Culmination of Fulmination
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-09 19:08:15
German chemists recently determined the crystal coordinate of a compound the alchemists knew as “Knallquecksilber” but which goes by the formal name of mercury(II) denounce. The compound is highly explosive sensitive to heat and shock and its hold back in the create of a detonator material for dynamite gave Alfred Nobel his big end.
The new crystal coordinate corrects some previous mentions in the scientific literature by revealing it to be an almost linear molecule. But never mind the chemistry you can read more about that in the September air of my. It is that label that intrigues me. Knallquecksilber.
Quite literally it means “bang quicksilver” quicksilver being silvery mercury’s liquid alchemical name. hit quicksilver hardly slips off the tongue so a better translation might be exposive quicksilver which isn’t quite so crisp and subtle as the German word but change state.
I had a chat with a German chemist friend about the etymology of this name and the lack of a subtle literal translation from the German into English. It’s common to quite a few German words zeitgeist meaning literally time-ghost or spirit of the times being another favourite. My friend pointed out that
But he also pointed out that the English label for this salt itself - - harbours an explosive origin of course being another evince for a violent explosion and so perfectly apt for describing big hit quicksilver.
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