Joseph Black

Scottish scientist Joseph Black studied medicine at the University of Glasgow where Dr William Cullen gave chemistry lectures. Black worked as Cullen’s laboratory assistant on many research projects, which ignited his own interest in chemistry. Black’s work led to the discoveries of magnesium, bicarbonates, and a gas he called fixed air, which turned out to be CARBON DIOXIDE.

Black’s body of work for his PhD in medicine

The heat is on

In the late 1700s, Black carried out an IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT. He filled one container with solid water (ice) and another one with liquid water (with a drop of alcohol to stop it from freezing). At this point, the temperature of the containers was exactly the same. After leaving them to warm up, he discovered that the temperature of the liquid water and alcohol rose, but the temperature of the ice container stayed the same, even though the ice was melting. He realized the heat that had increased the temperature of the liquid mixture had instead been used up just melting the ice in the frozen container. This experiment showed the difference between heat and temperature. Liquid water mixed with alcohol got warmer.

The British CHEMIST who turned up the heat with a series of discoveries

Even as the ice melted, the temperature stayed the same.

Black’s experiments led to groundbreaking theories about stored heat, called latent heat, and made it clear that heat was different from temperature. the world How he changed…