Year

5th century
BC

Name
Chinese Alchemy
1. Zhouyi
Cantongqi
(first)
2. Wei Boyang
(~200CE)

490-430 BC

Empedocles (greek)

384-322 BC

Aristotle (Athens,
Ancient Greece).
Greek Philosopher

4th century
AD
(1st to 5th
century
AD)

Zosimos of Panopolis
(Present day Egypt,
then part of the Greek
world)

8th to early
9th century
AD

Jabir Ibn
Hayyan(Geber)
(Persian)

850- c.923

Muhammad ibn
Zakariya al-Razi
(Persian)

ca.
1330-1418

Nicolas Flamel (French

scribe and
manuscript-seller)

Description
Concept of yin and yang
Concept of five elements
Cinnabar HgS(yang), Sulphur(yang)
Saltpetre(potassium nitrate, ying)
4 elements: fire, water, air, earth
2 divine powers: love and strife, unites and
divides
Postulates a prime matter that is
featureless
and without any quality
4 qualities: hotness, coldness, dryness,
wetness
Correspondence between 7 metals to 7
planets(stoics)
Influence on medieval European alchemy
Provided first definitions of alchemy
"the composition of waters, movement, growth,
embodying and disembodying, drawing the
spirits from bodies and bonding the spirits within
bodies
Knew about distillation, sublimation, metallurgy,
dyeing and other chemical craft
Development of tools and equipment
unchanged from 4th till 17th century
Accepts Aristotles four elements and four
qualities
Mercury-sulphur theory
Summa Perfectionis
Coined Al-falasifah, Al-iksir
Mercury:Watery, Sulphur,Fiery
Sirr al Asrar(secret of secrets)
Descriptions of chemicals and minerals
Apparatus described were used till 19th
century and even today
Described Codified lab processes used by
alchemist/chemist
acquired a mysterious book which he tried
hard to translate
translate the book after a pilgrimage trip to
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
recipe for the Philosophers stone, and he was
able to create silver and gold
Made him rich and he became a philanthropist
Authorities, both church and political

1473-1513
1552-1612

Kings and emperors

like James IV of
Scotland and Rudolf II
of Bohemia

1527-1609

John Dee

1642-1726

Isaac Newton

c.1480-1539

Vannoccio Biringuccio

1494 1555

Georgius Agricola

1724

Boerhaaves allegory

1561-1626

Francis Bacon

1436

Filippo Brunelleschi.
Duomo Florence

1490

authority tried to control the peoples

craze about Philosophers stone and
transmutation. They dont want gold (or
fake gold) to flood the market
heavily supported alchemist
Alchemy was very much part of the intellectual
environment in those times
Very respected people dabble in alchemy
magic and science doesnt seem to have a clear
cut difference
Advisor to Queen Elizabeth
performing an experiment before
Queen Elizabeth
an avid practitioner of alchemy, actively seeking
out the philosophers stone.
Autopsy after his death revels high Hg content in
his hair. Probable Hg poisoning from his
alchemical expts
Italian Metallurgist. Despises Alchemy
In parallel with the quack philosophers
stone, advances in practical technology in
Metallurgy and medicine
His book De la Pirotechnia an early
classic on metallurgy and topics
include
Smelting, glassmaking
Treatment of metal ores
Mercury, sulfur, antimony, alum,
arsenicetc
Details on sublimation, distillation,
pyrotechnyetc
De Re Metallica (1556)
Detailed account of mining including how
precious metal can be separated from
other base metal, involving usage of acid,
high heat
Farmer and the son story
-bluff his son that got treasure in wild field
surrounding their home
-son start to cut tree and turn soil
-in the end, already ploughed land was
ready to be farmed to let the sons
achieving prosperity
English philosopher, politician, scientist.
Established the scientific method
Ancient Greek and Roman knowledge reintroduced to Europe. New knowledge being
created out of the old

Leonardo da Vinci's
Vitruvian Man
1504
1505

David, Michaelangelo
Raphael, School of
Athens

14931541(ren)

Philippus Aureolus
Theophrastus
Bombastus von
Hohenheim

15771644(ren)

Jan Baptist van

Helmont Flemish
(present day Belgium)

16271691(reaso
n)

Robert Boyle (Irish)

16351682(reaso
n)

Johann Joachim
Becher (German)

