of the outstanding chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who discovered many organic, as well as inorganic substances. Since the king had never heard of Scheel, he got off in general phrases, and then immediately issued an order to elevate the chemist to knighthood. However, the prime minister also did not know the talented scientist, and for this reason the title of count went to another Scheele - an artillery lieutenant, and the chemist remained unknown to the king, as well as to the courtiers.
In 1669, the German alchemist Brand Hennig, in search of philosopher's stone decided to try to synthesize gold from human urine. In the process of evaporation, distillation, and calcination, he received white powder, which glowed in the dark. Brand Hennig mistook it for the "primordial matter" of gold and called it "light-bearer" (pronounced "phosphorus" in Greek). When further manipulation of this matter failed to produce the precious metal, he began to sell the new substance for much more than gold itself.
Academician Semyon Volfkovich was among the first Soviet chemists who conducted experiments with phosphorus. At that time, the necessary precautions were not taken, and phosphorus gas soaked into the scientists' clothing as they worked. When Volfkovich returned home on dark streets, his clothes emitted a bluish glow, and sparks sometimes flew out from under his boots. Each time a crowd gathered behind him and mistook the scientist for an otherworldly creature, which led to the spread of rumors throughout Moscow about a certain “luminous monk.”
A very widespread legend is that the idea of the periodic table of chemical elements came to Mendeleev in a dream. One day he was asked whether this was really so, to which the scientist said: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I sat and suddenly... it’s ready.”
Dmitry Mendeleev wrote three entertaining articles for “”: “dumplings”, “compote” and “jam”. The modest scientist signed all three notes Greek letter"delta".
Dmitry Mendeleev developed a standard for Russian vodka, which made him as famous as his discovery periodic table. But also, Mendeleev was very fond of making suitcases, and some neighbors on the street knew him precisely as an excellent suitcase maker, and not an outstanding chemist...
In his youth, with his older brother Erasmus, they were famous for their chemical experiments which they committed in an outbuilding near the family home in the town of Shrewsbury.
In the 19th century French chemist Raoul Francois Mery discovered traces of iron in the blood. To prove his feelings to his beloved, he decided to give the girl a ring made of iron obtained from his own blood. The experiment ended disastrously - the chemist died from lack of blood.
Even if you listened carefully to everything in your lessons at school and in classes at the university, you don’t know everything interesting facts about chemical elements. In this article we will talk about interesting moments in history related to chemical elements, as well as about their unusual properties.
1. Hydrogen
IN earth's crust Hydrogen is contained very little - about 0.15 percent, while this same element makes up about 50% of the mass of the Sun. Another interesting thing is that in liquid form hydrogen is the densest substance, but in gaseous form, on the contrary, it is the least dense.
2. Sodium
Sodium (better known as salt) originally had a different name. Until the 18th century, people called this element sodium. For this reason, sodium salts had such a strange name as hydrochloric soda, or soda sulfate. Here in Russia, this name took root thanks to Hermann Hess.
3. Metals
Few people know, but iron can go into gaseous state, for this it needs to be heated up to 50,000 degrees Celsius.
4. Gold
One of the most precious metals that everyone knows - gold, is found in places you didn't know about. Yes, in a ton ordinary water from the ocean it is about 7 mg. In total, there are more than 10 billion tons of this metal in the ocean.
5. Platinum
At first, platinum, due to its similarity with silver, was given a similar name - “silver”. It was much cheaper than silver. Later, when they figured out where this metal could be used, everything changed dramatically. Now platinum is tens of times more expensive than silver.
6. Silver
By the way, about silver - its bactericidal properties were discovered by accident. The Macedonian army was exposed to an epidemic, but it affected only ordinary military personnel; the commanders were healthy. It turned out that everything was connected with the dishes. The bosses had it in silver, and the military had it in tin.
7. Metals in liquid state
There are several metals that are liquid at “room” temperature: mercury, cesium, francium and gallium.
