A Chemical History Tour Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science

by Greenberg, Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780471354086
• ISBN10: 0471354082
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-07
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience

Summary

Take a stroll through this one-of-a-kind book that offers readers an illustrated tour of how chemistry developed, from alchemy to the emergence of chemistry as a scientific discipline in the early 17th century, and, finally, modern-day chemistry. Discover this rare collection of more than 180 illustrations spanning 400 years of chemical publications, with each illustration accompanied by an essay discussing its significance in the context of historical scientific beliefs as well as modern chemical science. The author's knowledge and enthusiasm for the books, images, and subject matter are clearly reflected throughout the very readable, informative, and frequently funny essays. High-quality, full-page reproductions from the author's art collection, published from 1599 to the present, are eloquently displayed.

Author Biography

ARTHUR GREENBERG, PhD, was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946 and obtained his PhD in chemistry from Princeton University in 1971. He is presently Professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Color Plate Captions	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
Suggestions for Further Reading	xvii
SECTION I. PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY, MINING, AND METALLURGY	1	(22)
What Fresh Hell Is This?	1	(2)
The Essence of Matter: Four Elements (or Five); Three Principles (or Two); or Three Subatomic Particles (or More)	3	(3)
Unifying The Infinite and the Infinitesimal	6	(2)
Seeding the Earth with Metals	8	(2)
Chymicall Characters	10	(2)
Practical Chemistry: Mining, Assaying, and Refining	12	(11)
SECTION II. SPIRITUAL AND ALLEGORICAL ALCHEMY	23	(42)
The Philosopher's Stone Can No Longer Be Protected By Patent	23	(1)
The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine. First Key: The Wolf of Metals and the Impure King	24	(2)
Ratso Rizzo and the Poet Virgil as Transmuting Agents?	26	(5)
Catawba Indian Pottery: Four Colors and a Miracle of Survival	31	(2)
Dragons, Serpents, and Order out of Chaos	33	(4)
Today's Specials: Oil of Scorpion and Lady's Spot Fade-In Cream	37	(3)
``Vulgar And Common Errors''	40	(1)
What is Wrong with this Picture?	41	(2)
Protecting the Roman Empire's Currency from the Black Art	43	(3)
Geber and Rhazes: Alchemists from the Biblical Lands	46	(2)
Alchemists as Artists' Subjects	48	(2)
Allegories, Myths, and Metaphors	50	(6)
The Wordless Book	56	(9)
SECTION III. IATROCHEMISTRY AND SPAGYRICALL PREPARATIONS	65	(10)
Paracelsus	65	(2)
The Dream Team of Alchemy	67	(2)
Distillation By Fire, Hot Water, Sand, or Steamed Boar Dung	69	(6)
SECTION IV. CHEMISTRY BEGINS TO EMERGE AS A SCIENCE	75	(60)
The First Ten-Pound Chemistry Text	75	(5)
A Tree Grows in Brussels	80	(2)
Curing Wounds by Treating the Sword with Powder of Sympathy	82	(1)
Do Anonymous Passersby Defecate At Your Doorstep? A Solution	83	(1)
A House Is Not a Home without a Bath Tub and a Still	83	(2)
Boyle Versus Aristotle And Paracelsus	85	(2)
The Atmosphere Is Massive	87	(4)
Boyle's Law	91	(1)
Who Would Want an Anti-Elixir?	92	(2)
The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony	94	(2)
A Salty Conversation	96	(2)
The Alchemist in the Pit of My Stomach	98	(2)
A Harvard-Trained Alchymist	100	(2)
Phlogiston: Chemistry's First Comprehensive Scientific Theory	102	(3)
Gun Powder, Lightning and Thunder, and Nitro-Aerial Spirit	105	(1)
The ``Modern'' Phlogiston Concept	106	(3)
What are ``Effluviums''?	109	(2)
Beautiful Seventeenth-Century Chemistry Texts	111	(7)
Chemical Affinity	118	(3)
