History of Chemistry

For all Third year students ..
Since I am going to throw my old notebooks so I decided to transfer some lessons here so that the students can easily search their assignments.. but please don’t always search in the net cause the books will be useless. :D





1. Fire stage

- 1st chemical reaction used in a controlled manner
- Known as a mystical force that could transform a substance into another substance
- This stage spanned from the discovery of fire to the age of atomism
- Belief in 4 elements: air, water, earth, fire
- Rise of civilization: sumeria, Mesopotamia,Egyptians,Greek ,Indian, Mayan, Chinese
- *Atomism-started in 400 BC when Lucretius wrote the book “De rerum natura”
- *Democritus & Leucippus – declared that atoms are the most indivisible part of matter
- *Aristotle- opposed the idea of atomism in 330 BC

2. Metallurgy

- Graced the period of metal arts
- Involved pottery, perfumery & other crafts
- This stage is the history that started the “bronze age”
- *bronze age- the search for alloys started ; weaponry also started
- *gold- became the first most expensive metal

3. Alchemy – a proto science

- Stage of magic , mysticism and astronomy
- *philosophers stone - a substance that can turn any metal into gold
- *elixir of life – substance that can heal any disease
- *Geoffrey Chaucer’s – know for his Canon’s Yeoman’s tale ; Exposed the manufacture of the counter feet gold from cheap substance.

4. Chemistry

- Age of scientific enlightenment
- Started w/ 9th century scientific method
- *Paracelsus- rejected the 4 elemental theory
- *George Agricola- (1494-1555)
-Father of metallurgy
- “De re metallica” studied composition of minerals
- *Robert boyle- (1627-1691)
-Refined scientific method ; publish “The skeptical chymist” ; laid foundations for chemical revolution
-*Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
-developed the “phlogiston theory”
-father of modern chemist
-law of conservation of mass