Precursors of Chemistry (-1800)

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Portrait of Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife, by Jacques-Louis David

Template:History of science The history of chemistry is long and convoluted. It begins with the discovery of fire; then metallurgy which allowed purification of metals and the making of alloys, followed by attempts to explain the nature of matter and its transformations through the protoscience of alchemy. Chemistry begins to emerge when the distinction is made between chemistry and alchemy by Robert Boyle in his work The Sceptical Chymist (1661). Chemistry then becomes a full-fledged science when Antoine Lavoisier develops his laws of Conservation of mass, which demands careful measurements and quantitative observations of chemical phenomena. So, while both alchemy and chemistry are concerned with the nature of matter and its transformations, it is only the chemists who apply the scientific method.The history of chemistry is intertwined with the history of thermodynamics, especially through the work of Willard Gibbs.

[edit] The discovery of fire and atomism

The roots of chemistry can be traced to the phenomenon of burning.^{[Citation needed]} Fire was a mystical force that was said to transform one substance into another, and was thus an object of wonder and superstition. Fire affected many aspects of early societies, such as their diet, because it allowed them to cook food, and make pottery, specialised tools and utensils.

Atomism can be traced back to ancient Greece and ancient India.^{[Citation needed]} Greek atomism dates back to 440 BCE, as what might be indicated by the book De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things)^[1] written by the Roman Lucretius^[2] in 50 BCE. In the book was found ideas traced back to Democritus and Leucippus, who declared that atoms were the most indivisible part of matter. This coincided with a similar declaration by Indian philosopher Kanada in his Vaisheshika sutras around the same time period.^[3] Kashyapa may have arrived at his sutras by meditation. By similar means, he coined a form of Newton's Third Law (action/reaction), and discussed the existence of gases. What Kanada declared by sutra, Democritus declared by philosophical musing. Both suffered from a lack of empirical data. Without scientific proof, the existence of atoms was easy to deny. Aristotle opposed the existence of atoms in 330 BC; and the atomism of the Vaisheshika school was also opposed for a long time.^{[Citation needed]}

In Europe, the Church raised Aristotle's writings almost to the level of scripture, associating atomism as some form of heresy. Aristotle's writings were preserved in Arabic in the Muslim world, and were later translated to Latin by St. Thomas Aquinas and alchemist Roger Bacon in the 13th century.

[edit] The rise of metallurgy

Main article: History of ferrous metallurgy

It was fire that led to the discovery of glass and the purification of metals which in turn gave way to the rise of metallurgy.^{[Citation needed]} During the early stages of metallurgy, methods of purification of metals were sought, and gold, known in ancient Egypt as early as 2600 BCE, became a precious metal. The discovery of alloys heralded the Bronze Age. After the Bronze Age, the history of metallurgy was marked by which army had better weaponry. Countries in Eurasia had their heydays when they made the superior alloys, which, in turn, made better armour and better weapons. This often determined the outcomes of battles.^{[Citation needed]}

[edit] Indian metallurgy and alchemy

Main article: History of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent

Significant progress in metallurgy and alchemy was made in ancient India. Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization I: Our Oriental Heritage:

[edit] The philosopher's stone and the rise of alchemy

Main article: Alchemy

Many people were interested in finding a method that could convert cheaper metals into gold. The material that would help them do this was rumored to exist in what was called the philosopher's stone. This led to the protoscience called alchemy. Alchemy was practiced by many cultures throughout history and often contained a mixture of philosophy, mysticism, and protoscience.^{[Citation needed]}

Alchemy not only sought to turn base metals into gold, but especially in a Europe rocked by bubonic plague, there was hope that alchemy would lead to the development of medicines to improve people's health. The holy grail of this strain of alchemy was in the attempts made at finding the elixir of life, which promised eternal youth. Neither the elixir nor the philosopher's stone were ever found. Also, characteristic of alchemists was the belief that there was in the air an "ether" which breathed life into living things.^{[Citation needed]} Practicioners of alchemy included Isaac Newton, who remained one throughout his life.

[edit] Problems encountered with alchemy

There were several problems with alchemy, as seen from today's standpoint. There was no systematic naming system for new compounds, and the language was esoteric and vague to the point that the terminologies meant different things to different people. In fact, according to The Fontana History of Chemistry (Brock, 1992):

The language of alchemy soon developed an arcane and secretive technical vocabulary designed to conceal information from the uninitiated. To a large degree, this language is incomprehensible to us today, though it is apparent that readers of Geoffery Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale or audiences of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist were able to construe it sufficiently to laugh at it.^[4]

Chaucer's tale exposed the more fraudulent side of alchemy, especially the manufacture of counterfeit gold from cheap substances. Soon after Chaucer, Dante Alighieri also demonstrated an awareness of this fraudulence, causing him to consign all alchemists to the Inferno in his writings. Soon after, in 1317, the Avignon Pope John XXII ordered all alchemists to leave France for making counterfeit money. A law was passed in England in 1403 which made the "multiplication of metals" punishable by death. Despite these and other apparently extreme measures, alchemy did not die. Royalty and privileged classes still sought to discover the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life for themselves.^[5]

There was also no agreed-upon scientific method for making experiments reproducible. Indeed many alchemists included in their methods irrelevant information such as the timing of the tides or the phases of the moon. The esoteric nature and codified vocabulary of alchemy appeared to be more useful in concealing the fact that they could not be sure of very much at all. As early as the 14th century, cracks seemed to grow in the facade of alchemy; and people became sceptical.^{[Citation needed]} Clearly, there needed to be a scientific method where experiments can be repeated by other people, and results needed to be reported in a clear language that laid out both what is known and unknown.

