# Obscure early chemistry question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2026, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831 "2026-01-19T23:47:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/1 "2026-01-19T23:47:33Z")
An early practical chemist named Johann Rudolph Glauber is credited as among the first chemists to produce hydrochloric acid in its pure form, and pioneering the method most commonly used thereafter. The literature says that he produced hydrogen chloride gas which he dissolved in water to get the acid; aka _acidum salis_, aka muriatic acid. Dissolved in water _how_? That is, what practical setup did he use to get the gas mixed with the water? At the date he worked (17th century), I presume he was limited to glassware. No rubber hoses, no acid-resistant pumps, no pressure tanks. I can’t picture how he did it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/2 "2026-01-19T23:50:58Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > No rubber hoses… Any reason he could not use a glass tube to pump the gas into the liquid? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/3 "2026-01-19T23:52:49Z")
AIUI, he simply bubbled the hydrogen chloride gas into water. I assume he had the necessary glass tubing to do that even back then. Why would it be more complicated than that? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/4 "2026-01-20T01:25:00Z")
Presumably he started with a vessel in which reactants in the bottom were forming hydrogen chloride escaping at the top. How do you then get that gas _down_ into a liquid so it can bubble up? I can’t see any way of doing it without pumping and the pumps available would have been pretty limited. Plus as I asked how does anything other than glassware at that time handle corrosive gas? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/5 "2026-01-20T01:49:11Z")
Using the device in the upper left corner of this illustration. Water in one vessel, the gas mixture in the other. [![](https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1325628203/vector/glassware-sketches-collection.jpg?s=2048x2048&w=is&k=20&c=s1aml_zsKRRgV8DZV5Ra7F06FGN89tirFOw9YdIfmP0=) ](https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1325628203/vector/glassware-sketches-collection.jpg?s=2048x2048&w=is&k=20&c=s1aml_zsKRRgV8DZV5Ra7F06FGN89tirFOw9YdIfmP0=) ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/6 "2026-01-20T01:49:26Z")
HCl is produced in a sealed flask with a tube out the top. The tube has a U-bend and dips down into a flask of water. The generation of gas will create positive pressure. And if it doesn’t create enough pressure, his lungs could be a pump - blow into another tube connected to the flask. As long as you keep blowing, you probably won’t fry your lungs (17 century chemists weren’t the safest bunch). You don’t really even have to bubble the gas in, you’ll get dissolution at the water surface interface. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/7 "2026-01-20T02:00:41Z")
Would the HCl react promptly enough with the water that elaborate mechanical mixing wouldn’t be needed, and an excess of gas wouldn’t build up? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/8 "2026-01-20T02:18:04Z")
I suppose it’s a function of time, pressure, and temperature. But I don’t know the reaction rates so I can’t hazard a guess at the specifics. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/9 "2026-01-20T02:38:14Z")
Hydrogen Chloride is ridiculously soluble in water. It is a favourite demonstration creating a fountain of water dissolving in water. The water is so hungry for the gas it will haul itself up a glass tube to get to it. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/10 "2026-01-20T02:51:48Z")
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGjd7xxTuZw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGjd7xxTuZw) This setup has rubber tubes, but there is no reason it could not be accomplished with custom glass tubes. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/11 "2026-01-20T14:07:15Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > You don’t really even have to bubble the gas in, you’ll get dissolution at the water surface interface. And if you want to speed it up, shake the container. Hydrochloric acid is not a particularly difficult substance to work with. Glass, copper, and wax will all handle it just fine, and even leather will be OK for incidental exposure. You don’t need modern synthetic materials. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/12 "2026-01-20T14:58:53Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > No rubber hoses, Plenty of intestines and bladders around, though. ---
**Author:** ![BertNobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@BertNobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BertNobbins)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/13 "2026-01-20T18:38:38Z")
Hydrogen chloride is VERY soluble in water, so if you just dip a tube in water and bubble in the gas, the water will climb up the tube and into the reaction vessel. The standard solution is to use an inverted funnel dipping into the water; as the water level rises the area for gas absorption reduces, and this slows things down and makes them controllable. Google: hydrogen chloride funnel and you will see lots of examples. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/14 "2026-01-21T02:10:27Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Any reason he could not use a glass tube to pump the gas into the liquid? I recall reading once that a well-equipped laboratory of that time would have a supply of pre-made glass tubes, including 90º & 45º elbows, couplings, Tees, etc. that were designed to fit together to set up whatever was needed. (Rather like the selection of copper pipe fittings available today at any large hardware store.) Might leak some, but clay or wax around the joints would probably take care of that (given that duct tape was not available!) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/15 "2026-01-22T02:07:18Z")
Decades ago, I visited the chemistry department of the local university as a field trip from high school. As part of the trip we met the department glassblower, whose full-time job was building the glass structures needed by the scientists. I think he made a glass flower for one student. I don’t think chemistry departments still need someone for this job but I think it was once standard. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/16 "2026-01-22T04:55:31Z")
When I did Chem 1 at uni, we did basic glass tube bending as part of a prac. Not hard to do, either. Pretty sure the Chem department still has a glassblower, they definitely still did in 2019 because he was cited in an [artwork](https://ibali.uct.ac.za/s/LBNNIN001-medicinechest/item/18837). ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/17 "2026-01-22T06:02:34Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Plenty of intestines and bladders around, though. Be respectful. They are called lab assistants, and they are more than just a mobile parts banks for experiments. Apparently. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-early-chemistry-question/1026831/18 "2026-01-22T15:41:46Z")
Well, the good ones are. The less-good ones are probably only useful for parts. 🤪