Chemistry is a type of science which is found every where.
Chemistry has played a crucial role in the history of India as in the 18th century Ayurveda.
In ancient India, chemistry was called Rasayan Shastra, Rasa-Vidya, Rasatantra and Rasakriya all of which roughly mean 'Science of liquids'. There also existed chemical laboratories and chemicals works, which were called Rasakriya-nagaram and Rasakriya-shala, which literally mean 'School where liquids are activated'.
The history of science and technology in the Indian Subcontinent begins with prehistoric human activity the Indus Valley Civilization to early states and empires.
Ancient India's development in chemistry was not confined at an abstract level like physics, but found development in a variety of practical activities. In any early civilization, metallurgy has remained an activity central to all civilizations from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, to all other civilizations that followed. It is believed that the basic idea of smelting reached ancient India from Mesopotamia and the Near East. Coinage dating from the 8th Century B.C.
In his attempt to prepare the 'elixir of life' from mercury, Nagarjuna made use of animal and vegetable products, apart from minerals and alkalis. For the dissolution of diamonds, metals and pearls, he suggested the use of vegetable acids like sour gruel and juices of fruits and bark.
In his treatise, he has also listed the apparatus that was used by earlier alchemists. The process of distillation, liquefaction, sublimation and roasting were also mentioned. Nagarjuna also discussed, in detail, the possibility of transmutation of base metals into gold. But although he could not produce gold, these techniques did yield metals with gold like yellowish brillance. Till today these methods are being used to manufacture imitation
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was the period marked by the use of Iron. Iron Age follows immediately after the Bronze Age. The use of iron made the military stronger and powerful. Thus, it demonstrates KC 1.3: II.D because they developed weapons and tools that transformed warfare but also changes in agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles in society. It illustrates development and interaction of cultures, science & technology, writings, and languages that were used in the Iron Age, preceded by the Bronze Age. The Bronze has developed earliest alphabets such as the Cuneiform and the Hieroglyphic script, followed by the Iron Age, the Vedas were written. Iron Age has begun near East, ancient Iran, ancient India, and ancient Greece.
The Indus Valley was the earliest Indian civilization. This civilization flourished for about a thousand years, then disappeared without a trace. Even though archeologists have no solid evidence, they know that it covers the largest area than any other civilization until the rise of Persia a thousand years later.
1. J R Partington, A history of chemistry, volume 3 . London, UK: Macmillan, 1962
Indus valley civilization is one of the earliest civilizations in existence. The historical time period of this civilization is predominantly divided into two phases, the early Indus Civilization and the later Indus Civilization. There is very less information known about the early Indus due to its sheer time frame and destruction of historical evidence. However, the later well developed Indus Civilization lasted for over a thousand years from about 2600 AD to 1500 AD.
In reference to both the chemist novelists, they have accurately identified several compounds that have found their way in history, but failed to mention the relationship between themselves and the changes each compound created. For example, LeCouteur and Burreson do state, “The Bronze Age, when bronze was used for weapons and tools was followed by the Iron Age, characterized by smelting of iron and the use of iron implements.”4 These chemists do note of their existence, (of bronze and iron), but failed to go into an in-depth analysis as to how each of them incorporative their usage to today’s time. Bronze for example, had shown a transition from burins tools for hunting to a durable ax and adz heads for agriculture. This ultimate transition had set the stage for a new era, filled with new findings and affects for further implications, like other metallic elements. Elements, like tin, in which LeCouteur and Burreson, state was material that the buttons from Napoleon’s army coats where made out of. This material wasn’t able to support the freezing conditions of Russia, which is believe to led have fallen apart. Nevertheless, the predicament came to be if, “the lack of buttons meant that hands were used to hold garments together rather than carry weapons?”5 Within missing chemical structures like bronze
Chemistry is a branch of natural science that deals principally with the properties of substances, the changes they undergo, and the natural laws that describe these changes. (University of Idaho, 2014) Molecules, as small as they seem, is in the food that we eat and present in our daily lives. Today, scientists would likely know about the history of chemistry but not how chemistry has impacted history. Many would not wonder if these molecules go beyond the chemistry concepts that they have learned. For example, would the world have been different if piperine (molecule) present in pepper had not led to the discovery of the United States? The interesting fact is that molecules have and will continue to shape the world today. In this book, the authors explain in detail how 17 specific molecules had a significant impact on the history of the world. On a whole, this book is very intriguing and very suitable for chemistry lovers as well as the general public.
HISTORY OF ALCHEMY: From an early period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of being skillful workers in metals and, according to Greek writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the native matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvelous powers, and it was thought that there resided within in the individualities of the various metals, that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the underworld form of the god Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the belief that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. Probably such a belief existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes of its several races. Its was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth century, however, that alchemical science received embryonic form. There is little doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic sources was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out by the circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained in its entirety in his works.
Because other metals were thought to be less perfect than gold, it was reasonable to believe that nature created gold out of other metals found deep within the earth and that a skilled artisan could duplicate this process. It was said that once someone was able to change, or transmute a "base" chemical into the perfect metal, gold, they would have achieved eternal life and salvation. In this way, alchemy turned into not only a scientific quest, but a spiritual quest as well. Although the purposes and techniques were often times ritualistic and fanciful, alchemy was in many ways the predecessor of modern science, especially the science of chemistry.The birthplace of alchemy was ancient Egypt, where, in Alexandria, it began to flourish during the Hellenistic period. Also at that time, a school of alchemy was developing in China.
Without famous chemists like Dmitri Mendeleev, Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier, Albert Einstein, John Dalton, and other great chemists we would be clueless to the wonderful, confusing, and very much needed world of chemistry. Before chemistry society did not know about elements, they did not know about substances like acids and metal, or the difference between gold and lead. There are many simple things that would remain unknown if chemistry wasn’t as advanced as it is today. Chemistry is important to everyday life, because everything is made of chemicals. Chemistry is outside with the leaves changing colors in the fall. The supplies used to do household chores are made from chemistry. Chemistry is literally in everything from the food you eat to the air you breathe. It’s in your soap, your emotions, and everything you can see or touch.
The Indus Valley is located in northern India and is an important site concerning the early beginnings of agriculture in the old world. The geography, environment, and timeframe of the Indus Valley are distinct to the area and different from other sites of agricultural origin. Many plants and animals were domesticated in the Indus Valley, and due to the areas susceptibility to flooding, technological innovations had to take place. The Indus Valley is important to understanding the beginnings of agriculture and early civilization.
Though many people fail to realize it, chemistry is a subject essential to everyday life, due to the fact that it is the branch of science that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed. But what we must understand is that everything in the universe is composed of matter, hence chemistry is necessary in learning more about the world and universe that we live in. There are many careers and fields affiliated with chemistry that people pursue to learn more about the composition of the universe, but for now, let us examine the logistics of three of these careers. These three careers involving chemistry are geochemistry, environmental chemistry, and chemical engineering.
Naipaul, V.S., India: A Wounded Civilization. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983. All subsequent reference with page numbers are from this edition.
Sirvin, Nathan. A. Chinese Alchemy: A Preliminary Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Thorndike, Lynn. A.
The Industrial Revolution sparked a new curiosity and need for chemical engineering. In order for certain industries to sustain growth, the production of chemicals became of great importance, especially sulfuric acid. In attempts to improve the process of making this chemical, much time, money and effort was put into it. By this, the slightest savings led to large profits because of the vast quantities of sulfuric acid consumed by industries (Pafko, "Setting Stage").