1. Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was the son of one of the richest men in England, who had made his fortune acquiring land in Ireland, some of it from Sir Walter Raleigh. The wealth of his father allowed Boyle the leisure to become a scientist; his talent at experimentation resulted in many new insights into nature. He was a chemist as well as a physicist and approached the study of science in a manner more modern than most of his contemporaries.

2. Before development of airplanes, balloons were a common type of airship.  The French were pioneers in ballooning, beginning with the historic ascent by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783 in a hot air balloon. In the same year Charles introduced hydrogen gas that caused the balloon to rise without a burner. During the wars of the French Revolution, balloons were used as observation posts, although they were difficult to steer and were not used as transport. Gay-Lussac’s ascents in 1804 were the first scientific expeditions using balloons.  Readings of temperature, pressure, humidity, and of magnetic field were taken as well as samples of air, which were later analyzed. Gay-Lussac’s ascent broke a record for altitude—7 km above sea level—which was not surpassed for nearly 50 years.

3. Boyle discovered the relationship between the pressure and the volume of a gas in 1662, but Charles and Gay-Lussac did not state the relationship between temperature and volume or temperature and pressure until about 1800. Why? Because accurate thermometers were not available.

4. Individual gases were not discovered until late in the 18th century. Oxygen was first recognized by C.W. Scheele in Sweden, but his work was not published until after that of Joseph Priestley, an Englishman, who was forced to leave his native country in 1794 because of his political beliefs.  Priestley also described carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and ammonia.  Henry Cavendish, the eccentric grandson of a Duke, isolated hydrogen and nitrogen.

5. About 50 years ago, the scourge of polio appeared each summer, with an annual average of 21,000 cases of crippled Americans. An effective vaccine was developed in 1955 and polio virtually disappeared. Iron lungs were invented to help victims who had their diaphragms paralyzed by the disease.  Many polio victims lived for years in these artificial respiration machines, which used pressure to draw air in and out of the lungs.
 

1. Student responses on an exam:

a. Hydrogen is often found in snow and rain water.

b. Hydrogen is prepared by freezing air.

c. Hydrogen is produced by formation of sugar.

d. Two zincs plus two hydrochloric acids plus two chlorides will produce hydrogen.

e. Oxygen has a strong odor; it extinguishes a flame.

f. Oxygen can be prepared by hydrochloric acid on hydrogen chloride.

g. Test for carbon dioxide by burning a flint.

h. Test for carbon monoxide: Canary plus CO equals no canary plus CO.
 

2.

3. TWO GAS PUNS:

a. Albert the German astronomer goes out tonight to watch the stars. “It
must be cloudy,” he exclaims, “for I Xenon.”

b. Said Benny the burglar, “It’s time that I made another Radon the bank.”

 CHEM 13 NEWS, April 1980, p. 7

4. BOYLE’S LAW: TWO ANECDOTES

a. When stewardesses on commercial planes complained that their skirts fitted on the ground, but not in the air, an airline spokesman blamed it all on Sir Robert Boyle’s Law. This law says that if the quantity and temperature
of a gas remain constant, its volume will vary inversely with pressure.  The application of the law to the skirts is simple: Air pressure decreases as an airplane ascends, and thus the pressure on the gas in a stewardess’
stomach lessens, which means the volume of the gas increases. In other words, her tummy bulges. Stewardesses now wear adjustable skirts.

b. During the construction of a tunnel under a river, a party of politicians went down to celebrate the meeting of the two shafts. They drank champagne and were disappointed that it was under depth pressure—the carbon-dioxide bubbles remained in solution. When the town fathers arrived at the surface, the wine popped in their stomachs, distended their vests and all but frothed from their ears. One dignitary had to be rushed back into the depths to undergo champagne recompression.

CHEM 13 NEWS, March 1973, p. 572

5. Word Search (see Appendix for master copy)
 
 
 

Answers: 1. IDEAL 2. MANOMETER 3. GAS 4. BOYLE 5. BAROMETER 6. ABSOLUTE ZERO 7. CHARLES 8. ONE MOLE 9. AIR 10. PRESSURE
 
 

6. Cartoons!!!