Paracelcus
Rejected Classical Greek medical theory.
Galen four humour
Rejected Aristotles four element and
modified Gebers mercury-sulphur theory
Tria Prima- sulphur(inflammability),
mercury(fusability,volatility)
salt(incombustibility,non volatility)
example, Smoke:mercury, fire and light:
sulphur, ash: salt
Reject Medical Chemistry of Greeks(galen)
Blood, Yellow/black Bile, Plegm
Rise of iatrochemistry
leads to a lot of people writing textbooks,
hence making it more open than the
secretive transmutation alchemy
2 ultimate elements: air and
water(ferment)
Willow tree experiment
Chaos: Gas
Gas not Air, Gas is water devoid of ferment
Air does not take part and water can be
molded
Founder of Modern Chemistry
The sceptical Chymist
Peripatetic(Aristotle), Spagryric(Para, van
helmont)
Ask the qn: what is an element?
Corpuscular Theory of matter(no predictive
power)
Corpuscles are indivisible and untouchable
discrete units
Size shape texture motion determines
interaction
Sweet=round, sharp=corrosive
Gas Law: p = 1/V
Age of Reason 1600-1750, Scientific
revolution, Rise of the scientific method
Earth and water mix with air to give
organic matter
3 types of earth: Terra fluida(fluiditiy),

16601734(reaso
n)

Georg Stahl (German)

1694-1778
1723-1790
1723-1790

Voltaire
Adam Smith
Benjamin Franklin

16771761(en)

Stephen Hales
(English)

1728-1799

Joseph Black

1731-1810

Henry Cavendish

1733-1804

Joseph Priestley

1742-1786.
17431794(en)

Carl Wilhelm Scheele

Swedish Pomerania
(present day
Germany).
Antoine Lavoisier

lapidea(fusibility), pinguis(Combustable)
(pholigiston)
Phlogiston theory
Calcination, rusting and oxidation
Iron(poor),charcoal rich, wood rich, ash
poor
Calx=metal oxide
Age of Enlightenment 1700-1800
Success of natural philosophy based on the
rational mind.
Attempts to organize society through reason.
Breaking free of tradition, religion, superstition
and tyranny
Interested in plant physiology
Expts on how air enter and leave plants.
Pneumatic Trough -Instrument to collect air or
gas after reaction
Discovered latent heat
Invention of analytical balance
Fixed air: carbon dioxide(magnesium alba
gives residue and fixed air)
Respiration, combustion and fermentation
produces it
Discovery of hydrogen (inflammable air)
Cavendish experiment to measure
gravitational constant
Discovered the composition of atmospheric
air
Discovered more than 20 different kinds of
air
Sustaining cycle of absorbing and releasing
of phlogiston
likes to use mice in his experiments
Mercury calx gives o2(dephlogisticated air)
Forming of water(deplogisticated air and
water)
Before 1773, performed experiments that led to
the isolation of dephlogistigated air. However he
only published his results in 1777.
Independent discoverer of oxygen
Burning of metal (product gains weight)
Calx(metal oxide)
Name oxygen
Overturn phlogiston theory 1785
Calorique
1789, July 14th, Bastille day, French
Revolution overthrowing their King and
decimated the aristocracy Reign of Terror. Up to

1789

Traite Elementaire de
Chimie

460 370
BC

Democritus
Greek philosopher

17661844(ir)

John Dalton
English scientist

1778-1829

Humphry Davy
English inventor

1779-1848

Jons Jacob Berzelius

Swedish chemist

1786-1850

William Prout
English chemist

1778-1850
1811

Joseph Louis GayLussac

French Physicist
Amedeo Avogadro

40,000
people executed summarily
Decimated Aristocrats(FR), killed by
gulloitine
Metal+ depholgisticated air = calx
Lavoisiers magnum opus which summarizes his
revolution in Chemistry
First modern chemistry textbook
Discovery of oxygen
Composition of water
Theory of combustion based on oxygen
Analyses of oxides and acids
Salt formation from acidic oxide and metal
oxide
Chemical instrumentations and practical
chemistry
Conservation of mass
No metaphysical entities
Everything is made of atom. Atoms are indivisible
and indestructible.
Atomic theory
Law of Partial Pressure
Binary Simplicity
Atomic Symbols(theseround)
Industrial Revolution 1760s to
1850s
Voltaic Pile(alessandra volta), First ever
electrical battery
Discovered Potash/soda into (K, Na,) Ba,
Sr, Ca, Mg
Discovered chlorine(oxymuriatic acid)
Almost died of Carbon monoxide poisoning
Addicted to nitrous oxide (laughing gas)
Discovered cerium, selenium, thorium,
vanadium(s) lithium(s)
Accurate atomic weights for ~50 elements
Electrochemical dualism
Chemical Notation
Catalysis,
polymer,isomer,allotrope(coined)
Prouts hypothesis: heavier elements are
built up of multiple units of H, difference in
mass due to isotopes
Discovered boron
Gay-Lussac Law: p = T
Dimers
Avogadro Hypothesis: V = N