8. Metals and planets
Previously, people knew only 7 metals and the same number of planets, so they divided them “in pairs”. The Moon meant silver, Mars - iron, Mercury was assigned to Mercury, and the Sun, naturally, gold. Jupiter became tin, Venus became copper, and Saturn became lead.
Sand snake. Interesting chemical experiment at home:
Still from the film “Lean on Friends”
The history of soap making began around 2800 BC. The first stone had not yet been laid in Rome, Gautama Buddha had not founded the most ancient of existing religions - Buddhism, the Mayan tribe did not exist, and our ancestors were already mixing oils of biological origin with ash and sand, thus obtaining a prototype of laundry soap.
Over the long millennia of its existence chemical industry survived its ups and downs, growing amazing stories and facts. We, the employees of Prochistotu LLC, study the market, new products and compositions of chemical products for home and body care every day, selecting the most effective and safe ones to supply them to the Russian market. But our collection is no less interesting amazing facts, which accumulate in the process of our work. After all, professionalism lies not only in the ability to masterfully understand the intricacies of one’s business, but also to love, respect and constantly make small discoveries.
Our list of 9 amazing facts:
1. The first trendsetters For household chemicals, you can call the ancient Egyptians. Yes, they were not the first to invent cosmetics, perfumes and detergents. But for the first time in history, they managed to reproduce the entire beauty industry, organizing production and economic relationships similar to those that operate in the modern market. It was in Egypt that objects household chemicals were made through the division of labor into narrow specializations (one sculpts clay containers for perfume, another makes this perfume, a third makes eye shadow, and a fourth makes wooden sticks for applying it).
2. Did you know that The creators of toothpaste are considered inhabitants of the lower Nile? Back in 5000-3000 BC. they mixed pumice, wine vinegar and even ashes from the burnt entrails of a bull. Fortunately for us and the bulls, much more effective and safe ingredients are now being used in toothpaste production.
3. The peculiarity of Japanese and Korean household chemicals is that these countries have a very humid maritime climate, which promotes the development of mold. That is why all detergents produced in Japan and Korea disinfect and prevent the development of fungi and bacteria. Even poorly dried ones lying in indoors things do not have a musty smell. Besides high prices on water are forcing manufacturers to create formulations that are easy to wash off, safe and economical for the end consumer. This is why Japanese and Korean dishwashing detergents are also suitable for washing vegetables and fruits.
4. If you think you're safe as long as household chemicals don't come into contact with your skin or get into your body by ingestion, then we have bad news. Household chemicals are most dangerous when inhaled.. Even if you rinse your shirt well, it will still be small quantities phosphates remain, the inhalation of which does not bode well for your body. Therefore, for your own safety, we recommend completely avoiding phosphate-containing washing powders and detergents.
Clean work: Japanese household products appeared on the Voronezh market
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5. White doesn't mean new! Imagine taking your favorite yellowed blouse and painting it white. Seems stupid? But you do this stupid thing every time you wash. The thing is that many washing powders contain so-called optical brighteners. In cheap powders - synthetic salts, in high-quality and expensive ones - optical brighteners of the enzymatic type (they are more environmentally friendly and safe). So, these same bleaches have the ability to absorb invisible natural ultraviolet rays (in the region of 300-400 nm) and convert them into visible rays with a longer wavelength (400-500 nm). It is due to this simple trick that materials begin to appear cleaner and whiter.
6. Before the invention of shampoo in the 19th century, people washed their hair with ash and regular soap. The starting point was the invention of Casey Herbert. He mixed soap powder with herbs and simply began selling this mixture in bags near his house. He called his invention Shaempoo (from Shaempo, which translated from Hindi translated as “massage”, “rub”). Gradually, the use of dry shampoo has become quite popular among Londoners. Herbert himself developed 8 different scents. But his problem was legal illiteracy. He didn't know that the invention needed to be patented. Soon other pharmacists, hairdressers and perfumers began making their own shampoos. And in 1903, an unknown woman brought such a bag to Berlin and told the pharmacist about the miracle drug. He quickly appreciated the potential of the invention and was able to create an entire brand. This pharmacist's name was Hans Schwarzkopf.
