• Domestic science and medicine in the 19th - early 20th centuries Chemistry of the 19th century in medicine
• What are peptides? Types and types of peptides. All about peptides and anti-aging cosmetics with peptides Additional peptides are not formed
• Toxic effect on humans of hazardous chemicals
• Radioautography Method of autoradiography in cytology
• Identification of bacteria by antigenic structure
• Organic matter in wastewater What are organic compounds in water
• Hydrogen index (pH factor)
• What is the pH of water and why is it important to know it?
• Redox potential Redox systems
• Reversible redox system Reversible redox systems

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Abstract on the history and methodology of chemistry

Topic: The emergence of chemical crafts. History of the development of metallurgy

Introduction

Handicraft chemistry before the beginning of a new era

Craft chemistry in the Hellenistic period

Chemical craft technology

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Chemical art arose in ancient times, and it is difficult to distinguish it from craft, because it was born at the furnace of a metallurgist, and at a vat of a dyer, and at a burner of a glazier.

Metals became the main natural object, in the study of which the concept of matter and its transformations arose.

The isolation and processing of metals and their compounds for the first time put many individual substances into the hands of practitioners. Based on the study of metals, especially mercury and lead, the idea of ​​metal transformation was born.

Mastering the process of smelting metals from ores and developing methods for obtaining various alloys from metals led, in the end, to the formulation of scientific questions about the nature of combustion, the essence of the processes of reduction and oxidation.

The craft, therefore, gave birth not only to the means and methods of satisfying the vital needs of a person. It awakened the mind. Next to the magical rites of mythological thinking, generated by belief in the supernatural, sprouts of a completely new way of thinking appeared, based on a gradually increasing confidence in the power of the mind, progressing as the tools of labor improved. The first conquest on this path is the desire to understand the hidden nature of things, which determines the color, smell, combustibility, poisonousness, and many other qualities. chemical art handicraft hellenistic

A historical analysis of the development of chemical knowledge and chemical technology leads to a certain conclusion that three areas of handicraft chemical technology served as the sources and basis for the accumulation of factual material in chemistry: high-temperature processes - ceramics, glassmaking, and especially metallurgy; pharmacy and perfumery; obtaining dyes and dyeing technique. This should also include the use of biochemical processes, in particular fermentation, for the processing of organic substances. These most important areas of practical and handicraft chemistry received their initial development back in the era of the slave society in all civilized state formations of antiquity, in particular in Central and Near Asia, in North Africa and in the territories located along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

Craftscientific chemistry before the beginning of a new era

History of metallurgy: In the slave-owning society, there was a rather rapid expansion of information about metals, their properties and methods for their smelting from ores, and, finally, about the manufacture of various alloys, which received great technical importance. However, the beginning of the birth of handicraft chemistry should be primarily associated, apparently, with the emergence and development of metallurgy. In the history of the Ancient World, the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages are traditionally distinguished, in which the main material for the manufacture of tools and weapons was copper, bronze and iron, respectively. Copper was first obtained by smelting from ores, apparently around 9000 BC. e. It is authentically known that at the end of the 7th millennium BC. e. there was metallurgy of copper and lead. In the IV millennium BC. e. there is already widespread use of copper products. Approximately 3000 BC. e. dated the first products made of tin bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, much harder than copper. Somewhat earlier (approximately from the 5th millennium BC), items made of arsenic bronze, an alloy of copper and arsenic, became widespread. The Bronze Age in history lasted about two thousand years; it was in the Bronze Age that the largest civilizations of antiquity were born. The first non-meteoritic iron products were made around 2000 BC. e. Since the middle of the II millennium BC. e., iron products were widely used in Asia Minor, somewhat later - in Greece and Egypt. The appearance of iron metallurgy was a significant step forward, since the production of iron is technologically much more difficult than the smelting of copper or bronze. To obtain iron, it is necessary to use blast - blowing air through burning charcoal, as well as the use of additives - fluxes that facilitate the separation of impurities in the form of slags. The transition to iron metallurgy also implies a significant complication of the technology of metal processing after melting - forging, carburizing the surface layer, hardening, etc. In the III millennium BC. e. methods for obtaining gold and silver from ores were also known. In the middle of the II millennium BC. e. Mercury was first discovered. Thus, in the ancient world, seven metals were known in their pure form: copper, lead, tin, iron, gold, silver and mercury, and in the form of alloys - also arsenic, zinc and bismuth. The achievements of ancient metallurgists became the basis of metallurgical technology throughout the Middle Ages. Any significant improvements in the ancient methods of smelting metals, especially in the technique of obtaining iron, were made only in modern times.

