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Period: 330 BCE to
Alchemy
Early scientists try to make gold using things like the "philosophers stone" -
Boyle Defines the Element
In 1661, Boyle defined an element as "those primitive and simple Bodies of which the mixt ones are said to be composed, and into which they are ultimately resolved." -
Hennig Brand discovers the first element.
Hennig Brand discovers phosphorus while trying to make gold from inexpensive metals -
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier publishes book
Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry), which was written in 1789 and first translated into English by the writer Robert Kerr, is considered to be the first modern textbook about chemistry. Lavoisier defined an element as a substance that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by a chemical reaction. -
Mendeleev
The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev was the first scientist to make a periodic table similar to the one used today. He arranged the elements by atomic mass, corresponding to relative molar mass.
