Antoine Lavoisier : The Father Of Chemistry

“After having made a few preparatory experiments, he concluded with a panegyric upon modern chemistry, the terms of which I shall never forget: ‘The ancient teachers of this science,’ said he, ‘promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem

In the early days of alchemy, many scholars doubted the authenticity and credibility of alchemy as a scholarly field of study. They labeled it as “mystical” and challenged greatly the possibilities of alchemical transmutations and any practitioner’s credibility. However, alchemy was still practiced and discussed in all levels of society. Alchemy has been discovered in recent times to have been central to the development of early modern science and medicine. The practice of alchemy has made many contributions to the development of modern chemical medicines.

Alchemy (Early Chemistry) was another science closely related to medicine. Alchemy was the name given to this science in Latin Europe in the 12th century. It was a belief that the human body was closely related to the stars and the heavens. Over hundreds of years, the main goals of alchemists were to turn any metal into gold and discover an elixir which could cure all ills or lead to immortality. This magical elixir was called the philosopher’s stone. Alchemy was based on the belief that there are four basic elements – fire, earth, air and water – and three essentials – salt, sulfur and mercury. The metals gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and tin were all known before the rise of alchemy. The liquid metal, mercury, and the burning rock, sulfur, were also known. Many processes with these elements were known to alchemists. The art of alchemy was heavily spiritual. Alchemists were the first to try out different ideas and experiment with different elements, but because of their intense metaphysical and spiritual beliefs, they didn’t develop modern day scientific methods.

The “discovery” and use of distillation was important to the rebirth of science in Europe by creating new principles of chemistry.

Later, in the Seventeenth Century, a German chemist named Georg Ernst Stahl was the first to postulate on chemical reaction, specifically, combustion. He said that a substance called phlogiston escaped into the air from all substances during combustion.

Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science. He often conducted experiments in his basement and enjoyed making things such as homemade fireworks, brewing moonshine, and even making his own self-tanning lotion. Hahn especially loved chemistry and spent much of his time doing amateur chemistry experiments. The chemical reactions in these experiments sometimes went wrong and resulted in small explosions. We learned about chemical reactions in class this semester. He loved to read “The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments” that his father had given him and tried to collect samples of every element in the periodic table, including the radioactive ones. We learned in class about the elements in the periodic table and how they are identified.

Boyle’s studies laid the groundwork of modern chemical analysis of the composition of matter. Among other scientific fields, there were many advances made in chemistry during the Scientific

Essay twelve discusses a dark time for chemists. Suddenly, in the mid 1500’s chemists went from being priests and healers to witches and devils. Chemistry during this period is limited and men known as alchemists ran the show. These men used herbs metals and spices to create useful substances and herbal remedies. Helpful as they

John Dalton was a British chemist born in 1766 in England to a Quaker family. His family was poor and he was homeschooled until at age 15. He and his brother ran a school. He had the biggest effect on the atom. He was the first to bring back the idea of an atom and prove it. One reason Dalton’s discovery is important is without it

He had a vision for this field of subject and believed that only through matter we could understand the universe and its components. He looked at the chemical processes from a very unique perspective. He fantasized about things when it came to chemistry. For example is this chapter of his book he analogized the mines with magic. Levi compared the artificial crater in the mine with schematic representation of hell in the synoptic tables of Dante’s Divine Comedy. In the chapter Nickel Levi wrote about all the gossips and the stories he heard at his work place but the thing that was of the most interest to him was his work; the quantitative analysis of the rocks, running tests in the labs and discussions with the lieutenant about the methods of extraction of Nickel. This unique and creative way of thinking made Levi a successful chemist and even a more successful author. His attachment to Chemistry could be seen, as he writes "The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one's country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession. I left the trade of chemist several years ago, but only now do I feel I have the necessary detachment to see it in its entirety and understand how much it pervades me and how much I owe

Over the course of the last 5000 years, mankind’s knowledge has been constantly advancing. Chemistry, a branch of science, has experienced a tremendous leap and expansions since ancient Greek civilization. One of the major breakthroughs in the advancement in Chemistry was the creation of the Atomic theory, which laid a foundation for the modern-day Chemistry and future of science. The Atomic theory introduced the idea of atoms, which are defined as the discrete units of matter. There are five key scientists that significantly contributed to the Atomic model over a span of thousands of years. They are: Democritus, John Dalton, J.J. Thompson, Ernest Rutherford, and Niels Bohr.

Priestley concluded, “air of red calx of Mercury’ is the best possible air: it is fully dephlogisticated air” (Lavoisier PowerPoint 1). In modern terms, Priestley thinks he has discovered pure oxygen. Lavoisier then performed the same experiment and found discrepancies with Priestley’s ideology. He concluded, “Air given off by Mercury calx is nothing but ordinary air” (Kuhn, 1962). Lavoisier continued on to complete two other experiments on respiration and the composition of common air. He concluded that oxygen was a “principle of acidity” and oxygen was formed only when the “principle” was combined with caloric or heat (Levere, 2000). This aspect also places Lavoisier on a higher scale than Priestley due to incorporating quantitative methods of chemistry. Lavoisier went on to give the element its Greek name, oxygen, meaning acid generating (Lavoisier PowerPoint 1). With his correction of Priestley’s work and through his continuous experimenting Lavoisier should be credited for these aspects of the discovery of

An Atom is the the basic building block of all matter. Atoms are made up of Particles, called: Protons, neutrons and Electrons. Protons carry a positive charge, the neutron carry 's a neutral charge and the electron carry’s a negative charge. The Atom has two main parts the Nucleus and the Electron Shell. The Nucleus contains the Protons and Neutrons. The electron Shell Contains the The electrons.

Although organic reactions have been conducted by man since the discovery of fire, the science of Organic chemistry did not develop until the turn of the eighteenth century, mainly in France at first, then in Germany, later on in England. By far the largest variety of materials that bombard us are made up of organic elements. The beginning of the Ninetieth century was also the dawn of chemistry, all organic substances were understood

Alchemy is considered the precursor to modern chemistry. When you think of chemistry, usually you think of an exact science; something very meticulous. Truthfully, it is. To be accurate and to obtain precise and desired results, it must be accurate. Alchemy, however, was not an exact science, it was a primitive approach to the elements and usually they looked to a deity to actually initiate chemical reactions. Thus we separated them, but for good reason. In today's time we us instruments to give us exactness and precision that mankind had formerly ignored. Throughout time you will see that mankind has used chemistry to solve its most complex of problems and build a world that 7 billion people have come to know as home.