1787

Guyton de Morveau

1819

Berzelius

1832
(18251871)

Justin Liebig
Friedrich Wohler
(BFF <3 LOLOL)

1837
1833
1839

Robert Bunsen
Robert Kane
Raffaele Piria

1800-1884

Jean Baptiste Andr

Dumas (french chemist)

1824-1904

Alexaner Williamson
British
chemist

(1807-1853)
(1816-1856)
1853

Auguste Laurent and

Charles Frdric
Gerhardt
French chemist

Dimers
Radical - a group of atoms whose form is stable
and doesnt get changed as it goes through a
whole range of reactions
Organic bodies obey the same general laws as
that regulating the formation of inorganic
combinations
The silver fulminate & silver cyanate problem
and other examples prompted Berzelius
to coin the term: isomer
published an article on organic radical, a group
that persist through a whole range of reactions Benzoyl radical
Silver fulminate and silver cyanate
(structural isomers, 1824)
Liebigs instrument: Kaliapparat
Wohlers reaction: Synthesis of
Urea(oppose vitalism)
Other organic radicals were subsequently
discovered or identified
Improved on Liebigs technique
to measure accurate measure
nitrogen content (1841)
Electropositive H replaced by
electronegative Cl. (against dualism and
radical).
Metalepsy, Type THEORY
Williamson Synthesis: water type (1850)
Student of Liebig
question the dualism principle (Auguste Laurent)
Berzelius and Dumas, republican and
socialist(napoleon)
Homologous Series
Type theory: All organic compounds can be
classified into four inorganic types : Water,
Ammonia, Hydrogen, Hydrogen Chloride

MID TERMS END HERE!

1860

Karlsruhe Conference

Stanislao Cannizaro: promoted avogadros

1834-1907

Dmitri Mendeleev

1875

Paul Emile Lecoq

1830-1895

Lothar Meyer

1837-1898

John Newlands

1825-1899

Edward Frankland

1829-1896

Friedrich August
Kekule

1855

William Odling

1831-1892

Archibald Scott
Couper

1832-1922

Alexander Crum
Brown

1852-1911

Vant Hoff

1847-1913

Joseph Achille Le Bel

1866-1919

Alfred Werner

1859

Robert Bunsen(taller)
Gustav Kirchhoff

1868

Jules Janssen
Joseph Norman
Lockyer

hypothesis
Newlands Law of Octaves
Osovy Khimi: Principles of Chemistry
Birth of periodic table
Chemistry prophet
Eka-alumn-gallium
Eka boron- scandium
Eka silicone-germanium
Discovered gallium
Shared the Davy medal with Mendeleev
Fight with Mendeleev on who came up first
with periodic idea
Not happy when M&M shared 1884 Davy
prize
Awarded Davy medal of 1887
They only rmb mandeleev(live
longer,predictions)
Father of organometallic chemistry
Valence theory
Origin of the term bond
Carbon is tetravalent
Claimed all the credit for chemical
structures
Added another type theory: Marsh gas
Independently came up with the idea of
linking carbon atoms and molecular
structure
Delayed paper: On a new chemical theory
How to draw chemical structures?
Used chemical structures to enumerate
isomers
Atoms in 3D space
Connection between optical activity and
chirality
Published independently, more theoretical
and no figures
Awarded Davy medal in 1893 with vant
Hoff
Coordination Chemistry
Nobel prize 1913
Pt(NH3)2Cl2 is planar not tetrahedral(no
optical activity)
Invented the spectroscope
Kirchhoff: black body radiation
Kirchhoff: Identify elements in the sun
Janssen detected new line
Lockyer detected too and named it helium

1894

Lord Rayleigh(Phys)
William
Ramsay(Chem)

