Early chemical arts Chemical arts evolved in the ancient world long before any theories of matter were formulated. As early as 8,000 years ago, people in the Middle East were smelting copper by heating copper ores with charcoal to high temperatures. The use of gold, bronze, tin, iron, and lead would follow in time. Iron Age Swords Copper Age Axe

Ages Paleolithic (old stone age) –50, ,000 B.C. Neolithic –10,000-6,000 B.C. Copper Age –5, ,000 B.C. Bronze Age –2, B.C. Iron Age – B.C.

Ancient Greek ideas on matter Democritus (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.) proposed that matter was made of discrete indivisible particles, after his teacher pointed out that a beach looks smooth from afar but is really made of discrete grains of sand. He called his particles atomos, meaning "cannot be cut." His ideas were largely ignored until the scientific revolution of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Aristiotle:Later, Aristotle (c. 384–c. 322 B.C.) popularized the idea that all matter was made of earth, air, water, and fire in varying proportions. According to this notion, one should be able to make gold from other materials by adjusting the ratios of the four elements therein. His ideas influenced alchemy and protochemistry for 2,000 years.

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle Aristotle was a student of Plato, Who was a student of Socrates. Plato tutored Dionysis II; Aristotle Tutored Alexander the great; trying to turn them into philosopher kings. (Plato said: “Kings should be philosophers and philosophers should be Kings)” Socrates B.C.

The Academy In Athens, Plato set up “the academy This was where Aristotle studied and then taught. The academy was the center of “modern” Greek thought Here, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle promoted Empedocles’s theory of matter --> Combinations of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water make up all matter.

The Elements of the Academy. This view includes the Humors, which were thought to be composed of different combinations of the four elements

The Islamic world inherited a rich intellectual legacy from the Hellenistic (Greek) world, and scholarship flourished in Arab civilization after the birth of Islam. This was true in the sciences as in other areas. The first well- known Islamic alchemist was Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721–c. 815). European Dark Ages

Jabir ibn Hayyan Works attributed to him first introduce the idea that metals were made of varying proportions of sulfur and mercury. This notion would influence both Islamic and Western alchemy for centuries.

Islamic Alchemy Continued Abu Ali ibn Sina (980–1037), known as Avicenna and also of Iran, vehemently rejected the idea of transmutation. Avicenna would greatly influence Western alchemists.

A.D. Flowering of alchemy in the Islamic world Later Islamic alchemists pushed alchemy further down the road to being a real science. Iranian alchemist and physician ar-Razi (c. 865–c. 923/932) concerned himself more with practical chemical knowledge based on experiment rather than the natural philosophy of changes in matter, and greatly contributed to the hard knowledge base of alchemy.

Western Alchemy Alchemical emblem. A 1618 engraving by Theodor de Bry, 1528–1598. This image has been interpreted as a view of Roger Bacon balancing the four elements.

European Alchemy Slowly Greek and Arab learning, including knowledge of alchemy, seeped into Western Europe through the work of scholars like Robert Grosseteste (1175–1253).

Alchemy Continued The English Franciscan friar Roger Bacon (c. 1220–1292) believed that alchemy should be used to create medicines and other materials to benefit humanity. Despite Bacon’s arguments, and the skepticism of the influential Avicenna, the quest for gold would dominate alchemical activity for centuries.

ProtoChemistry s Paracelsus(~1541) was a proponent of iatrochemistry, or the use of alchemy to create medicines. He promoted the use of mineral substances to treat disease and saw medicines as working through a sort of magic. He managed to discover a cure for St. Vitus disease, but his claim to have created a tiny man in the laboratory (he called it a homunculus) is less credible.

Paracelsus Claimed alchemy could be used to cure disease

Boyle Re-Defines Elements Boyle (1627–1691) redefined an element to be an “unmingled body” and questioned the elemental nature of Aristotle’s foursome. Boyle still believed transmutation was possible, however, and practiced alchemy.

Robert Boyle Boyle investigated gasses Found a law defining the volume of a gas based on pressure and temperature

Phlogiston theory was invented to describe combustion Georg Ernst Stahl (1660– 1734) formulated the first theory explaining combustion.