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 xiiiSuggestions for Further Reading and Touring xixAcknowledgments xxiiiSection I. Practical Chemistry: Mining, 1 Metallurgy and War The Birth of Metals 1The Essence of Matter: Four Elements (or Five); Three Principles (or Two); or Three Subatomic Particles (or More) 3Unifying The Infinite and the Infinitesimal 8Seeding The Earth with Metals 10Chymicall Characters 12Practical Metallick Chemistry 15A Promising President 38These Are A Few of Our Nastiest Things 40“The Sun Rains Gold; The Moon Rains Silver” 45Catawba Indian Pottery: Four Colors and the Miracle of Survival 47Section II. Spiritual and Allegorical Alchemy and Chemistry 51Eastern and Western Spiritual Alchemy 51The Philosopher’s Stone Can No Longer Be Protected by Patent 54Mystical and Majestic Numbers 55Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine: The Impure King 57Ratzo Rizzo and the Poet Virgil as Transmuting Agents? 59Natural Magick: Metamorphoses of Werewolves and Metals 64An Alchemical Bestiary 69Dragons, Serpents, and Order Out of Chaos 80Albert The Great and “Albert The Pretty Good” 83A Canterbury Tale of Alchemy 88The Ship of Fools 92The First Modern Encyclopedia 94Today’s Specials: Oil of Scorpion and Lady’s Spot Fade-In Cream 98“Vulgar and Common Errors” 102What Is Wrong with this Picture? 102Protecting the Roman Empire’s Currency from the Black Art 104Who Is Athanasius Kircher and Why Are They Saying Those Terrible Things About Him? 107Alchemists as Artists’ Subjects 111Allegories, Myths, and Metaphors 113The Wordless Book 119Strange Doings in an Alchemist’s Flask 126Section III. Medicines, Purges, and Ointments 135Geber and Rhazes: Alchemists from the Biblical Lands 135Paracelsus 136The Alchemist in the Pit of My Stomach 139A Salty Conversation 141The Magic of Distillation 143Distillation By Fire, Hot Water, Sand, or Steamed Boar Dung 153The Joy of Sextodecimo 159The Compleat Apothecary 162“Rare Effects of Magical and Celestial Fire” 168Secrets of a Lady Alchemist 170“Pray and Work” 173A Good Old-Fashioned Purge 177“Opening Metals”—The Art of Chymistry 184The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony 186Section IV. An Emerging Science 189The Ancient War of the Knights 189The First Ten-Pound Chemistry Text 191A Tree Grows in Brussels 195Curing Wounds by Treating the Sword with Powder of Sympathy 197Do Anonymous Passersby Defecate At Your Doorstep? A Solution 198A House Is Not a Home Without a Bath Tub and a Still 198Skeptical about “Vulgar Chymical Opinions” 200The Atmosphere is Massive 206Boyle’s Law 210Enhancing Frail Human Senses 212Gun Powder, Lightning, Thunder, and Nitro-Aerial Spirit 217Who Would Want an Anti-Elixir? 221A Harvard-Trained Alchymist 223Lucifer’s Element and Kunckel’s Pills 225The Emperor’s Mercantile Alchemist 231Phlogiston: Chemistry’s First Comprehensive Scientific Theory 236The “Modern” Phlogiston Concept 239The Humble Gift of Charcoal 241Beautiful Seventeenth-Century Chemistry Texts 243What Are Effluviums? 248The Surprising Chemical Taxonomies of Minerals and Mollusks 251Chemical Affinity 258Double-Bottom Cupels, Hollow Stirring Rods, and Other Frauds 265There Is Truth in Chalk 265Section V. the Chemical Revolution 269Peas Produce Lots of Gas 269Black’s Magic 271Cavendish Weighed the Earth but Thought He Had Captured Phlogiston in a Bottle 273In the Early Hours of the Chemical Revolution 277Making Soda Pop 289Fire Air (Oxygen): Who Knew What and When Did They Know It? 291Nice To His Mice 296Laughing Gas or Simply “Semi-phlogisticated Nitrous Air” 298Eulogy for Eudiometry 301Where Is The Invective of Yesteryear? 303La Revolution Chimique Commence 305Simplifying The Chemical Babel 308Water Will Not “Float” Phlogiston 311Ben Franklin—Diplomate Extraordinaire 319Mon Cher Phlogiston, “You’re Speaking Like An Ass!” 324Lavoisier In Love 328Requiem for a Lightweight 330Okay, I Now Know What “Oxidation” Means, But What Is “Reduction”? 333The Guinea Pig as Internal Combustion Engine 334The Man in the Rubber Suit 336“Poor Old Marat”? I Think Not 340Poor Old Lamarck 346Elective Attractions 349The Phoenix Is a “Her”? 349Chemistry in the Barrel of a Gun 355A Boring Experiment 356Laughing Gas for Everybody! 359Some Last-Minute Glitsches Before the Dawn of the Atomic Theory 362Atmospheric Water Molecules and the Morning Dew 364Exclusive! First Printed Pictures of Dalton’s Molecules 368The Atomic Paradigm 371“We Are Here! We Are Here! We Are Here!” 374Was Avogadro’s Hypothesis A Premature Discovery? 