History of Chemistry

By ellasc
  • 450 BCE

    The Four Elements

    The Greek philosopher Empedocles introduces a theory which will be accepted in Europe until the 17th century. He states that all matter is made up, in differing proportions, of four elemental substances - earth, air, fire and water.
  • 420 BCE

    Democritus and the atom

    All matter is composed of eternal, indivisible, indestructible and infinitely small substances that stick together in different combinations to form the objects perceptible to us. Atomos is the greek word for it.
  • 300

    Alchemy

    Zosimos of Panopolis writes some of the oldest known books on alchemy, where he defines as the study of the composition of waters, movement, growth, embodying and disembodying, drawing the spirits from bodies and bonding the spirits within bodies.
  • 700

    Alchemists

    Alchemists learned how to use metallic compounds and plant-derived materials to treat diseases.
  • 1500

    Alchemy

    Alchemists had separated into two groups:
    western alchemists focused on the discovery of new
    compounds, reactions, and chemical processes -
    The second group continued to look at the more spiritual,
    metaphysical side of alchemy, continuing the search for
    immortality and the transmutation of base metals into gold.

  • Death of Alchemy

    The disproving of Aristotle's four-elements theory and the publishing of the book, The Skeptical Chemist (by Robert Boyle), combined to destroy this early form of chemistry.

  • Boyle, Sir Robert

    Formulated the fundamental gas laws. First to propose the combination of small particles to form molecules. Differentiated between compounds and mixtures.

  • C.L. Berthollet

    Corrected Lavoiser’s theory of acids. Discovered bleaching ability of chlorine.

  • Benjamin Franklin

    Demonstrated that lightning is electricity.

  • John Dalton

    Proposed atomic theory based on measurable masses (1807). Stated law of partial pressure of gasses.

  • Priestley, Joseph

    Discovered oxygen, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide. Proposed electrical inverse-square law.

  • Antonie Lavosier

    known as the father of chemistry, the work of Antonie laid the groundwork for the atomic theory. He also produced the first table of elements which contained a large number of substances that modern chemists would agree should be classifies as elements.

  • Eli Whitney

    Whitney made the cotton gin on March 14, 1794. The cotton gin is a machine that separates seeds, hulls and other unwanted materials from cotton after it has been picked.

  • Count Rumford

    Thought that heat was a form of energy.

  • Joseph Proust

    Proust was a chemical annalist who proposed the the Law of Constant Composition. Proust based his work on the study of copper carbonate reactions performed in the laboratory.He studied the two tin oxides and the two iron sulfides, proving that had different compositions and that there were no substances with intermediate composition.

  • Humphry Davy

    An English chemist invented the first electric light.
  • Period: to

    William Crookes et. al.

  • Heinrich Hertz

    Discovered radio waves.
  • Period: to

    Ernest Rutherford

    A. Classification of radiation
    B. Famous Gold Foil Experiment
    1. What he did:
    Stretched a sheet of gold foil in a tin can and coated the inside of the can with fluorescent paint.
    Aimed a ray of alpha radiation (+ charges) at the foil.
    Expected that the alpha rays would pass right through the metal atoms in the foil, and the fluorescent coating would light up right behind the foil.

  • Marie and Pierre Curies

    Discovered and isolated polonium and radium from uranium ores.

  • Becquerel

    Discovered radioactivity in Uranium.

  • Milikan

    This calculated the mass and charge of an electron.

  • Enrico Fermi

    Formulated his theory of beta decay.

  • Neutron

    James Chadwick proved the existence of another subatomic particle, that had no charge, named it the neutron.

  • James Chadwick

    Proved the existence of another subatomic particle, that had no charge, named it the neutron.

  • Peniclilin

    Penicillin was invented by Alexander Fleming, John Sheehan, Andrew J Moyer. Penicillin is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents.

  • Glenn Seaborg

    Synthesized several transuranium elements and suggested a revision to the layout of the periodic table.

  • Sir John Joseph Thomson

    Thomson used charged plates to deflect the cathode ray. Found the ray deflected away from the negative plate, and toward the positive.