1856-1940

J. J. Thomson

1871-1937

Ernest Rutherford

1887-1915

Henry Moseley

1869-1910

Richard Abegg

1888-1956

Walther Kossel

1875-1946

Gilbert Newton Lewis

Quantum mechanics

1858-1947

Max Planck

1905

Albert Einstein

1913

Niels Bohr

Discovery of argon(idle)(1/120 part not N2

in Cavendish expt)
Atmospheric N2(Contaminant) vs N2 from
NH3
Ramsay: discovery of other noble gases
and awarded nobel prize in chemistry
Rayleigh: nobel prize in physics
Discovery of electrons(cathode rays)
Cathode rays are particles of negative
charge
Plum Pudding Model
Plums=electrons/corpuscles, pudding=sea
of + charge
People readily accept electrons in bonds
Atoms disintegrate
Discovery of alpha, beta particles and
gamma rays
Central charge of Rutherford atom(atom
num) not atom weight determines position
on mandeleev table[Antonius van den
broek]
Measured highest frequency x-ray spectral
of elements and discovered Moseleys Law
F=(2.47X10^15)X(Z-1)^2
Died in war, prize go to Manne Siegbahn
Law of Valence and Countervalence
the rule of eight
Introduced concept of inner and outer shell
of electrons
Ions and ionic bonds
Covalent bond
Lewis structure(electron-dot)
2 atomic shells are mutually
interpenetrable
Solve Black body radiation(idealized
emitter)/UV Catastrophe(every increasing
frequency)
Photoelectric effect(intensity high
Electrons high, frequency low no
Electrons,frequency higher, electrons more
KE)
Atomic structure/emission spectra
Red< white<blue
Plancks constant
Explained the photochemical effect
Wave-particle duality
Describe atomic structure
Hydrogen emission spectra

1924

De Broglie

1925

Heisenberg

1925

Erwin Schrodinger

1882-1970

Max Born

Heitler and London

1901-1994

Linus Pauling

Extended wave-particle duality to all

matter
De Broglie wavelength
Landa=h/mv or h/p
X ray diffraction(only waves) of
alum/electrons
Discover Quantum mechanics
Based on matrix algebra
Schrodingers wave equation
Matrix and wave mechanics are equal
Wavefunction(probability of finding
electrons)
Born interpretation
Heitler and London Theory- wave function
is a quantum superposition of 2
possibilities, concept of resonance
Hybridized orbitals
Valence Bond Theory

Davy and Berzilius are rivals

Dalton doesnt like Gay Lussacs theory of dimers(based on avogrado) due
to his own theory of indivisible atoms and binary simplicity. [May also be
due to Nationalism, Napolean]
Berzerlius doesnt mind dropping binary simplicity but holds on to
electrochemical dualism as he cannot accept that O2 is dimeric
Liebig worked with Gay Lussac, Wohler worked with Berzelius
Laurent(student of Dumas) go guailan Berzilius saying that arrangement of
atoms more important than identity of atom(against electrochemical
dualism)
Laurent and Gerhardt work together
Enlightenment then have conservation of mass and positive weight

Nationalit
y
Greek
Persian
Flemish
Irish

German

British

Scottish

Names
Empedocles
Aristotle
Zosimos
Jabir
Al-Razi
Jan Baptist van Helmont
Robert Boyle
Johann Joachim Becher
Georg Stahl
Justus von Liebig
Friedrich Wohler
Lothar Meyer
Friedrich August Kekule
Johann Josef Loschmidt
Richard Abegg
Walther Kossel
Max Planck
Albert Einstein
Max Born
Stephan Hales
Henry Cavendish
Joseph Priestley
John Dalton
Humphry Davy
William Prout
Alexander Williamson
John Newlands
Edward Frankland
Joseph Norman Lockyer
Lord Rayleigh
J. J. Thomson
Henry Moseley
Joseph Black

French

Swedish
Italian
Russian
Dutch
SwissGerman
New
Zealand

Archibald Scott Couper

Alexander Crum Brown
William Ramsay
Antoine Lavoisier
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas
Auguste Laurent
Charles Frederic Gerhardt
Joseph Achille Le Bel
Jules Janssen
De broglie
Jons Jacob Berzelius
Amedeo Avogadro
Stanislao Cannizaro
Dmitri Mendeleev
Vant Hoff
Alfred Werner
Ernest Rutherford

Danish

Gilbert Newton Lewis

Linus Pauling
Niels Bohr

Austrian

Erwin Schrodinger

American