an experiment that has mesmerized young chemists for well over a century #shorts
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this experiment was famously performed by the young Ira Remsen in the 1860s. This is his account:
While reading a textbook of chemistry I came upon the statement, "nitric acid acts upon copper."
I was getting tired of reading such absurd stuff and I was determined to see what this meant.
Copper was more or less familiar to me, for copper cents were then in use. I had seen a bottle
marked nitric acid on a table in the doctor's office where I was then "doing time." I did not know
its peculiarities, but the spirit of adventure was upon me. Having nitric acid and copper, I had
only to learn what the words "act upon" meant. The statement "nitric acid acts upon copper"
would be something more than mere words. All was still. In the interest of knowledge I was even
willing to sacrifice one of the few copper cents then in my possession. I put one of them on the
table, opened the bottle marked nitric acid, poured some of the liquid on the copper and prepared
to make an observation. But what was this wonderful thing which I beheld? The cent was already
changed and it was no small change either. A green-blue liquid foamed and fumed over the cent
and over the table. The air in the neighborhood of the performance became colored dark red. A
great colored cloud arose. This was disagreeable and suffocating. How should I stop this? I tried
to get rid of the objectionable mess by picking it up and throwing it out of the window. I learned
another fact. Nitric acid not only acts upon copper, but it acts upon fingers. The pain led to
another unpremeditated experiment. I drew my fingers across my trousers and another fact was
discovered. Nitric acid acts upon trousers. Taking everything into consideration, that was the
most impressive experiment and relatively probably the most costly experiment I have ever
performed. . . . It was a revelation to me. It resulted in a desire on my part to learn more about
that remarkable kind of action. Plainly, the only way to learn about it was to see its results, to
experiment, to work in a laboratory.
