Chlorine The meaning of oxygen Pale green Offenses Commentary

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Humphry Davy elements

Chlorine

• Carl Wilhelm Scheele was the first to isolate its gas
• but he thought it was oxidized hydrochloric acid,
• which he called “dephlogisticated muriatic acid.”
• Thirty-six years later, Humphry Davy
• showed it contained no oxygen, and was, in fact,
• a new element, which he called “chlorine.”

The meaning of oxygen

• Scheele thought his “dephlogisticated muriatic acid”
• was dephlogisticated because it acted as an acid.
• Antoine Lavoisier had taught that acids had to be dephlogisticated,
• that is, that oxygen was the principle that made things acidic.

Pale green

• Sodium chlorine, common salt,
• as necessary for human life as water.
• Chlorine or chloramine as a disinfectant
• in our water supplies
• at four parts per million, ideally,
• except as a shock treatment at forty,
• in swimming pools at three, typically,
• not to exceed ten, legally,
• killing algae, bacteria, viruses,
• and creatures in aquariums.
• reacting with urine to produce volatile toxins
• damaging lungs, hearts, and central nervous systems
• although water without a disinfectant
• damages more, killing people.
• Extremely toxic to all living things,
• elemental chlorine gas was the first chemical weapon
• causing coughing and vomiting
• at thirty parts per million
• and lung damage at sixty parts per million.

Offenses

• I don’t think I like it, or the thought of it,
• in this escalating war of invisible agents
• both friends and foes offend.
• Our defenses are inadequate.
• Too much, too many, too often,
• too close, too far, too weak, too strong,
• too soon, too late, and too unfair.