Paints and dyeing technique. In antiquity, some mineral paints were widely used for rock and wall painting, as painting paints and for other purposes. For dyeing fabrics, as well as for cosmetic purposes, vegetable and animal dyes were used.

For rock and wall painting in ancient Egypt, earth paints were used, as well as artificially obtained colored oxides and other metal compounds. Ocher, red lead, whitewash, soot, powdered copper sheen, oxides of iron and copper, and other substances were especially often used. Ancient Egyptian azure, the manufacture of which was later (1st century AD) described by Vitruvius, consisted of sand calcined in a mixture with soda and copper filings in a clay pot.

Plants were used as sources of dyes: alkanna, woad, turmeric, madder, safflower, as well as some animal organisms.

Comparing finds and texts, it is possible to reconstruct the color palette of the peoples of this region up to the beginning of our era. Alkanna is a genus of perennial plants of the family. Asperifoliaceae, close to the lungwort known to us. The most interesting is A. tinctoria, the purple-red root of which contains a resinous coloring matter that dissolves, for example, in oils, forming a bright crimson red solution. The dye dissolves well in alkalis, even in an aqueous solution of soda, turning it blue, but upon acidification it precipitates as a red precipitate. Gives a beautiful color, but very fragile. The oldest alkane dyes discovered in Egypt date back to the 14th century. BC e.

Woad (blueberry) is one of the plant species of the genus Isatis, to which the famous indigofera also belongs. All of them contain in their tissues substances that, after fermentation and exposure to air, form a blue dye. As it turned out at the end of the XIX century. (A. Bayer), the composition of the best Indian "indigo", obtained from indigo, includes not only a blue dye - indigotin, but also a red one - indigorubine. In different species of the genus Isatis, the amount of indigorubin is different, and from plants where it is small or absent, a dull blue dye is released. That is why the brightly colored indigo from India was especially valued, but its delivery was not easy. Herodotus reports that in the 7th c. BC e. there were significant plantations of woad in Palestine, but the paint was known much earlier. So, Tutankhamen's tunic (XII century BC) is painted with it.

Turmeric is a perennial herbaceous plant. ginger. For dyeing, the yellow root of C. longa was used, which was dried and ground into a powder. The dye is easily extracted with soda to form a red-brown solution. Colors yellow without mordant both vegetable fibers and wool. Easily changes color at the slightest change in acidity, blistering from alkalis, even from soap, but just as easily restores a bright yellow color in acid. Unstable in the world.

Madder tinting is a well-known plant, the crushed root of which was called krapp. The alizarin contained in krappa gave purple and black stains with iron stain, bright red and pink with aluminum, and fiery red with pewter. In Egypt, this dye was in use, but the Sumerians did not know it.

Safflower is a tall (up to 80 cm) annual herbaceous plant with bright orange flowers, from the petals of which paints were made - yellow and red, easily separated from each other with the help of lead acetate. Despite being relatively unstable to light and soap, safflower, without even dividing, was used to directly, without mordant, dye cotton yellow or orange. In Egypt, fabrics dyed with safflower dating back to the 25th century were found. BC e.

Kermes was used in Mesopotamia no later than at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. as a basic red paint. It is curious that not only cut wool was dyed, but even wool directly on animals. In sales documents dating from the 13th century. BC e., painted sheep appear.

Purple is a famous dye of antiquity, known in Mesopotamia at least in the 2nd millennium BC. e. The source of the paint was a mussel-like bivalve mollusk of the genus Murex, which lived in the shallows of the island of Cyprus and off the Phoenician coast. The dye-forming substance is located in a small gland in the form of a sac, from which a colorless gelatinous liquid with a strong garlic odor was squeezed out. When applied to a cloth and dried in the light, the substance began to change color, successively becoming green, red, and finally purplish red. After washing with soap, the color became bright crimson. From 12,000 mollusks, 1.5 g of dry dye could be obtained.

To prepare the paint, they basically proceeded in a different way: the body of the mollusks was cut, salted, boiled for some time in water, the solution was kept in sunlight and evaporated until the desired color intensity was achieved.

