Azoote and sulfureto. Controversies and propourses around chemical nomenclature in the firs half of the Nineteenth-Century

Abstract

The main purpose of the paper is to shed new light on the circulation of the new chemical nomenclature in Spain. The analyzed sources are mainly chemistry textbooks as well as critical reviews and other related works. The study begins with a new analysis of the translation of the new chemical nomenclature by Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno. His decision to take many French expressions, without substantial changes to accommodate them to Spanish language, fuelled a controversy that lasted until the early Nineteenth Century. Moreover, we analyze two cases in which Gutiérrez Bueno departed from this general trend and created expressions such as “sulfureto” and “azoote”. The first lasted many years in chemistry textbooks until it was replaced by the word “sulfuro” during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. In contrast, the second expression was barely used. After some controversy, “ázoe” became the most employed expression for that gas in chemistry textbooks until mid-nineteenth century. Then, it was replaced by “nitrógeno”, an expression introduced in late Eighteenth-Century textbooks. Focusing on the scientific controversies, the paper offers an analysis of the practices of appropriation and accommodation of the new chemical terminology, in tune with new trends on the circulation of knowledge.