Chemistry

I

Introduction

Chemistry, the study of the composition, structure, and properties of material substances, of the interactions between them, and of the effects on them of the addition or removal of energy in any of its several forms. From the earliest recorded times, humans have observed the transformation of substances—meat cooking, wood burning, ice melting— and have speculated as to their causes. By following the history of these observations and speculations, the gradual evolution of the ideas and concepts that have led to the modern science of chemistry can be traced.

II

Ancient Technology and Philosophy

The first known chemical processes were carried out by the artisans of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. At first the smiths of these lands worked with native metals such as gold or copper, which sometimes occur in nature in a pure state, but they quickly learned how to smelt metallic ores (primarily metallic oxides and sulphides) by heating them with wood or charcoal to obtain the metals. The progressive use of copper, bronze, and iron gave rise to the names that have been applied to the corresponding ages by archaeologists. A primitive chemical technology also arose in these cultures as dyers discovered methods of setting dyes on different types of cloth, and as potters learned how to prepare glazes, and, later, to make glass.

Most of these craftspeople were employed in temples and palaces, making luxury goods for priests and nobles. In the temples, the priests especially had time to speculate on the origin of the changes they saw in the world about them. Their theories often involved magic, but they also developed astronomical, mathematical, and cosmological ideas, which they used in attempts to explain some of the changes that are now considered chemical.

III

Greek Natural Philosophy

From the time of Thales, about 600 bc, Greek philosophers were making logical speculations about the physical world rather than relying on myth to explain phenomena. Thales himself assumed that all matter was derived from water, which could solidify to earth or evaporate to air. His successors expanded this theory into the idea that four “elements” composed the world: earth, water, air, and fire. Democritus thought that these elements were composed of atoms, minute particles moving in a vacuum. Others, especially Aristotle, believed that the elements formed a continuum of mass and therefore a vacuum could not exist. The atomic idea quickly lost ground among the Greeks, but it was never entirely forgotten. When it was revived during the Renaissance, it formed the basis of modern atomic theory.

Aristotle became the most influential of the Greek philosophers, and his ideas dominated natural philosophy for nearly two millennia after his death in 322 bc. He believed that four qualities were found in nature: heat, cold, moisture, and dryness. The four elements were each composed of pairs of these qualities; for example, fire was hot and dry, water was cold and moist, air was hot and moist, and earth was cold and dry. These elements with their qualities combined in various proportions to form the components of the earthly planet. Because it was possible for the amounts of each quality in an element to be changed, the elements could be changed into one another; thus, it was thought possible to change the material substances that were built up from the elements—lead into gold, for example.

IV

Alchemy: Rise and Decline

Aristotle's theory was accepted by the practical artisans, especially at Alexandria, Egypt, which after 300 bc became the intellectual centre of the ancient world. They thought that metals in the earth sought to become more and more perfect and thus gradually changed into gold. It seemed to them that they should be able to carry out the same process more rapidly in their own workshops and so artificially transmute common metals into gold. Beginning about ad 100 this idea dominated the minds of the philosophers as well as the metalworkers, and a large number of treatises were written on the art of transmutation, which became known as alchemy. Although no one ever succeeded in making gold, a number of chemical processes were discovered in the search for the perfection of metals.

At almost the same time, and probably independently, a similar alchemy arose in China. Here, also, the aim was to make gold, although not because of the monetary value of the metal. The Chinese believed that gold was a medicine that could confer long life or even immortality on anyone who consumed it. Just like the Egyptians, the Chinese gained practical chemical knowledge from incorrect theories.