377Chemistry Is Not Physics 378Section VI. Young Democracy and a New Chemistry 381If You Do Find The Philosopher’s Stone, “Take Care To Lose It Again”— Benjamin Franklin 381Saltpetre, Abigail. Pins, John 383“It Is a Pity So Few Chemists Are Dyers, and So Few Dyers Chemists” 383Two 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” 392Adams Opposes Atoms 395Twelve Cents for A Chemistry Lecture 397Section VII. Chemistry Begins to Specialize, Systemize, and Help the Farm and the Factory 403The Electric Scalpel 403Chemical Scalpels Through The Ages 405Davy Rescues The Industrial Revolution 406The Dualistic Theory of Chemistry 409The Chemical Power of a Current of Electricity 411Colorful “Notions of Chemistry” 414A Primeval Forest of the Tropics 422Taming The Primeval Forest 424The Atomic Weight of Carbon and Related Confusions 427Why’s The Nitrogen Atom Blue, Mommy? 429I Cannot Hold My Chemical Water—I Can Make Urea! 429Two Streams in the Primeval Forest 433Never Smile at a Cacodyl 435Want 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!” 443What Are Organic Chemists Good For? 444Mendeleev’s Early Thoughts About Relationships Between Elements 450The Icon on The Wall 457The Electric Oxygen 461The People’s Chemistry 467Ink from Peanuts and the Finest Sugar in the South 470Section VIII. Teaching Chemistry to the Masses 471Geodes 471Michael Faraday’s First Chemistry Teacher 472“Chemistry No Mystery” 476The Chemical History of a Candle 479Into the Heart of the Flame 481Poof! Now You Smell It. Now You Don’t 483My Chem Professor Took The First Photograph of the Moon! 488Chlorine Fairies? 490“Rascally” Fluorine: A Fairy With Fangs? 493A Mid-Semester Night’s Dream 494And Now Turn to Page 3 of Our Chemical Psalm Book 494What Else Could a Woman Write About? 497Section IX. Chemistry Enters the Modern Age 503Riding Pegasus to Visit Chemistry in Space 503Lævo-Man Would Enjoy the “Buzz” But Not the Taste of His Beer 506Is The Archeus a Southpaw? 511John Read: Stereochemist 512Finding an Invisible Needle in an Invisible Haystack 513But Argon is a Monoatomic Gas—And There are Others 516Searching for Signs of Neon 517Just How Many Different Substances Are in Atmospheric Air? 522Atoms of the Celestial Ether 522Non-Atomus 524A “Grouch” or a “Crank”? 526Why Is Prout’s Hypothesis Still in Modern Textbooks? 534Crystals Can Diffract X-Rays 536Two Nobel Prizes? Not Good Enough for the Academie Des Sciences! 538It’s The Atomic Number, Dmitri! 542The Periodic Helix of the Elements 543X-Rays Measure The Distances Between Atoms or Ions 549Where Did We Dig Up the Mole? 551Xenon Is Slightly Ignoble and Krypton Is Not Invincible 552The Atom As a Solar System 555’Tis A Gift To Be Simple 558Transmuting Quantum Mechanics Into Chemistry 559Pauling’s Cartoon Carnival 562Here’s To Long Life (L’Chaim)! 566Mercury Can Be Transmuted to Gold 570Modern Alchemists Approach Atlantis 572The Chemistry of Gold Is Noble But Not Simple 575The “Perfect Biological Principle” 576So You Weren’t Joking, Mr. Feynman 579Nanoscopic “Heavens” 584Moving Matter Atom-By-Atom 590A Nanocar Rolling on a Gold-Paved Road 593Femtochemistry: The Briefest Fleeting Moments in Chemistry 595Section X. Some Brief Chemical Amusements 599Clairvoyant Pictures of Atoms—A Strange Chymical Narrative 599White Lightning in an Atom, a Kiss, or a Star 606The Secret Life of Wanda Witty 611“Trade Ya Babe Ruth for Antoine Lavoisier!” 613Jive Molecules Doin’ The Jitterbug 620Epilogue 623A Natural Scientist 623Descended From Fallopian Test Tubes? 626Index 633

?The fun that Greenberg evidently had in writing this mix of landmarks and light-hearted stuff is absolutely contagious.? (Ambix, November 2008) "My advice to everyone who is interested in the history of chemistry: give your old versions of Greenberg's books away and buy the new one." (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, July 2, 2007)"?a book that the reviewer would have been delighted to have discovered as a student in high school or college?" (Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, Fall 2007)"'A light-hearted tour through selected highlights of chemical history'?has been admirably achieved in this generously illustrated book." (CHOICE, July 2007)??can be strongly recommended?it will put a smile on your face on the way to the lab.? (Chemistry World, July 2007)