From Alchemy to Chemistry in Picture and Story

Arthur Greenberg is Professor of Chemistry and former Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. He has authored or edited several books, including A Chemical History Tour, The Art of Chemistry, and The Amide Linkage, all published by Wiley.

Preface xiii

Suggestions for Further Reading and Touring xix

Acknowledgments xxiii

Section I. Practical Chemistry: Mining, 1 Metallurgy and War The Birth of Metals 1

The Essence of Matter: Four Elements (or Five); Three Principles (or Two); or Three Subatomic Particles (or More) 3

Unifying The Infinite and the Infinitesimal 8

Seeding The Earth with Metals 10

Chymicall Characters 12

Practical Metallick Chemistry 15

A Promising President 38

These Are A Few of Our Nastiest Things 40

“The Sun Rains Gold; The Moon Rains Silver” 45

Catawba Indian Pottery: Four Colors and the Miracle of Survival 47

Section II. Spiritual and Allegorical Alchemy and Chemistry 51

Eastern and Western Spiritual Alchemy 51

The Philosopher’s Stone Can No Longer Be Protected by Patent 54

Mystical and Majestic Numbers 55

Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine: The Impure King 57

Ratzo Rizzo and the Poet Virgil as Transmuting Agents? 59

Natural Magick: Metamorphoses of Werewolves and Metals 64

An Alchemical Bestiary 69

Dragons, Serpents, and Order Out of Chaos 80

Albert The Great and “Albert The Pretty Good” 83

A Canterbury Tale of Alchemy 88

The Ship of Fools 92

The First Modern Encyclopedia 94

Today’s Specials: Oil of Scorpion and Lady’s Spot Fade-In Cream 98

“Vulgar and Common Errors” 102

What Is Wrong with this Picture? 102

Protecting the Roman Empire’s Currency from the Black Art 104

Who Is Athanasius Kircher and Why Are They Saying Those Terrible Things About Him? 107

Alchemists as Artists’ Subjects 111

Allegories, Myths, and Metaphors 113

The Wordless Book 119

Strange Doings in an Alchemist’s Flask 126

Section III. Medicines, Purges, and Ointments 135

Geber and Rhazes: Alchemists from the Biblical Lands 135

Paracelsus 136

The Alchemist in the Pit of My Stomach 139

A Salty Conversation 141

The Magic of Distillation 143

Distillation By Fire, Hot Water, Sand, or Steamed Boar Dung 153

The Joy of Sextodecimo 159

The Compleat Apothecary 162

“Rare Effects of Magical and Celestial Fire” 168

Secrets of a Lady Alchemist 170

“Pray and Work” 173

A Good Old-Fashioned Purge 177

“Opening Metals”—The Art of Chymistry 184

The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony 186

Section IV. An Emerging Science 189

The Ancient War of the Knights 189

The First Ten-Pound Chemistry Text 191

A Tree Grows in Brussels 195

Curing Wounds by Treating the Sword with Powder of Sympathy 197

Do Anonymous Passersby Defecate At Your Doorstep? A Solution 198

A House Is Not a Home Without a Bath Tub and a Still 198

Skeptical about “Vulgar Chymical Opinions” 200

The Atmosphere is Massive 206

Boyle’s Law 210

Enhancing Frail Human Senses 212

Gun Powder, Lightning, Thunder, and Nitro-Aerial Spirit 217

Who Would Want an Anti-Elixir? 221

A Harvard-Trained Alchymist 223

Lucifer’s Element and Kunckel’s Pills 225

The Emperor’s Mercantile Alchemist 231

Phlogiston: Chemistry’s First Comprehensive Scientific Theory 236

The “Modern” Phlogiston Concept 239

The Humble Gift of Charcoal 241

Beautiful Seventeenth-Century Chemistry Texts 243

What Are Effluviums? 248

The Surprising Chemical Taxonomies of Minerals and Mollusks 251

Chemical Affinity 258

Double-Bottom Cupels, Hollow Stirring Rods, and Other Frauds 265

There Is Truth in Chalk 265

Section V. the Chemical Revolution 269

Peas Produce Lots of Gas 269

Black’s Magic 271

Cavendish Weighed the Earth but Thought He Had Captured Phlogiston in a Bottle 273

In the Early Hours of the Chemical Revolution 277

Making Soda Pop 289

Fire Air (Oxygen): Who Knew What and When Did They Know It? 291

Nice To His Mice 296

Laughing Gas or Simply “Semi-phlogisticated Nitrous Air” 298

Eulogy for Eudiometry 301

Where Is The Invective of Yesteryear? 303

La Revolution Chimique Commence 305

Simplifying The Chemical Babel 308

Water Will Not “Float” Phlogiston 311

Ben Franklin—Diplomate Extraordinaire 319

Mon Cher Phlogiston, “You’re Speaking Like An Ass!” 324

Lavoisier In Love 328

Requiem for a Lightweight 330

Okay, I Now Know What “Oxidation” Means, But What Is “Reduction”? 333

The Guinea Pig as Internal Combustion Engine 334

The Man in the Rubber Suit 336

“Poor Old Marat”? I Think Not 340

Poor Old Lamarck 346

Elective Attractions 349

The Phoenix Is a “Her”? 349

Chemistry in the Barrel of a Gun 355

A Boring Experiment 356

Laughing Gas for Everybody! 359

Some Last-Minute Glitsches Before the Dawn of the Atomic Theory 362

Atmospheric Water Molecules and the Morning Dew 364

Exclusive! First Printed Pictures of Dalton’s Molecules 368

The Atomic Paradigm 371

“We Are Here! We Are Here! We Are Here!” 374

Was Avogadro’s Hypothesis A Premature Discovery? 377

Chemistry Is Not Physics 378

Section VI. Young Democracy and a New Chemistry 381

If You Do Find The Philosopher’s Stone, “Take Care To Lose It Again”— Benjamin Franklin 381

