The History Of Chemistry Vol 1 2

"The History of Chemistry" spans a period from very old times to the modern era. Since several millennia BC, civilizations were using technologies that would eventually form the basis of the various branches of chemistry. Chemistry was preceded by its protoscience, alchemy, which is an intuitive but non-scientific approach to understanding the constituents of matter and their interactions. It was unsuccessful in explaining the nature of matter and its transformations, but, by performing experiments and recording the results, alchemists set the stage for modern chemistry. While both alchemy and chemistry are concerned with matter and its transformations, the crucial difference was given by the scientific method that chemists employed in their work. Chemistry is considered to have become an established science with the work of Antoine Lavoisier, who developed a law of conservation of mass that demanded careful measurement and quantitative observations of chemical phenomena. The object of this work is to present a comprehensive overview of the progress of chemistry, from its first rude and modest beginnings till it has reached its modern state of importance as one of the leading sciences. Volume 1: Of Alchymy Of the Chemical Knowledge Possessed by the Ancients Chemistry of the Arabians Of the Progress of Chemistry under Paracelsus and His Disciples Of Van Helmont and the Iatro-Chemists Of Agricola and Metallurgy Of Glauber, Lemery, and Some Other Chemists of the End of the Seventeenth Century Of the Attempts to Establish a Theory in Chemistry Of the Foundation and Progress of Scientific Chemistry in Great Britain Volume 2: Of the Foundation and Progress of Scientific Chemistry in Great Britain Of the Progress of Philosophical Chemistry in Sweden Progress of Scientific Chemistry in France Progress of Analytical Chemistry Of Electro-Chemistry Of the Atomic Theory Of the Present State of Chemistry

Excerpt from The History of Chemistry, Vol. 1 of 2 It is natural to feel a desire to be acquainted with the origin and the progress of such a science; and to know something of the history and character of those numerous votaries to whom it is indebted for its pro gress and improvement. The object of this little Work is to gratify these laudable wishes, by taking a rapid View of the progress of Chemistry, from its first rude and disgraceful beginnings till it has reached its pre sent state of importance and dignity. I shall divide the subject into fifteen chapters. In'the first I shall treat of Alchymy, which may be considered as the in auspicious commencement of the science, and which, in fact, consists of little else than an account of dupes and impostors; every where so full of fiction and oh scurity, that it is a hopeless and almost impossible task to reach the truth. In the second Chapter I shall endeavour to point out the few small chemical rills, which were known to the ancients. These I shall fol low in their progress, in the succeeding chapters, till at last, augmented by an infinite number of streams owing at once from a thousand different quarters, they have swelled to the mighty river, which now ows ou majestically, wafting wealth and information to the civilized world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830 edition. Excerpt: ... PROGRESS OP SCIENTIFIC CHEMISTRY IN FRANCE. I Have already given an account of the state of chemistry in France, during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, as it was cultivated by the Stahlian school. But the new aspect which chemistry put on in Britain in consequence of the discoveries of Black, Cavendish, and Priestley, and the conspicuous part which the gases newly made known was likely to take in the future progress of the science, drew to the study of chemistry, sometime after the middle of the eighteenth century, a man who was destined to produce a complete revolution, and to introduce the same precision, and the same accuracy of deductive reasoning which distinguishes the other branches of natural science. This man was Lavoisier. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris on the 26th of August, 1743. His father being a man of opulence spared no expense on his education. His taste for the physical sciences was early displayed, and the progress which he made in them was uncommonly rapid. In the year 1764 a prize was offered by the French government for the best and most economical method of lighting the streets of an extensive city. Young Lavoisier, though at that time only twenty-one years of age, drew up a memoir on the subject which obtained the gold medal. This essay was inserted in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, for 1768. It was during that year, when he was only twenty-five years of age that he became a member of that scientific body. By this time he was become fully conscious of his own strength; but he hesitated for some time to which of the sciences he should devote his attention. He tried pretty early to determine, experimentally, some chemical questions which at that time drew the attention of...