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The importance of the history of chemistry
History of modern chemistry
The importance of the history of chemistry
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The history of chemistry has a span of time reaching from ancient history to the present. By 1000 BC. Ancient civilizations used a lot of different technologies that helped eventually form the different branches of chemistry. In my discussion about the history of chemistry, I will answer four questions that are very questionable. Such as, What was society like before the discovery of chemistry? How did natural resources limit or advance chemistry? How is chemistry affecting society today? And finally, what impact does chemistry have on the future? So what was society like before chemistry? Around 1000 BC everything began to change. Ancient civilizations used a lot of different technologies that helped eventually form the different branches of chemistry. Some of the different technologies include taking metals from ores, making pottery and glazes, producing beer and wine, extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume, rendering fat into soap, making different types of glass, and making things called alloys like bronze. The earliest time of chemistry was called, The Early Metallurgy age. The earliest recorded metal was gold. Other important metals that were discovered and that seemed to be popular were silver, copper, tin and meteoric iron. During the early ages of Metallurgy, the methods of purification of metals were looking to be found. But surely the found more gold and came to be way more amused by that again. They called it the precious metal. The next stage of time was known as the Bronze Age. This is when they discovered that certain metals can be recovered by their ores by heating the rocks in fire. Mostly tin, lead, and copper, this process was called smelting. This stage of time was in 3500 BC. The Bronze A... ... middle of paper ... ...hat chemistry will have a huge impact on the future. I think in the future, scientists will discover bigger and better things every day. I don’t think that there will ever be a stop in a drop in chemistry. We use chemistry so much that there isn’t any way possible that it cannot be discussed. People’s lives depend on chemistry. People have jobs that have to deal with chemistry. On the All about chemistry.com it states that, "A significant part of the new goods and services that will be available in the market in 2020 are as yet unknown, but the main driving force behind their development will be the deployment of key enabling technologies. Those nations and regions mastering these technologies will be at the forefront of managing the shift to a low carbon, knowledge-based economy, which is a precondition for ensuring welfare, prosperity and security of its citizens”
Chemists are the specialists in chemistry, that interact with chemical properties, and reactions. The earth is made up of different gases. Some of this gases are needed for life in the planet but other gases can be harmful to the living. Gas’s use in regular quantities are favorable to the earth. The world started to become more advance and had to use more of this gases to produce everyday objects and inventions by men. Little did we knew this chemicals we going to affect us in our life. Chemist Jose Mario Molina actually discovered that chlorofluorocarbons were affecting the ozone layer.
Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian scientist, is said to be the father of the periodic table. In 1947 Mendeleev, while working on a textbook, began to organise the 63 elements that were known at the time in groups that displayed similar properties. Mendeleev found it difficult to classify certain alkali metals and metals, and while trying to find a way to classify them he began to notice that the properties and atomic weights of halogens and alkali metals shared similar patterns. He then began to investigate extensions of these patterns within the other elements. Mendeleev created a card for each of the known elements that sh...
1. J R Partington, A history of chemistry, volume 3 . London, UK: Macmillan, 1962
In life and society as most of you know, chemistry is involved in everything in this entire world including; animals, plants, and even food! Although most people don’t like chemistry due to all the equations and “Stoichiometry”, it plays a significant role in everyday life. Thanks to many scientists in the past, we can now use the knowledge of their theories and postulates to find new technology and other scientific advancements to help the evolvement of many organisms in this world.
The true beginnings of the modern periodic table are found in 1669 when alchemist Hennig Brand became the first person to discover an element, phosphorus. This was accomplished accidentally through an alchemical process using urine meant to produce the fabled philosopher’s stone that was highly sought after during the time period. The actual chemical process that occurred involved the reaction of sodium phosphate and organic compounds found in urine at the high heat at which brand was boiling the urine. This reaction produced carbon monoxide and elemental phosphorus which then condensed and solidified in the form of the white phosphorous allotrope, which has a tetrahedral structure, is insoluble in water, and is highly thermodynamically unstable. He named the element, though he was not aware it was an element at the time, phosphorous meaning “light-bearing” as white phosphorous glows strongly when it is exposed to air. A few years later, English alchemist and scientific investigator Robert Boyle was able to independently isolate phosphorus through an improved process by adding sand to the urine causing a reaction in which sodium phosphate and carbon from the urine reacted with silica forming sodium metasil...
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.
Natural sciences have always interested mankind, and throughout civilization, we have sought to discover how the world works. This natural curiosity is best fueled by scientific thought and reason. Science is a constantly evolving area of study, and scholars in the previous centuries sometimes took a mystical view on science, one of these areas of study is alchemy. Many significant men contributed to the study of alchemy. Four of the most prominent include: Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Allesandro Volta. Although their ideas are considered erroneous by modern standards of science, they still had important scientific investigations and influenced scientific advancements in centuries to come.
