Richard Lubbock (chemist)

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Richard Lubbock (* 1759 in Norwich , † September 2, 1808 ibid) was an English chemist and doctor.

Lubbock studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practiced as a doctor in Norwich and at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital . Otherwise little is known about him.

Lubbock studied with Joseph Black in Edinburgh and was one of the first opponents of the phlogiston theory and supporter of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier in Great Britain. In his dissertation of 1784 Lubbock wrote that Black had long taught the phlogiston theory with little conviction, but had recently deviated from it. Lubbock goes on to say that his own theory partly follows Lavoisier, but deals with some points (light, warmth) that Lavoisier did not deal with.

His contribution to the history of chemistry is based solely on his dissertation in Edinburgh in 1784. In it he explains that it has long been known ( Joseph Priestley , Lavoisier) that the air contains principles that were important in combustion and for life and for them advocated the term clean air . With this substance in the air he distinguished the Principium sorbile , which causes the increase in mass during oxidation (in metals and combustible substances such as carbon, phosphorus, sulfur) and the Principium Aeri Proprium , which causes the light and heat effect of combustion (it is in this Form released) and had no mass. The uptake of Principium sorbile and the release of Principium aeri proprium were related. He explained the air used after combustion (higher proportion of nitrogen) with a proportion of Principium sorbile with a higher proportion of Principium Aeri Proprium than in pure air .

His dissertation was received by Lavoisier and others (Lavoisier uses the word principe sorbile as a synonym for oxygen in his Méthode de nomenclature chimique from 1787 and extracts from his dissertation were included in the German edition of Lavoisier's book by Christoph Girtanner , Beginnings of Antiphlogistic Chemistry 1792 ).

He also demonstrated that the gas produced during combustion (the fixed air , carbon dioxide, discovered by his teacher Joseph Black) came from the carbon and not from other reactants such as sulfur or phosphorus.

His son, the clergyman Richard Lubbock (1798–1876), wrote a natural history of Norfolk.

Fonts

  • Dissertatio physico-chemica, inauguralis, de principio sorbili, sive communi mutationum chemicarum causa, quaestionem, an phlogiston sit substantia, an qualitas, agitans: et alteram ignis theoriam complectens, Edinburgh 1784

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ According to EL Scott, article Lubbock in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Black was not yet an opponent of the phlogiston theory.
personal data
SURNAME Lubbock, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English chemist and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH 1759
PLACE OF BIRTH Norwich
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1808
Place of death Norwich