7. Did you know that toothpaste can successfully care for more than just the oral cavity. The extract of star anise (or star anise) included in a good expensive toothpaste is an excellent anesthetic. If you apply this toothpaste to an insect bite, the itching will stop immediately. In addition, star anise has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects. Therefore, such toothpaste, when applied to a small cut or callus blister, will disinfect and quickly dry the wound.
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8. Chlorine is one of the most effective means for removing stains from brilliant green. Don't believe me? Take any chlorine-containing detergent and apply it to a piece of cloth stained with brilliant green. The stain will disappear instantly. This trick is used by sellers of some detergents, getting rid of the brilliant green on a scarf in the blink of an eye before the gaze of an astonished public. In fact, this trick speaks about the chlorine-containing components in the composition of such powders. Of course, they cope with removing such difficult-to-remove stains, but they are not recommended for daily use (as they quickly wear out the fabric in your favorite things). In addition, components containing active chlorine are not the most beneficial substances for health.
9. Men clean less often, but more efficiently than women. Incredible but true. Our research has shown that gender stereotypes are becoming a thing of the past, and the boundaries of employment have become more blurred. Women are increasingly giving preference to a career, and men are beginning to take on more active responsibilities at home. At the same time, men show much greater interest in the compositions, and are also more demanding about the effectiveness of detergents. Our sales statistics show that women tend to be conservative in their choices, rarely experiment, and give preference to the brand. Men are the opposite. They are experimenters and rationalists, their fields of interest are technology and science. We spent interesting research. They gave us a questionnaire to fill out and asked us to rate from 1 to 10 points the priorities of the requirements for household chemicals. The results showed that men ranked efficiency and composition first and second, while women prioritized efficiency but only ranked composition eighth. At the second stage, we showed three brands: one is a well-known “children’s” washing powder in Russia, the other is a regular washing powder from a well-known trademark(without the “children’s” marking), the third sample is Japanese concentrated washing powder. After which we covered the labels on the packs and asked respondents to guess the brand, having only the ingredients on hand. In this experiment, men guessed the Japanese remedy in 42% of cases, women barely reached 27%. When distinguishing “children’s” washing powder from “adult” ones, the indicators were approximately equal. Although this is not surprising. After all, even we, professionals in our field, did not see any differences in the composition of the “children’s” and “adult” brands known in Russia.
For many, weekdays are almost monotonous: home, work, home... And often this makes people depressed, because there is a lack of some variety, events, adventures, something interesting! But in fact, millions of events and various interesting phenomena happen around us every day, to which we do not pay attention not only because we are inattentive, but because the human eye simply does not see it.
For example, various events are constantly taking place around us. chemical processes. It is an illusion that chemistry is something complex and incomprehensible. In fact, chemistry is a part of our life, without which human life would not only be much more boring, but completely impossible.
Amazing facts about chemistry:
1. Bubble- This is the thinnest matter that the human eye can see. A soap bubble bursts in 0.001 seconds. Moreover, if you inflate a bubble at -15 C o, it will freeze upon contact with the surface, and at -25 C o, it will freeze in the air and break upon impact.
2. Ocean waters contain gold. There are 7 milligrams of gold per ton of ocean water.
3. During flight, airplanes use up to 75 tons of oxygen; this amount of oxygen is produced by 30,000 hectares of forest.
4. Iron can be turned into gas at a temperature of 1539 C 0.
5. Every living organism on our planet contains protein, but different ratios. The human brain is also protein.
6. Lethal dose methyl alcohol is 30 ml, and the antidote is ethyl alcohol.
7. Metal does not smell. Everyone is familiar with the smell of untreated (not painted) metal; for example, metal money, railings, old swings, fittings, or just a piece of metal smell like that. But this smell is not emitted by the metal itself, it is the result of the metal coming into contact with organic matter, for example, with our palm or finger, which produces sweat.
