Editing Hydrogen cyanide (section)

==History of discovery and naming==
Hydrogen cyanide was first isolated in 1752 by French chemist [[Pierre Macquer]] who converted [[Prussian blue]] to an [[iron oxide]] plus a volatile component and found that these could be used to reconstitute it.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Macquer PJ | author-link1 = Pierre Macquer | date = 1756 | url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k35505/f242 | title = Éxamen chymique de bleu de Prusse | trans-title = Chemical examination of Prussian blue | language= French | journal = Mémoires de l'Académie royale des Sciences | pages = 60–77 }}</ref> The new component was what is now known as hydrogen cyanide. It was subsequently prepared from Prussian blue by the Swedish chemist [[Carl Wilhelm Scheele]] in 1782,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Scheele CW | date = 1782 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mHVJAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA264 | title = Försök, beträffande det färgande ämnet uti Berlinerblå | trans-title = Experiment concerning the coloring substance in Berlin blue | language = Swedish | journal = Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Royal Swedish Academy of Science's Proceedings | volume = 3 | pages = 264–275 }}
<br /> Reprinted in Latin as: {{cite book | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BLo5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA148 | chapter = De materia tingente caerulei berolinensis | trans-title = The dark matter tingente caerulei berolinensis | language = Latin | veditors = Scheele CW, Hebenstreit EB | translator = Schäfer GH | title = Opuscula Chemica et Physica | location = (Leipzig ("Lipsiae") (Germany) | publisher = Johann Godfried Müller | date = 1789 | volume = 2 | pages = 148–174 }}</ref> and was eventually given the German name ''Blausäure'' (''lit''. "Blue acid") because of its acidic nature in water and its derivation from Prussian blue. In English, it became known popularly as ''prussic acid.''

In 1787, the French chemist [[Claude Louis Berthollet]] showed that prussic acid did not contain oxygen,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Berthollet CL | date = 1789 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fC5EAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA148 | title = Mémoire sur l'acide prussique | trans-title = Memoir on prussic acid | language = French | journal = Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences | pages = 148–161 }}
<br />Reprinted in: {{cite journal| vauthors = Berthollet CL |year=1789|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k110315k/f40.image.langEN |title=Extrait d'un mémoire sur l'acide prussique|trans-title=Extract of a memoir on prussic acid|journal=Annales de Chimie|volume=1|pages=30–39}}</ref> an important contribution to acid theory, which had hitherto postulated that acids must contain oxygen<ref>{{cite news | vauthors = Newbold BT | title = Claude Louis Berthollet: A Great Chemist in the French Tradition | date = 1999-11-01 | newspaper = Canadian Chemical News | url = http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/canada/370855-1.html | access-date = 2010-03-31 | archive-date = 2008-04-20 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080420175823/http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/canada/370855-1.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> (hence the name of [[oxygen]] itself, which is derived from Greek elements that mean "acid-former" and are likewise [[calque]]d into German as ''Sauerstoff'').

In 1811, [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]] prepared pure, liquified hydrogen cyanide,<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Gay-Lussac JL |year=1811 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJs5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA128 |title=Note sur l'acide prussique|trans-title=Note on prussic acid|journal=Annales de Chimie|volume=44|pages=128–133}}</ref> and in 1815 he deduced Prussic acid's chemical formula.<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Gay-Lussac JL |year=1815|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m9s3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA136|title=Recherche sur l'acide prussique|trans-title=Research on prussic acid|journal=Annales de Chimie|volume=95|pages=136–231}}</ref>

===Etymology===
The word ''cyanide'' for the radical in hydrogen cyanide was derived from its French equivalent, ''cyanure'', which Gay-Lussac constructed from the Ancient Greek word ''κύανος'' for dark blue enamel or [[lapis lazuli]], again owing to the chemical’s derivation from Prussian blue. Incidentally, the Greek word is also the root of the English color name ''[[cyan]]''.