In the beginnings of chemistry, Democritus thought that matter was made up of indivisible particles. Aristotle found out that there were four main elements which was composed of all the rest. These main elements were air, earth, water, and wind. John Dalton stated that each element was made up of tiny, indivisible atoms. This was called The Atomic Theory of Matter. Then, Dmitri Mendeleev arranged the elements in order according to weight. This eventually made the periodic table which we use every day.
Paraclesus, an alchemist in his free time and famous physician, started what is considered modern medicine with the perspective of an alchemist because the basis of the medicine was to get rid of the “evil” elements in a person’s body that would make them sick (Hargrave). He was not the only one to do this in Renaissance times, Neil Gussman and Michal Meyer comment that alchemists were used for medicine, pigments for painters, and created acids that would dissolve ores that were used by miners, in addition to products that were not sold like alcoholic beverages and colored glass. Alchemists even found gunpowder, as that was the most common residue found after the long and painstaking process of finding the philosopher's stone (Robert Bacon claimed to be the first to discover the product). David Kaiser points out that alchemists were the first to “emphasize quantification and pursue systematic investigation of a wide-ranging reactions.” With the founding of the modern scientific method, alchemists also began to use the same fundamental steps in their attempts to separate the elements, including distilling, which are still major parts of processes done in laboratories and oil refineries alike (Bosveld). Michael White records that without alchemy, modern drugs, water purifiers, and the process of synthesizing metals and plastics would have
Chemistry before technology was known as alchemy. Alchemy is the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. According to the New York Times article “The Magical Origins of Modern Chemistry” alchemy was a philosophy and practice that sought to understand the nature of matter. Because of the alchemist they were able to make porcelain, pigments, perfumes, gunpowder, and pharmaceuticals. Before technology was brought into chemistry it took longer for scientist to discover certain items and chemical compounds and it took them longer to figure out how to do certain things. Before there were phones and computers scientist and chemists could not share their data with others in hope to gain more knowledge and ideas on how to make chemical reactions work. A lot of chemical reactions and medical advancements comes from things that already exist in the natural world. Technology only enhanced what they could combined and make out of something that already exist. Natural resources could have also caused a delay in the combining of certain chemicals because they did not have what they needed in order to make or combined chemicals. Even today we still have problem finding medication...
Before chemistry, I would say society was a mess. We did not know of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Which is quite frankly mind blowing considering the fact that elements make nearly everything there is around us up. People living today will live much longer lives than they would have back then because Chemistry is what helps us discover all of our medicines, vaccines, and etc. We did not know of DNA. This is the carrier of all of our genetic information. Without chemistry, we wouldn’t have had liquid oxygen, which is rocket fuel. Without that the space race would have never happened. This means, we would not have satellite TV or internet. Without internet I would not be typing this chemistry paper right now. Without chemistry we wouldn’t have cell phones. Without cell phones, teens today would simply not know what to do with themselves. It is one thing after another. The world needs chemistry!
Throughout my school career I have always loved chemistry. In Chemistry there was always a sense that there was more, there was always something new and exciting to be discovered and theories to be proven (or even disproven). Chemistry was the main subject with a real practical aspect to it during school and it is this, along with my genuine fascination with the subject, which fuels my desire to study it further.
How did the world of chemical engineering start, what's the history of chemical engineering? Chemical engineering started with a man named George Davis who is credited with the concept of unit operations. Unit operations is analyzing the process of plants, such as water, petroleum, and petrochemical. They studied and made a process to move around and mix chemicals. Unit operations is the same concept of what we now know as chemical engineering. Davis was given the credit, but in 1977 a professor of chemical engineering reported that in 1880, Davis overheard a chemical manufacturer say something about chemical engineering. Although this was never proven, its still considered Davis’s idea. Chemical engineering is also the reason that the United
The History of Chemistry is ancient, starting at 1000 B.C to present time. Chemistry has evolved drastically over the centuries. the first civilization to take over chemistry were the Egyptians and Babylonians founded practical knowledge concerning the arts of metallurgy, pottery and dyes, but didn't develop a systematic theory.
Chemistry has been around for a very long time. Chemistry dates back to as far as the prehistoric times. If you put the amount of time chemistry takes up in a timeline, you would split it into four general categories. The four categories are: prehistoric times - beginning of the Christian era (black magic), beginning of the Christian era - end of 17th century (alchemy), end of 17th century - mid 19th century (traditional chemistry), and mid 19th century - present (modern chemistry).