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Alchemy - alchemy history and facts

We know today that every substance is made up of a number of chemical elements in combination. Each element is different from every other element. And one element cannot be changed into another by normal chemical means. This picture of matter began slowly to emerge during the 1600's and 1700's.

Alchemy - alchemy history and facts

A painting by Joseph Wright (1771) shows the German alchemist Hennig Brandt praying after his discovery in 1669 of a new element. His laboratory is lighted by the glow of his discovery-phosphorus

Before then, most people believed that there were only four basic 'elements' - fire, air, water, and earth. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle first put forward this view in the 300's B.C. Every substance was believed to be made up of a different combination of these four elements. But the proportion of the elements could be altered by adding some of the other elements, which meant that every substance could be changed into any other substance.

This led to a quest for methods of changing lead and other so-called 'base' metals into gold. People began to believe that there was a magical substance called the philosopher s stone, or elixir, which had the power to carry out this change. The people who carried out experiments to make the philosopher's stone, with a mixture of science and magic, were called alchemists. They also considered that the philosopher's stone, or elixir, had the power to make human beings immortal. Small wonder then that alchemy was widely practiced and attracted royalty, scholars and rogues alike. It became closely associated with astrology because of a belief that metals were linked with the heavenly bodies.

Of course, during alchemy history the alchemists had no luck in their quest. But it is from their methods, apparatus, observations, and accidental discoveries that the modern science of chemistry developed.

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