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ArchivesSpirit of sulfur, or oil of sulfur (I am on to something here read on)
in reply to a message by Selwyn
Your request has made me curious myself sir so I continued to search the depths of the net after my last post. I have found more material which points more directly to Green Vitriol (Sulphur acid) as a medicament used during the period i question.
Listen to this:
"In the early 18th century there were two processes in use by which sulfuric acid was made. One was by distilling green vitriol (ferrous sulfate) and collecting the acid vapors evolved, a method which gave the acid its early name 'oil of vitriol.' The second method was by burning sulfur and condensing the acid fumes produced; the simplest procedure was to suspend over the sulfur a glass bell, the process thus known as the bell method. This was the way in which apothecaries had long prepared for the medicaments an acid known as spirit of sulfur, or oil of sulfur which had at first been supposed to differ from oil of vitriol but which by the end of the 17th century was recognized to be essentially the same."
This link will take you to the page I took it from:
http://www.as.udayton.edu/www/hstweb/ch~6.htm
Yet, I will post the rest of the acid section here too:
"The Chemical Industry during the Early Industrial Revolution
Certainly the modern chemical industry had its origins at this time. And therefore at the very time that chemistry is being radically restructured by Lavoisier and others on the continent, in Great Britain a revolution was taking place in scale and process in what we now call factories. Several chemicals, including nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and the alkalis were made in large scale using more efficient processes to satisfy an emerging environment increasingly based upon volume, lower costs, and economics of scale.
Aqua fortis, or nitric acid, was the first of the mineral acids to have come into appreciable demand, and a material important for a variety of leading trades by the middle of the 18th century. The acid was required by dyers, for example, who employed it particularly to produce scarlet red with cochineal, one of the colonial dyestuffs whose use in the 18th century was greatly growing. Hatters needed the acid for their traditional 'secret' composition with which they rendered hairs proper for felting by making them curl. The use of the acid by gold and silversmiths and by refiners was also of some importance, while it found lesser uses among furriers for degreasing and coloring skins, among brass and copper founders for cleaning their metal, and among etchers.
The work of the distillers of aqua fortis was more an artisanal than a truly industrial activity. The apparatus employed had scarcely changed in centuries. Aqua fortis itself was generally made by distilling a mixture of saltpeter and clay in stoneware or glass retorts, heated in rows on galley furnaces, a commercial output thus being achieved by multiplying laboratory scale apparatus. A distiller's output would be a few tens of thousands of pounds a year.
In the early 18th century there were two processes in use by which sulfuric acid was made. One was by distilling green vitriol (ferrous sulfate) and collecting the acid vapors evolved, a method which gave the acid its early name 'oil of vitriol.' The second method was by burning sulfur and condensing the acid fumes produced; the simplest procedure was to suspend over the sulfur a glass bell, the process thus known as the bell method. This was the way in which apothecaries had long prepared for the medicaments an acid known as spirit of sulfur, or oil of sulfur which had at first been supposed to differ from oil of vitriol but which by the end of the 17th century was recognized to be essentially the same.
It was therefore a major landmark when glass globes came to be replaced by chambers of lead, the use of lead eliminating the size limit imposed by the glass, and resulting in due course in the vast lead chamber installations of the 19th century. Leaden chambers were first introduced by John Roebuck and Samuel Garbett when they began making the acid in Birmingham in 1746.
Demand for sulfuric acid came in the first instance from dyers and cotton printers. Dyers employed it for producing on wool the shades known as Saxon blue and Saxon green, developed in Saxony in about 1740 and requiring a solution of indigo in the concentrated acid. Consumption of sulfuric acid by cotton printers grew rapidly with the remarkable development of that industry from about 1760. Its use in cotton printing found two early applications. One was for the dilute acid bath in which pieces were washed before printing to remove particles left by the bleacher. Second was in the production of the so called blue-resist prints which resulted in a patterned fabric.
Natural alkalis--the ash of vegetation--were among the most heavily used substances of the 18th century. They were used as important ingredients in the manufacture of soap, glass, and salt peter, and as chemical agents in the cleansing and dying of textiles. Two chemically distinct types of alkali were obtained, depending on whether the matter burned had grown inland or in salty coastal soils: inland vegetation gave rise to the product known as potash (the alkali was potassium carbonate), while coastal plants furnished commercial soda (sodium carbonate)."
