Alchemy to Atoms PDF Download

Author: Ellsworth Newcomb
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chemistry
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Author: William R. Newman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226577031
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Since the Enlightenment, alchemy has been viewed as a sort of antiscience, disparaged by many historians as a form of lunacy that impeded the development of rational chemistry. But in Atoms and Alchemy, William R. Newman—a historian widely credited for reviving recent interest in alchemy—exposes the speciousness of these views and challenges widely held beliefs about the origins of the Scientific Revolution. Tracing the alchemical roots of Robert Boyle’s famous mechanical philosophy, Newman shows that alchemy contributed to the mechanization of nature, a movement that lay at the very heart of scientific discovery. Boyle and his predecessors—figures like the mysterious medieval Geber or the Lutheran professor Daniel Sennert—provided convincing experimental proof that matter is made up of enduring particles at the microlevel. At the same time, Newman argues that alchemists created the operational criterion of an “atomic” element as the last point of analysis, thereby contributing a key feature to the development of later chemistry. Atomsand Alchemy thus provokes a refreshing debate about the origins of modern science and will be welcomed—and deliberated—by all who are interested in the development of scientific theory and practice.

Author: William R. Newman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226576973
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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In 'Atoms and Alchemy', William R. Newman provides a spirited defence of alchemy, awarding this ancient and much maligned field of endeavour an important place in the history of the Scientific Revolution.

Author: Michel Cassé
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521821827
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Table of contents

Author: Cathy Cobb
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489927700
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 475

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Book Description
he history of chemistry is a story of human endeavor-and as er T ratic as human nature itself. Progress has been made in fits and starts, and it has come from all parts of the globe. Because the scope of this history is considerable (some 100,000 years), it is necessary to impose some order, and we have organized the text around three dis cemible-albeit gross--divisions of time: Part 1 (Chaps. 1-7) covers 100,000 BeE (Before Common Era) to the late 1700s and presents the background of the Chemical Revolution; Part 2 (Chaps. 8-14) covers the late 1700s to World War land presents the Chemical Revolution and its consequences; Part 3 (Chaps. 15-20) covers World War I to 1950 and presents the Quantum Revolution and its consequences and hints at revolutions to come. There have always been two tributaries to the chemical stream: experiment and theory. But systematic experimental methods were not routinely employed until the 1600s-and quantitative theories did not evolve until the 1700s-and it can be argued that modem chernistry as a science did not begin until the Chemical Revolution in the 1700s. xi xii PREFACE We argue however that the first experiments were performed by arti sans and the first theories proposed by philosophers-and that a rev olution can be understood only in terms of what is being revolted against.

Author: Fathi Habashi
Publisher: Sainte Foy, Quebec : Métallurgie Extractive Québec
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Author: Natalie Goldstein
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1448847052
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Provides a history of atoms, explores the properties and laws of chemicals, and discusses the new subatomic particles.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alchemy
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Author: Robert Siegfried
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISBN: 9780871699244
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Seeking to enlarge an understanding of the nature of chemical science & explain how the concepts being taught in the classroom came to be, Siegfried presents a simple, readable account of how in the 18th cent. chemical composition slowly abandoned the centuries- long tradition of metaphysical elements of earth, air, fire, & water. Through the work of such scientist as Lavoisier, Dalton, & Davy, chemical theory moved from metaphysical elements to operationally functional atoms. The book is based on chemical writings of 17th- & 18th-cent. chemists; references to recently published secondary works are intended for the benefit of readers who wish to enlarge their perspectives on the development of early chemical thinking.

Author: Trevor H. Levere
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801873630
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Chemistry explores the way atoms interact, the constitution of the stars, and the human genome. Knowledge of chemistry makes it possible for us to manufacture dyes and antibiotics, metallic alloys, and other materials that contribute to the necessities and luxuries of human life. In Transforming Matter, noted historian Trevor H. Levere emphasizes that understanding the history of these developments helps us to appreciate the achievements of generations of chemists. Levere examines the dynamic rise of chemistry from the study of alchemy in the seventeenth century to the development of organic and inorganic chemistry in the age of government-funded research and corporate giants. In the past two centuries, he points out, the number of known elements has quadrupled. And because of synthesis, chemistry has increasingly become a science that creates much of what it studies. Throughout the book, Levere follows a number of recurring themes: theories about the elements, the need for classification, the status of chemical science, and the relationship between practice and theory. He illustrates these themes by concentrating on some of chemistry's most influential and innovative practitioners. Transforming Matter provides an accessible and clearly written introduction to the history of chemistry, telling the story of how the discipline has developed over the years.