Glass and ceramics. Glass was known in the ancient world very early. The widespread legend that glass was discovered by accident by Phoenician sailors who were in distress and landed on one island, where they lit a fire and overlaid it with lumps of soda, which melted and made glass together with sand, is unreliable. It is possible that a similar case described by Pliny the Elder could have taken place, however, glassware (beads) dating back to 2500 BC was found in ancient Egypt. e. The technology of that time did not allow large objects to be made of glass. Product (vase) dating back to approximately 2800 BC. e., is a sintered material - a frit - a poorly fused mixture of sand, common salt and lead oxide. In terms of the qualitative elemental composition, ancient glass differed little from modern glass, but the relative content of silica in ancient glass is lower than in modern glass. The real production of glass develops in Ancient Egypt in the middle of the II millennium BC. e. The aim was to obtain a decorative and ornamental material, so that the manufacturers sought to obtain colored rather than transparent glass. Natural soda was used as starting materials, rather than fly ash, which follows from the very low content of potassium in the glass, and local sand, which contains some calcium carbonate everywhere.

The lower content of silica and calcium and the high content of sodium made it easier to obtain and melt glass, since the melting point was lowered, but the same circumstance reduced strength, increased solubility, and reduced the weatherability of the material.

The color of the glass depended on the introduced additives. Amethyst-colored glass of the middle-second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. colored with the addition of manganese compounds. The black color is caused in one case by the presence of copper and manganese, and in the other by a large amount of iron. Much of the blue glass from the same period is tinted with copper, although a blue glass sample from Tutankhamen's tomb contained cobalt. More recent studies have shown the presence of cobalt in a number of glass products since the 16th century. BC e. This circumstance is especially interesting, firstly, because cobalt is not found in Egypt at all, and secondly, because cobalt ores, unlike copper ones, do not have a characteristic color, and their use for highlighting testifies to the great experience of ancient glassmakers.

Green Egyptian glass of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. painted not with iron, but with copper. The yellow glass of the end of the 2nd millennium is colored with lead and antimony. The samples of red glass belong to the same time, the color of which is due to the content of copper oxide. In the tomb of Tutankhamun, milk (silenced) glass containing tin was found, as well as a piece of tin oxide, apparently specially prepared. Transparent glass items were also found there.

Making ceramics is one of the most ancient handicraft industries. Pottery was found in the most ancient cultural layers of the most ancient settlements in Asia, Africa and Europe. Glazed earthenware items also appeared in ancient times. The most ancient glazes were the same clay that was used for the production of pottery, carefully ground, apparently with table salt. In more recent times, the composition of glazes has been significantly improved. This included soda and coloring additives of metal oxides. Painted but not glazed pottery also appeared early, in particular in India during the era of the pre-Harappan culture. In addition to the production of pottery, which was developed everywhere, other ceramic productions also became widespread in the countries of the Ancient World. Thus, the buildings of Mesopotamian cities were decorated with ornamented tiles that served as exterior bricks. These tiles were made as follows: after light firing, the outline of the pattern was applied to the brick with molten glass black thread. Then the areas bordered with thread were filled with dry glaze, and the bricks were subjected to secondary firing. In this case, the glaze mass was vitrified and firmly bound to the surface of the brick. Such a multi-colored glaze, in essence, was a kind of enamel and had great durability. A sample of such ceramics glazed in various colors is stored in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and represents images of lions, dragons, bulls, and warriors. Images made in bright blue, yellow, green and other colors have been excellently preserved to our time. Apparently, this method formed the basis for coating metal products with multi-colored enamel (excavation, or partition enamel).

Handicraftchemistry in the Hellenistic period

In 332 BC. e. Egypt, among other countries of the Ancient World, was conquered by the troops of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The following year, the city of Alexandria was founded in the Nile Delta. This city, thanks to its favorable geographical position, quickly grew and became the largest trade, industrial and craft center of the Ancient World. After the death of Alexander the Great and the collapse of his empire, one of the commanders of the Macedonians Ptolemy Soter, who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, reigned in Egypt.

Many Greek scholars and artisans settled in Egypt, who mastered the knowledge and practical experience of Egyptian masters and priests and contributed to the further development of ancient handicraft technology. In Egypt, during this historical period, called "Hellenistic", knowledge and practical experience of two ancient cultures crossed: Egyptian and ancient Greek. The newcomers-conquerors - Hellenes (Greeks) who settled in Egypt got access to the secrets of Egyptian handicraft technology accumulated over thousands of years, to prescription literature relating to the extraction and processing of precious metals and stones. The Greeks themselves brought to Egypt their extensive knowledge and experience, also accumulated over a long period of time, starting with the Cretan and Mycenaean cultures.

