Dear Sir,
Yours sincerely,
J. PRIESTLEY.
Dear Sir,
I take the liberty to send you _a second defence of my pamphlet
about Socrates_, on the 16th page of which you will find that I
have undertaken the task you were pleased to recommend to me. On
giving more attention to it, I found, as the fox did with respect
to the lion, that my apprehensions entirely vanished. Indeed, I
have already accomplished a considerable part of the work, and in
about a year from this time I hope to finish the whole, provided
my health, which is very precarious, be continued in the state in
which it now is. I directed a copy of the _tract on phlogiston_
to be sent to you from Philadelphia, and I shall order another,
which, together with the inclosed papers, I shall be much obliged
to you if you will convey to. Mr. Livingston. Please also to cast
an eye over them yourself; and if you can with propriety promote
my interest by any representation of yours, I am confident you
will do it.
When you wrote to me at the commencement of your administration,
you said "the only dark speck in our horizon is in Louisiana." By
your excellent conduct it is now the brightest we have to look to.
Mr. Vaughan having applied to me for a copy of my Harmony of the
Evangelists, which was not to be had in Philadelphia, and
intimated that it was for you, my son, whose copy is more perfect
than mine, begs the honour of your acceptance of it, as a mark of
his high esteem, in which he has the hearty concurrence of
Dear Sir,
Yours sincerely,
J. PRIESTLEY.
Northumberland Dec. 12, 1803.
His European correspondents were informed that he was much engaged with
religious matters. While his theological views were not received very
graciously yet he found
some young men of a serious and inquisitive turn, who read my
works, and are confirmed Unitarians.
In one of his communications to Lindsey, written in April 1800, he
expresses himself in the following most interesting way relative to his
scientific engagements. American men of science will welcome it: This is
the message:
I send along with this an account of a course of experiments of as
much importance as almost any that I have ever made. Please to
shew it to Mr. Kirwan, and give it either to Mr. Nicholson for his
journal, or to Mr. Phillips for his magazine, as you please. I was
never more busy or more successful in this way, when I was in
England; and I am very thankful to Providence for the means and
the leisure for these pursuits, which next to theological studies,
interest me the most. Indeed, there is a natural alliance between
them, as there must be between the word and the works of God.
He was now at work apparently in his own little laboratory adjacent to
his dwelling place. For more than a century this structure has remained
practically as it was in the days of Priestley. In it he did remarkable
things, in his judgment; thus refuting the general idea that after his
arrival in America nothing of merit in the scientific direction was
accomplished by him. The satisfactory results, mentioned to Lindsey,
were embodied in a series of "Six Chemical Essays" which eventually
found their way into the Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society. It is a miscellany of observations. In it are recorded the
results found on passing the "vapour of spirit of nitre" over iron
turnings, over copper, over perfect charcoal, charcoal of bones, melted
lead, tin and bismuth; and there appears a note to the effect that in
Papin's digester "a solution of caustic alkali, aided by heat, made a
_liquor silicum_ with pounded flint glass." There is also given a
description of a pyrophorus obtained from iron and sulphur. More
interesting, however, was the account of the change of place in
different kinds of air, "through several interposing substances," in
which Priestley recognized distinctly for the first time, the phenomena
of gaseous diffusion. There are also references to the absorption of air
by water, and of course, as one would expect from the Doctor, for it
never failed, there is once more emphasized "certain facts pertaining to
phlogiston." His friends were quite prepared for such statements. They
thought of Joseph Priestley and involuntarily there arose the idea of
phlogiston.
The little workshop or laboratory, in Northumberland, where these facts
were gathered, will soon be removed to the Campus of Pennsylvania State
College. It will be preserved with care and in it, it is hoped, will be
gradually assembled everything to be found relating to the noble soul
who once disclosed Nature's secrets in this simple primitive structure,
which American chemists should ever cherish, and hold as a Mecca for all
who would look back to the beginnings of chemical research in our
beloved country.
How appropriate it would be could there be deposited in the little
laboratory, the apparatus owned and used by Priestley, which at present
constitutes and for many years past has formed an attractive collection
in Dickinson College, (Pa.) There would be the burning lens, the
reflecting telescope, the refracting telescope (probably one of the
first achromatic telescopes made), the air-gun, the orrery, and flasks
with heavy ground necks, and heavy curved tubes with ground
stoppers--all brought (to Dickinson) through the instrumentality of
Thomas Cooper, "the greatest man in America in the powers of his mind
and acquired information and that without a single exception" according
to Thomas Jefferson.
And how the Library would add to the glory of the place, but, alas! it
has been scattered far and wide, for in 1816, Thomas Dobson advertised
the same for sale in a neatly printed pamphlet of 96 pages. In it were
many scarce and valuable books. The appended prices ranged quite widely,
reaching in one case the goodly sum of two hundred dollars!
And as future chemists visit this unique reminder of Dr. Priestley it
should be remembered that on the piazza of the dwelling house there
assembled August 1, 1874, a group of men who planned then and there for
the organization of the present American Chemical Society.
The "Essays," previously mentioned, will be found intensely interesting
but they are somewhat difficult to read because of their strange
nomenclature. Here is Priestley's account of the method pursued by him
to get nitrogen:
Pure phlogisticated air (nitrogen) may be procured in the easiest
and surest manner by the use of iron only--To do this I fill
phials with turnings of malleable iron, and having filled them
with water, pour it out, to admit the air of the atmosphere, and
in six or seven hours it will be diminished ... what remains of
the air in the phials will be the purest phlogisticated air
(nitrogen).
Among his contributions to the scientific periodicals of the times there
was one relating to the sense of hearing. It is a curious story. One may
properly ask whether the singular facts in it were not due to defects in
Priestley's own organs of hearing. The paper did not arouse comment. It
was so out of the ordinary experimental work which he was carrying
forward with such genuine pleasure and intense vigour.
Strong appeals were steadily coming from English friends that he return.
While commenting on the pleasure he should have in seeing them he firmly
declared that the step would not be wise. In short, despite all
arguments he had determined to
remain where I am for life.