[edit] Beginnings of chemistry

[edit] Early chemists

The development of the modern scientific method was slow and arduous, but an early scientific method for chemistry began emerging among early Muslim chemists. One of the most influential among them was the 9th century chemist Geber, who some consider to be the "father of chemistry".^{[6] [7] [8]} Other influential Muslim chemists included Al-Razi, Abu-Rayhan Biruni and Al-Kindi. Alexander von Humboldt regarded the Muslim chemists as the founders of chemistry. ^[9]

Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization IV: The Age of Faith:

For the more honest practitioners in Europe, alchemy was an intellectual pursuit, and over time, they got better at it. Paracelsus (1493-1541), for example, rejected the 4-elemental theory and with only a vague understanding of his chemicals and medicines, formed a hybrid of alchemy and science in what was to be called iatrochemistry. Paracelsus was not perfect in making his experiments truly scientific. For example, as an extension of his theory that new compounds could be made by combining mercury with sulfur, he once made what he thought was "oil of sulfur". This was actually dimethyl ether, which had neither mercury nor sulfur.^{[Citation needed]}

Robert Boyle, one of the co-founders of modern chemistry through his use of proper experimentation, which further separated chemistry from alchemy

The first alchemist considered to have applied the modern scientific method to alchemy and to separate chemistry further from alchemy was Robert Boyle (1627–1691).^{[Citation needed]} Robert Boyle was an atomist, but favoured the word corpuscle over atoms. He comments that the finest division of matter where the properties are retained is at the level of corpuscles.

Boyle was credited with the discovery of Boyle's Law. He is also credited for his landmark publication The Sceptical Chymist, where he attempts to develop an atomic theory of matter, with no small degree of success.

Despite all these advances, the person celebrated as the "father of modern chemistry" is Antoine Lavoisier who developed his law of Conservation of mass in 1789, also called Lavoisier's Law.^{[Citation needed]} With this, Chemistry was allowed to have a strict quantitative nature, allowing reliable predictions to be made.

[edit] Antoine Lavoisier

Although the archives of chemical research draw upon work from ancient Babylonia, Egypt, and especially the Arabs and Persians after Islam, modern chemistry flourished from the time of Antoine Lavoisier, who is regarded as the "father of modern chemistry", particularly for his discovery of the law of conservation of mass, and his refutation of the phlogiston theory of combustion in 1783. (Phlogiston was supposed to be an imponderable substance liberated by flammable materials in burning.) Mikhail Lomonosov independently established a tradition of chemistry in Russia in the 18th century.^{[Citation needed]} Lomonosov also rejected the phlogiston theory, and anticipated the kinetic theory of gases.^{[Citation needed]} He regarded heat as a form of motion, and stated the idea of conservation of matter.

[edit] References

1. ↑ Lucretius (50 BCE). de Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). The Internet Classics Archive. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
2. ↑ Simpson, David (29 June 2005). Lucretius (c. 99 - c. 55 BCE). The Internet History of Philosophy. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
3. ↑ Will Durant (1935), Our Oriental Heritage:
   

   “

   "Two systems of Hindu thought propound physical theories suggestively similar to those of Greece. Kanada, founder of the Vaisheshika philosophy, held that the world was composed of atoms as many in kind as the various elements. The Jains more nearly approximated to Democritus by teaching that all atoms were of the same kind, producing different effects by diverse modes of combinations. Kanada believed light and heat to be varieties of the same substance; Udayana taught that all heat comes from the sun; and Vachaspati, like Newton, interpreted light as composed of minute particles emitted by substances and striking the eye."

   ”

4. ↑ Brock, William H. (1992). The Fontana History of Chemistry. London, England: Fontana Press, 32-33.
5. ↑ Brock, William H. (1992). The Fontana History of Chemistry. London, England: Fontana Press.
6. ↑ John Warren (2005). "War and the Cultural Heritage of Iraq: a sadly mismanaged affair", Third World Quarterly, Volume 26, Issue 4 & 5, p. 815-830.
7. ↑ Dr. A. Zahoor (1997). JABIR IBN HAIYAN (Geber). University of Indonesia.
8. ↑ Paul Vallely. How Islamic inventors changed the world. The Independent.
9. ↑ Dr. Kasem Ajram (1992). Miracle of Islamic Science, Appendix B. Knowledge House Publishers. ISBN 0911119434.
10. ↑ Will Durant (1980). The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, Volume 4), p. 162-186. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671012002.