The handicraft technology of the Hellenistic period can be characterized as the highest stage of ancient handicraft technology. In Hellenistic Egypt, the most important areas of handicraft chemical technology flourished: processing of metal ores, production and processing of metals, including the production of various alloys, dyeing art with a wider range of dyes compared to Ancient Egypt, and the preparation of various pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations.

Some literary monuments of Hellenistic Egypt have come down to us, including recipe-chemical collections. It should be emphasized, however, the specific nature of such collections. They were not notes of ordinary craftsmen, but rather representatives of the so-called "sacred secret art", which was widely developed in Alexandria. Ancient Egyptian craftsmen mastered the art of making gold-like alloys. Already in the first centuries BC. e. this art of forging metals became widespread. It flourished in the Alexandrian Academy itself, where it received its name.

The study of the written monuments of the era of Hellenistic Egypt that have come down to us, containing a statement of the secrets of the "sacred secret art", shows that the methods of "transforming" base metals into gold were reduced to three ways:

1) changing the surface color of a suitable alloy, either by exposure to suitable chemicals or by applying a thin film of gold to the surface;

2) painting of metals with varnishes of a suitable color;

3) the manufacture of alloys that look like genuine gold or silver.

Of the literary monuments of the era of the Alexandrian Academy, the so-called "Leiden Papyrus X" became especially widely known. This papyrus was found in one of the burials near the city of Thebes. It was purchased by the Dutch envoy in Egypt and entered the Leiden Museum around 1828. For a long time it did not attract the attention of researchers and was read only in 1885 by M. Berthelot. It turned out that the papyrus contains about 100 recipes written in Greek. They are devoted to descriptions of methods for counterfeiting precious metals.

Chemical craft technology

The handicraft technique of Ancient Egypt in the Hellenistic period and in later times was widely developed in a number of countries of the Mediterranean basin and colonies (Greek and Roman), up to the colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus). In 30 BC. e. Egypt was conquered by the Romans, and this circumstance further contributed to the spread of Greco-Egyptian culture and handicraft technology in the Roman Empire and, of course, first of all, in Rome itself. As the administrative center of the vast Roman Empire, around the beginning of the new era, Rome became the center of skilled artisans of various nations - Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, Syrians, etc.

The monuments of material culture dating back to the time of the Roman Empire (the first centuries of the new era), collected in museums, clearly indicate that the level of handicraft production, both in Rome itself and in its main colonies (along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas) was very high. Unfortunately, however, the technical methods of handicraft production, and especially handicraft chemical production, have not been studied enough, and on the basis of studies of monuments of material culture, it is far from always possible to judge both the range of substances and materials used by artisans and some chemical processes. carried out during the production process.

Some idea in this regard is given by the well-known work of Caius Pliny Secundus (the elder), which appeared in Rome in the second half of the 1st century under the title "Natural History" ("Historia naturalis""). This essay is a kind of encyclopedia, but only in the last chapters (books) the author provides information on chemistry, mineralogy and metallurgy. When compiling his work, Pliny used numerous sources: the writings of ancient authors and prescription collections, for the most part not extant.

Pliny names quite a few minerals that apparently served as starting and auxiliary materials in chemical handicraft technology, including diamond, sulfur, quartz, natural soda (nitrone), limestone, gypsum, chalk, alabaster, asbestos, alumina, various precious stones and others. substances, as well as glass. Among the many chemicals and materials, Pliny mentions, first of all, metals, "born" in the bowels of the earth under the influence of heat and gradually improving. He talks more about gold, then about silver. He knows copper, iron, tin, lead, mercury. Pliny's work also mentions salts and oxides and other metal compounds. He knows vitriol, cinnabar, verdigris, white lead and minium, galmei, antimony (probably a sulfur compound), realgar, orpiment, alum, and many other substances. Pliny also knows many organic substances - resins, oil, glue, starch, sugary substances, wax, as well as some vegetable paints (krapp, indigo, etc.), balms, oils, and various fragrant substances.

Describing various operations using the listed substances and expressing considerations and data on the origin and processing of various materials, Pliny obviously uses information gleaned from artisan chemists, and also, as already mentioned, from some written sources. However, not being himself familiar with all the methods of chemical craft technology, Pliny uses the data he collected without proper criticism and, along with interesting and reliable facts, reports a lot of fantasies and unverified information. Thus, he tells his well-known story about the invention of glass, completely accidental, in his opinion. However, with all the shortcomings of the presentation of "Natural History" by Pliny, it is the most important source for judging the level of handicraft chemical technology in the Roman Empire at the turn of the new era.

