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What the name
means: The name chlorine comes from
the Greek khôros or chloros
meaning light green.
Who identified
chlorine? A Swede called Carl
Wilhelm Scheele was the first chemist to
produce chlorine gas in 1774. However,
Scheele did not realise that chlorine was a
new element. It was Humphry Davy, in 1808
who convinced the other chemists that
chlorine was, in fact, an element.
About chlorine:
Fortunately, the yellow-green,
poisonous diatomic gas, Cl2,
does not occur in nature! This gas is
extremely dangerous to health. During the
First World War, in 1915, it was developed
by Fritz Haber as one of the first chemical
weapons. At that time it was known as
bertholite and was, eventually, developed
and used by the opposing side in that
terrible conflict. In more recent years it
has been added in very small quantities to
water supplies and swimming pool water to
keep the water free from harmful organisms,
such as bacteria.
Chlorine occurs widely
on Earth as the chloride ion (Cl-)
in metal salts, such as sodium chloride.
The chlorine ion is abundant in the salt
water of the seas and oceans. It is also
essential for the human body that needs to
take in between 3g to 6g each day.
Chlorine belongs to the
group of elements called the halogens. This
word halogen is probably a mistake made in
the 18th century in translating
from the Greek word meaning “making a salt
with a metal”. |
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