John Read

From Alchemy to Chemistry

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&quote;Chemistry, in particular, is capable, when suitably presented, of making a strong appeal to the intelligence and the imagination; for, as the following pages are intended to show, it is the most romantic of all the branches of science; and in its variegated history, stretching back through unnumbered generations of alchemists into an indefinite past, its present votaries have (if they but knew) a richly human and humanistic heritage.&quote; — from the PrefaceWritten for the layman, this accessible history takes a broad, humanistic perspective, eschewing chemical equations and formulae. Instead it concentrates on the great figures of chemistry and the ideas that revolutionized the science, from earliest history to the modern era.Much of the book is devoted to alchemy and such topics as the philosopher's stone, alchemical crypticism and symbolism, pseudo-alchemists, Paracelsus, and the &quote;swan song&quote; of alchemy as the scientific revolution took hold. In the final chapters, the author takes up the development of modern chemistry, including atomic theory, the nature of the elements, the beginning of organic chemistry, and more. Broad in scope, erudite yet readable, this rich and absorbing narrative will appeal to anyone interested in the long and colorful history of chemical science. Glossary. 50 illustrations.
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408 printed pages
Publication year
2013
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Quotes

  • Варвара Грыуhas quoted6 years ago
    The Aristotelian theory dominated scientific thought until the time of Robert Boyle in the middle of the seventeenth century. Its implication of the possibility of changing, or transmuting, one element into another was particularly important. As an example of this conception, it appeared that water, the cold-wet element, could be transmuted by the application of heat into air, the hot-wet element, through the displacement of the cold quality by the hot one. In modern terms, of course, this process of vaporisation is considered as a purely physical one. Solid water (ice), liquid water, and gaseous or vaporised water (steam) are different physical forms of the same substance, and there is no question of transmutation of one kind of matter into another being concerned in interconversions of these three forms.

    It would be unjustifiable, in the light of present knowledge, to dismiss the theory of the Four Elements as ill-conceived or useless.

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