8. Tomatoes are very smart plants, they know how to shout “SOS!” At the moment when an insect - for example, a caterpillar - begins to gnaw on a tomato leaf, it secretes chemical substance with a certain smell that attracts birds.
9. Charles Goodyear is a scientist who accidentally invented rubber that does not melt in the heat and does not break in the cold. He forgot to remove the mixture of sulfur and rubber from the switched on stove, so a process for making rubber was invented, which was called vulcanization.
10. About 100 thousand things happen in the human brain every minute. chemical reactions.
Chemistry constantly surrounds us. It is located not only around us, but also inside our body, and even our thought process, in essence, chemistry. So chemistry not only helps us learn a lot of interesting and surprising things, but also benefits us in every sense.
We live in a time when chemistry as a science has become omnipotent and has penetrated into all spheres. human life. Therefore, it could not help but arouse the deepest interest among ordinary people, which have nothing to do with science.We will present it in a way that everyone can understand. One of the current and useful questions, concerns methyl alcohol.
This substance is almost impossible to distinguish from ethyl alcohol, but the effects of the former are very harmful to human health and its use can be fatal.
At all small dose methanol can deprive a person of vision, and drinking alcohol from 30 ml leads to death.
Now it becomes clear why people get poisoned when they drink low-quality alcohol. And the most amazing thing is that there is an antidote and it is ethyl alcohol.
Let's start with historical information. We are used to thinking that Mendeleev dreamed about the table of chemical elements, but one day he was asked this question, to which he clearly answered: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I sat there and suddenly... it’s done.”
At what temperature do you think water freezes? At 0°C? But no. Water can turn into ice even at +20°C if it contains an admixture of methane. That is, water forms with methane gas hydrate. Water molecules are pushed apart under the pressure of methane molecules. As a result, the internal water pressure decreases and the freezing point increases.
As a rule, they are most often obtained by accident. Charles Goodyear from America, through his carelessness, created a recipe for durable rubber. It does not crack at sub-zero temperatures and does not soften in extreme heat. His mistake was that he left a heated mixture of sulfur and rubber on the stove, a process now called vulcanization.
The Lego children's construction set is made of plastic containing barium sulfate.
This salt is absolutely harmless to the body and does not dissolve in water. Moreover, it is well defined x-rays, so the part swallowed by the baby can be easily found by taking a photo.
Don't miss it! Top 5 interesting facts: a high jaguar
There are interesting facts about chemistry regarding flora. As you know, plants protect themselves from strong influences ultraviolet rays and heavy rainfall, but this is not the only one natural feature. They are able to protect themselves from animals and insects with the help of specific odors and enzymes that they secrete when they see danger. In this way, plants can even kill the animal that eats them.
It’s unlikely that everything can be covered in a short article, so we will briefly look at its most important elements.
- It is difficult to imagine that the human brain carries out 100,000 chemical reactions per second;
- US residents add to the gas pipeline chemical element with a pronounced smell of rotten meat. This is necessary in order to quickly detect a leak, since vultures flock to this smell;
- About 90% of all atoms in the Universe are occupied by Hydrogen;
- Gold is not such a rare metal as we think; there is enough of this metal in the earth’s crust to cover the entire surface of the planet;
- Technetium (Tc) is used to detect bone cancer using x-rays;
- Triiodine nitride NI3 is very dangerous explosive. Its temperature may rise even if a fly lands on it, resulting in an explosion.
- Many elements and substances of chemistry were discovered by accident, and antibiotics are no exception. Alexander Fleming accidentally left a test tube containing staphylococcus bacteria unattended. This led to the rapid proliferation of mold fungi, which began to destroy the bacteria. After this, Fleming received penicillin.
Do not ignore science, because we contain the entire periodic table; learning interesting facts about chemistry means learning something new about yourself.
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