Spiral symbol

[wjgo_10009@btinternet.com via Unicode]

I seem to remember from reading a book many years ago, maybe around 
fifty years ago, something about one of the early chemists (Lavoisier?) 
having used two symbols, each a spiral, mirror images of each other, for 
two different things, maybe oxidation and reduction, in his manuscript 
but he had had to abandon the idea because when he wanted his text 
printed the printer did not have any metal sorts of a spiral and so he 
had to use some other format.

Does that ring a bell with anyone please?

I remember that where I read it that there were two spiral motifs 
displayed in the text.

At the time I was already into Private Press Printing using letterpress 
on a handpress using metal type and producing designs using single type 
border sorts, so that is perhaps why that has remained in my memory

William Overington
Tuesday 19 February 2019