Alchemy: The Medieval Forerunner Of Chemistry

Alchemy is the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir in the Middle Ages. It is very different from today’s chemistry for Alchemy is not real, it was a misunderstanding of basic chemistry and physics. Alchemists based their theories and experiments on the Aristotelian assumption. They thought that the world and everything in it were composed of four basic elements; air, earth, fire and water. Sounds like Avatar to me! Laugh out loud! There were also three essential substances that the Alchemists used: salt, mercury and sulfur. But today we know that everything is made up of atoms and elements,

They found a masterly refinement of distillation, sublimation, and other techniques still important in modern laboratories. One of the alchemists found phosphorus. Paracelsus was another alchemist that helped transform medicine by proposing that disease was caused not by an imbalance of bodily humors, but by distinct harmful entities that could be treated with chemicals or other substances. The roots of alchemy touch nearly every developed culture; alchemists worked in the Far East, India, and the Islamic world. But it was in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries when alchemy reached its peak of influence, a network of respected and often well-paid specialists laboring in the towns and princely courts of Germany and Italy, as well as in Britain and

The Philosopher’s Stone is a huge item in Alchemy history. The Philosopher’s Stone was a “legendary alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver.” They believed that it was also able to extend one's life and “called the elixir of life”, and it was useful for rejuvenation and for achieving immortality; for many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal in alchemy.

An ancient theory of nature that the alchemists were using held that “all matter was in a process of slow but constant change, and the mission of alchemy was to nudge that process along.” Alchemists also discovered zinc to protect your skin from the beautiful sun! The alchemist Johann Bottger, stumbled on a material that allowed German workshops to make their own porcelain and break China's monopoly on one of the world's most lucrative industries. Take that China! Who would have thunk! Laugh out