Double-Bottom Cuples, Hollow Stirring Rods, and Other Frauds	121	(1)
Peas Produce Lots of Gas	122	(3)
Black's Magic	125	(1)
Cavendish Weighed the Earth but Thought He Had Captured Phlogiston in a Bottle	126	(4)
Making Soda Pop	130	(1)
If You Do find the Philosopher's Stone: ``Take Care To Lose It Again''---Benjamin Franklin	131	(3)
Saltpetre, Abigail, Pins, John	134	(1)
SECTION V. MODERN CHEMISTRY IS BORN	135	(46)
Fire Air (Oxygen): Who Knew What and When Did They Know It?	135	(2)
Nice to His Mice	137	(3)
Where Is the Invective of Yesteryear?	140	(1)
La Revolution Chimique Commence	141	(2)
Simplifying The Chemical Babel	143	(3)
Hydrogen + Oxygen → Water. Water → Oxygen + Hydrogen	146	(4)
The Guinea Pig as Internal Combustion Engine	150	(3)
A Single Elective Attraction (Single Displacement)	153	(3)
A Double Elective Attraction (Double Displacement)	156	(1)
The Phoenix Is a ``Her''?	156	(3)
Chemistry in the Barrel of a Gun	159	(2)
A Boring Experiment	161	(2)
Laughing Gas For Everybody!	163	(3)
``Lavoisier in Love''	166	(2)
Some Last-Minute Glitsches Before the Dawn of the Atomic Theory	168	(2)
The Atomic Paradigm	170	(3)
``We Are Here! We Are Here! We Are Here!''	173	(3)
Was Avogadro's Hypothesis a Premature Discovery?	176	(1)
Chemistry Is Not Applied Physics	177	(4)
SECTION VI. CHEMISTRY BEGINS TO SPECIALIZE AND HELPS FARMING AND INDUSTRY	181	(40)
The Electric Scalpel	181	(2)
Chemical Scalpels Through the Ages	183	(1)
Davy Rescues The Industrial Revolution	184	(3)
The Dualistic Theory of Chemistry	187	(2)
Adams Opposes Atoms	189	(2)
The Chemical Power of a Current of Electricity	191	(3)
A Primeval Forest of the Tropics	194	(2)
Taming The Primeval Forest	196	(3)
The Atomic Weight of Carbon and Related Confusions	199	(2)
Why's the Nitrogen Atom Blue, Mommy?	201	(1)
I Cannot Hold My Chemical Water---I Can Make Urea!	201	(4)
Two Streams In the Primeval Forest	205	(2)
Want a Great Chemical Theory? Just Let Kekule Sleep on It	207	(5)
``My Parents Went to Karlsruhe and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee-Shirt!''	212	(2)
The Icon On The Wall	214	(2)
The People's Chemistry	216	(3)
Ink from Peanuts and the Finest Sugar in the South	219	(2)
SECTION VII. TEACHING CHEMISTRY TO THE MASSES	221	(26)
Michael Faraday's First Chemistry Teacher	221	(2)
``Chemistry No Mystery''	223	(3)
The Chemical History of a Candle	226	(3)
Into the Heart of the Flame	229	(2)
Poof! Now You Smell It! Now You Don't	231	(5)
Chlorine Fairies?	236	(3)
``Rascally'' Fluorine: A Fairy With Fangs?	239	(1)
A Mid-Semester Night's Dream	239	(2)
And Now Turn to Page 3 of Our Chemical Psalm Book	241	(2)
Molecular Mechanics In The Year 1866	243	(4)
SECTION VIII. THE APPROACH TO MODERN VIEWS OF CHEMICAL BONDING	247	(52)
Riding Pegasus to Visit Chemistry in Space	247	(3)
Is the Archeus a Southpaw?	250	(1)
John Read: Stereochemist	251	(1)
Finding an Invisible Needle in an Invisible Haystack	252	(3)
But Argon Is a Monoatomic Gas---And There Are Others!	255	(1)
Just How Many Different Substances Are in Atmospheric Air?	256	(1)
Atoms Of The Celestial Ether	257	(3)
Non-Atomus	260	(1)
Crystals Can Diffract X-Rays	260	(3)
Two Nobel Prizes? Not Good Enough for the Academie Des Sciences!	263	(3)
It's The Atomic Number, Dmitry	266	(2)
X-Rays Measure the Distances Between Atoms or Ions	268	(2)
Where Did We Dig Up The Mole?	270	(1)
Xenon Is Slightly Ignoble and Krypton Is Not Invincible	271	(3)
The Atom as Solar System	274	(3)
`Tis a gift To Be Simple	277	(1)
Transmuting Quantum Mechanics into Chemistry	278	(3)
Mercury Can Be Transmuted to Gold	281	(1)
Modern Alchemists Reach Atlantis	282	(3)
The Chemistry Of Gold Is Noble But Not Simple	285	(1)
The ``Perfect Biological Principle''	286	(3)
Nanoscopic ``Heavens''	289	(6)
Moving Matter Atom-By-Atom	295	(4)
SECTION IX. POST-SCRIPT	299	(2)
Ending In Imagery	299	(2)
Index	301