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1526
The Principle of All Things, The Tria Prima.
Alchemist & Swiss physician, Theophrastus Von Hohenheim also known as Paracelsus, suggests the world is made up of 3 elements being salt, sulfur, and mercury. He believed this was "The Principle of All Things', the 'Tria Prima'. -
'The Skeptical Chemist'
Robert Boyle, one of the founders of the Royal Society writes "The Skeptical Chemist'. A book significantly known to be a transition away from alchemy and into chemistry. Some think of it as the first book of chemistry. It is also known for being more widely accessible due to being written in 'plain english'. -
'Cold Night Light'
Hennig Brand discovers phosphorus after mixing sand and charcoal with a tar-like substance produced by boiling down about 1,200 gallons of urine, and then heating, maintaining the highest temp. his furnace could reach. After many hours a white vapor formed and condensed into thick drops that glimmered for hours. He was searching for a way of extracting gold from the body but found phosphorus instead and he called his new discovery 'cold night light' for its brightness but also it's cool touch. -
A Cold Night Light That Burns Bright.
Soon after Brand's discovery of phosphorus and some conversations with Brand, Robert Boyle stumbles upon the ingredients to make a match in his quest to understand the properties of phosphorus. He openly shared his methods unlike other alchemists which helped push the discoveries of chemistry. -
Period: to
An element disproved, an element recognized.
After discussions with Joseph Priestly about his 'new air' (oxygen), Antoine Lavoisier disproves that phlogiston exists by showing that combustion required a gas, and that gas which is needed in combustion, possess mass. This showed that combustion materials were not giving of a new material during the process of combustion. Lavoisier claimed discovery of oxygen independently of Priestly since he saw it's significance though Carl Sheele is usually credited as the first to discover the element. -
'Fire Air'
Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish German chemist becomes the first person to prepare oxygen and describe it's most important properties, calling it 'fire air'. He did not, however, publish these findings until 1777, in his book titled 'Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer', which came out after another scientist by the name of Priestly had already released his findings in his own book. Another chemist, Lavoisier later also took credit for discovering oxygen. -
'New Air'
Clergyman and amateur chemist Joseph Priestly was interested in 'brewery gas', known as 'fixed air' back then, and carbon dioxide today; & though it's now known he wasn't the first, he did stumble upon the element oxygen when performing one of the most important experiments in chemical history. Priestly heated mercury oxide with a burning glass & found that oxygen did not dissolve in water, and it made combustion stronger. He did not yet, however, fully recognize the significance of oxygen. -
'Inflammable Air'
Henry Cavendish found first element that is a gas. Cavendish added zinc to an acid and soon bubbles appeared on the surface. Cavendish collected a sample of this tasteless, odorless, invisible gas, and though he had no idea at the time, thinking he had discovered a 'new kind of air' which he believed to be the famous 'phlogiston', he had actually discovered and isolated the element that is today known as Hydrogen. He described the density of this 'inflammable air' in a 1776 paper. -
'An Element Defined'
Antoine Laurent De Lavoisier, known as the 'Father of Chemistry", was the first scientist to define what an element was when he published the first 'List of Fundamental Elements'. It was and is still defined as a substance that cannot be composed of chemical means. -
Potassium
Cornish scientist and Professor of Chemistry at the Royal institution in London, Humphrey Davey discovers a new element, potassium, when working in the basement with crystalline salts known at the time as 'potash' and thought to be an element of it's own. This also proved that 'potash' was not an element, but a compound.