Profieedingrs of Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Socsety, 3.— 1919-1920 



13th January, 1920. 



Professor Gregg Wilson, President of the Society, in the Chair. 



"THE GREAT CHEMIST, JOSEPH BLACK, HIS BELFAST 

 FRIENDS AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS." 



By Henry Riddell, M.E., M.LMech.E., Hon. Treasurer 

 of the Society. 



{Abstract.) 



I make no apology for devoting the time available to-night 

 to giving some account of the life and work, as well as of the 

 family and friends, of one of the many remarkable men whom 

 Belfast has given to the world for the development of scientific 

 thought, a man held worthy to be mentioned along with Newton, 

 and a tit member of that long list of great Irishmen, holding 

 such names as Boyle and Kelvin and Stokes. Sir James Dewar 

 has said that " the great Joseph Black was the first founder of 

 modern chemistry ; he was the iirst man to apply the balance ; 

 he was the first man to reveal and explain those interactions of 

 heat and cold which were a mystery until his time." 



It is true he was born at Bordeaux, where his father had 

 gone into trade as a factor and wine merchant, much respected 

 by the community and on terms of intimate friendship with the 

 great Montesquieu. But his Ulster connection is incontestable, 

 and will be dealt with later. 



I am going to adopt an eccentric arrangement of my subject 

 to-night, and bring first before you the great work done by Black 

 as a chemist and physicist, partly by way of justifying my interest 

 in himself, his family and friends. I shall try to interest you also 

 in these friends and relations as I see them, and to speak some- 

 thing of the old town of Belfast as it existed one to two hundred 



