The Story of Chemistry

by Arcturus Publishing

Overview

'The importance of the end in view prompted me to undertake all this work, which seemed to me destined to bring about a revolution in physics and chemistry.' Antoine Lavoisier, 1773

Great advances in human history have often rested on and prompted progress in chemistry. The exploitation of fire, the development of pigments, and the discovery that metals could be smelted and worked laid the foundations of civilization. The search for better tools and weapons drove metallurgy, and the need for medicines and perfumes lay behind the first laboratories.

This book traces a story of exploration and discovery, from the earliest applications of chemistry by our ancient forebears. For more than 1,000 years, alchemists pursued the transformation of matter until the advent of modern chemistry in the 17th century set us on the path to the complex science of today.

Topics include:
• prechemistry since prehistory
• alchemy and the transmutation of metals
• the rise of the scientific method
• identifying the chemical elements
• understanding gases
• the nature of the atom
• organic chemistry
• chemical analysis

Beautifully illustrated throughout

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788880558
Publisher:	Arcturus Publishing
Publication date:	11/30/2017
Series:	The Story of
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	613,032
File size:	58 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Anne Rooney gained a degree and a PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge. After a period of teaching at the universities of Cambridge and York, she became a full-time writer. She has written many books on the history and philosophy of science, and on other aspects of science and technology. She lives in Cambridge, England, and has been Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge, the University of Essex and Anglia Ruskin University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Stuff of the World 6

Chapter 1 Chemistry without knowing it 10

Adventures in pre-chemistry

Metals and mining

Harnessing biochemistry

The start of chemistry

Elementary elements

Chapter 2 A spiritual science 24

A respectable pursuit

The shadowy origins of alchemy

Practising chemists

Arab alchemy

Alchemy enters Europe

Beyond metals

Fake alchemy and fake alchemists

Gold and the Golden Age 54

Renaissance: alchemy reborn

Alchemy and medicine

Transcendent medicine

Secrecy, truth and fraud

Chapter 4 From alchemy to chemistry 68

The scientific method

An amicable divorce

Chemistry emerging

Elements old and new

Chapter 5 Airy nothings 86

The invisible air

More than one air

Fire and air

Burning and breathing

Compound or mixed airs?

Not all air

The surprise of water

Back to gases

Chapter 6 Atoms, elements and affinities 106

Atoms and elements

From atoms to molecules

Getting together

Atoms in focus

Elements get together

Organizing elements

Indivisible atoms?

Electrons put to work

Chapter 7 Bonds of life 140

The living and the not-living

Out of bonds

Up and down

The chemistry of life

Cures from chemistry

When the body's chemistry goes wrong

Chemicals from the past

Chapter 8 What's in there? 168

Investigation and identification

Chemistry, wet and dry

Unmixing stuff

Elements and electricity

Sweetness and light

Measuring by mass

Looking inside

Chapter 9 Making stuff 192

Synthesis and synthetics

Plastics revolution

War and necessity, mothers of invention

Atom by atom

Conclusion: Into the future 202

Index 204

Picture Credits 208