Saltpetre, Abigail. Pins, John 383

“It Is a Pity So Few Chemists Are Dyers, and So Few Dyers Chemists” 383

Two Early Visions: Oxidation Without Oxygen and Women as Strong Scientists 387

‘Tis A Bonnie Chymistrie We Brrring Ye 390

“For It’s Hot as Hell In Phila-del’-phi-a” 392

Adams Opposes Atoms 395

Twelve Cents for A Chemistry Lecture 397

Section VII. Chemistry Begins to Specialize, Systemize, and Help the Farm and the Factory 403

The Electric Scalpel 403

Chemical Scalpels Through The Ages 405

Davy Rescues The Industrial Revolution 406

The Dualistic Theory of Chemistry 409

The Chemical Power of a Current of Electricity 411

Colorful “Notions of Chemistry” 414

A Primeval Forest of the Tropics 422

Taming The Primeval Forest 424

The Atomic Weight of Carbon and Related Confusions 427

Why’s The Nitrogen Atom Blue, Mommy? 429

I Cannot Hold My Chemical Water—I Can Make Urea! 429

Two Streams in the Primeval Forest 433

Never Smile at a Cacodyl 435

Want a Great Chemical Theory? Just Let Kekulé Sleep on It 439

“My Parents Went to Karlsruhe and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee-Shirt!” 443

What Are Organic Chemists Good For? 444

Mendeleev’s Early Thoughts About Relationships Between Elements 450

The Icon on The Wall 457

The Electric Oxygen 461

The People’s Chemistry 467

Ink from Peanuts and the Finest Sugar in the South 470

Section VIII. Teaching Chemistry to the Masses 471

Geodes 471

Michael Faraday’s First Chemistry Teacher 472

“Chemistry No Mystery” 476

The Chemical History of a Candle 479

Into the Heart of the Flame 481

Poof! Now You Smell It. Now You Don’t 483

My Chem Professor Took The First Photograph of the Moon! 488

Chlorine Fairies? 490

“Rascally” Fluorine: A Fairy With Fangs? 493

A Mid-Semester Night’s Dream 494

And Now Turn to Page 3 of Our Chemical Psalm Book 494

What Else Could a Woman Write About? 497

Section IX. Chemistry Enters the Modern Age 503

Riding Pegasus to Visit Chemistry in Space 503

Lævo-Man Would Enjoy the “Buzz” But Not the Taste of His Beer 506

Is The Archeus a Southpaw? 511

John Read: Stereochemist 512

Finding an Invisible Needle in an Invisible Haystack 513

But Argon is a Monoatomic Gas—And There are Others 516

Searching for Signs of Neon 517

Just How Many Different Substances Are in Atmospheric Air? 522

Atoms of the Celestial Ether 522

Non-Atomus 524

A “Grouch” or a “Crank”? 526

Why Is Prout’s Hypothesis Still in Modern Textbooks? 534

Crystals Can Diffract X-Rays 536

Two Nobel Prizes? Not Good Enough for the Academie Des Sciences! 538

It’s The Atomic Number, Dmitri! 542

The Periodic Helix of the Elements 543

X-Rays Measure The Distances Between Atoms or Ions 549

Where Did We Dig Up the Mole? 551

Xenon Is Slightly Ignoble and Krypton Is Not Invincible 552

The Atom As a Solar System 555

’Tis A Gift To Be Simple 558

Transmuting Quantum Mechanics Into Chemistry 559

Pauling’s Cartoon Carnival 562

Here’s To Long Life (L’Chaim)! 566

Mercury Can Be Transmuted to Gold 570

Modern Alchemists Approach Atlantis 572

The Chemistry of Gold Is Noble But Not Simple 575

The “Perfect Biological Principle” 576

So You Weren’t Joking, Mr. Feynman 579

Nanoscopic “Heavens” 584

Moving Matter Atom-By-Atom 590

A Nanocar Rolling on a Gold-Paved Road 593

Femtochemistry: The Briefest Fleeting Moments in Chemistry 595

Section X. Some Brief Chemical Amusements 599

Clairvoyant Pictures of Atoms—A Strange Chymical Narrative 599

White Lightning in an Atom, a Kiss, or a Star 606

The Secret Life of Wanda Witty 611

“Trade Ya Babe Ruth for Antoine Lavoisier!” 613

Jive Molecules Doin’ The Jitterbug 620

Epilogue 623

A Natural Scientist 623

Descended From Fallopian Test Tubes? 626

Index 633