Listen to this:
"In the early 18th century there were two processes in use by which sulfuric acid was made. One was by distilling green vitriol (ferrous sulfate) and collecting the acid vapors evolved, a method which gave the acid its early name 'oil of vitriol.' The second method was by burning sulfur and condensing the acid fumes produced; the simplest procedure was to suspend over the sulfur a glass bell, the process thus known as the bell method. This was the way in which apothecaries had long prepared for the medicaments an acid known as spirit of sulfur, or oil of sulfur which had at first been supposed to differ from oil of vitriol but which by the end of the 17th century was recognized to be essentially the same."
This link will take you to the page I took it from:
http://www.as.udayton.edu/www/hstweb/ch~6.htm
Yet, I will post the rest of the acid section here too:
"The Chemical Industry during the Early Industrial Revolution
Certainly the modern chemical industry had its origins at this time. And therefore at the very time that chemistry is being radically restructured by Lavoisier and others on the continent, in Great Britain a revolution was taking place in scale and process in what we now call factories. Several chemicals, including nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and the alkalis were made in large scale using more efficient processes to satisfy an emerging environment increasingly based upon volume, lower costs, and economics of scale.
Aqua fortis, or nitric acid, was the first of the mineral acids to have come into appreciable demand, and a material important for a variety of leading trades by the middle of the 18th century. The acid was required by dyers, for example, who employed it particularly to produce scarlet red with cochineal, one of the colonial dyestuffs whose use in the 18th century was greatly growing. Hatters needed the acid for their traditional 'secret' composition with which they rendered hairs proper for felting by making them curl. The use of the acid by gold and silversmiths and by refiners was also of some importance, while it found lesser uses among furriers for degreasing and coloring skins, among brass and copper founders for cleaning their metal, and among etchers.
The work of the distillers of aqua fortis was more an artisanal than a truly industrial activity. The apparatus employed had scarcely changed in centuries. Aqua fortis itself was generally made by distilling a mixture of saltpeter and clay in stoneware or glass retorts, heated in rows on galley furnaces, a commercial output thus being achieved by multiplying laboratory scale apparatus. A distiller's output would be a few tens of thousands of pounds a year.
In the early 18th century there were two processes in use by which sulfuric acid was made. One was by distilling green vitriol (ferrous sulfate) and collecting the acid vapors evolved, a method which gave the acid its early name 'oil of vitriol.' The second method was by burning sulfur and condensing the acid fumes produced; the simplest procedure was to suspend over the sulfur a glass bell, the process thus known as the bell method. This was the way in which apothecaries had long prepared for the medicaments an acid known as spirit of sulfur, or oil of sulfur which had at first been supposed to differ from oil of vitriol but which by the end of the 17th century was recognized to be essentially the same.
It was therefore a major landmark when glass globes came to be replaced by chambers of lead, the use of lead eliminating the size limit imposed by the glass, and resulting in due course in the vast lead chamber installations of the 19th century. Leaden chambers were first introduced by John Roebuck and Samuel Garbett when they began making the acid in Birmingham in 1746.
Demand for sulfuric acid came in the first instance from dyers and cotton printers. Dyers employed it for producing on wool the shades known as Saxon blue and Saxon green, developed in Saxony in about 1740 and requiring a solution of indigo in the concentrated acid. Consumption of sulfuric acid by cotton printers grew rapidly with the remarkable development of that industry from about 1760. Its use in cotton printing found two early applications. One was for the dilute acid bath in which pieces were washed before printing to remove particles left by the bleacher. Second was in the production of the so called blue-resist prints which resulted in a patterned fabric.
Natural alkalis--the ash of vegetation--were among the most heavily used substances of the 18th century. They were used as important ingredients in the manufacture of soap, glass, and salt peter, and as chemical agents in the cleansing and dying of textiles. Two chemically distinct types of alkali were obtained, depending on whether the matter burned had grown inland or in salty coastal soils: inland vegetation gave rise to the product known as potash (the alkali was potassium carbonate), while coastal plants furnished commercial soda (sodium carbonate)."
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