The heyday of culture, including handicraft production, was short-lived in the Roman Empire. Along with the fall of the power of the empire, there was a degradation, and then a complete decline, of the culture of skilled craftsmanship. Already in the III century. Roman possessions in Italy began to be subjected to constant attacks by semi-savage peoples and tribes of Europe from the north. In this era, in connection with the phenomena that accompanied the so-called "great migration of peoples" "from Asia to Western Europe and in connection with this the movement of European peoples, as well as in connection with a sharp aggravation of class contradictions in the Roman Empire, slave uprisings and other events the capital of the Roman Empire repeatedly found itself on the verge of destruction. In the IV century. the capital of the empire was moved to Constantinople (Ancient Byzantium), the culture of Rome more and more declined. At the end of the 5th century under the pressure of the barbarians, Rome fell, and the Roman Empire (Western Roman Empire) ceased to exist. Part of the skilled artisans and scientists moved to Constantinople, where later, after the upheavals associated with the religious struggle, a medieval center of handicraft technology arose.

It remains for us to say a few words about the development of handicraft chemistry in other regions. The states of India, Tibet and China, which existed in antiquity until the 3rd century BC. n. e., almost did not participate in the political events that took place in the countries of the Mediterranean basin. The development of culture and handicraft technology took place in these countries, if not completely isolated, but, on the whole, quite independently, despite the fact that trade relations between India, Egypt and Greece, as well as Rome, undoubtedly existed. Since the campaigns of Alexander the Great (4th century BC), northwestern India has become acquainted with the Hellenistic culture and partly with the handicraft technology of Ancient Greece. However, the established ties were short-lived and did not have a serious impact on the development of science and crafts in India.

The scale of many industries even went beyond "handicraft": for example, tens of thousands of slaves worked together in the extraction and processing of metal ores.

Culture and handicraft technology in India arose in very ancient times, several millennia before the new era. However, we can judge the achievements of the ancient Indian craft in fairly remote times only on the basis of the study of archaeological sites (the Harappi culture). Around the second millennium BC. e. In India, religious and poetic hymns arose, which were replenished in subsequent eras and received the name "Vedas". In the cultural history of India, the "Vedic period" refers to the era of 1500-800 BC. BC e. During this period, four groups of "Vedas" (Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, Akhtarvaveda) separated themselves. Despite their specific content, the Vedas provide some information about the state of chemical handicraft technology, as well as about natural-philosophical ideas that originated and developed in a peculiar way in India.

Chemical-practical knowledge and some methods of handicraft chemical technology also penetrated early into the countries of Europe, which lie outside the Mediterranean basin, although they did not receive such a high development here as in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Greece and Rome. In the era of the Roman Empire, when Rome took possession of vast territories in Gaul, Spain and the south of England, a variety of handicrafts arose in these countries, including chemical-handicraft and metallurgical industries.

Conclusion

The development of chemical and practical knowledge and handicraft chemical technology in the ancient world was the first and historically very important step in the emergence and development of scientific and chemical knowledge. The richest practical experience accumulated over many centuries by artisan chemists served as the basis for our ancestors' acquaintance with a variety of substances and their properties, with the possibilities of using all these substances to meet practical needs and to solve many practical problems put forward by life.

List of used literaturery

S.I. Levchenkov "A Brief Essay on the History of Chemistry".

General history of chemistry. The emergence and development of chemistry from ancient times to the XVII century. (Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR).

Hosted on Allbest.ru

Similar Documents

"Golden Age" of world culture. Progressive development of science. Periodic system, or periodic classification, of chemical elements and its significance for the development of inorganic chemistry in the second half of the 19th century. Periodic table and its modification.

abstract, added 02/26/2011


Discovery of D.I. Mendeleev of the periodic law of chemical elements. Inorganic chemistry from the point of view of the periodic law in the work "Fundamentals of Chemistry". Flight in a hot air balloon, observing the eclipse. Problems of development of the Arctic. Other hobbies of the scientist.

presentation, added 11/29/2013


Using the knowledge of chemistry in ancient Egypt and India, a method for obtaining pure gold. Fundamental areas in which chemistry has its creative impact on people's lives: food industry, agriculture, construction, medicine.

presentation, added 04/23/2015


Conditions for the emergence of manufactories. Types and types of manufactories (possession, patrimonial, merchant, ascribed, peasant). Division of labor and manual craft technique. Manufactory and small-scale peasant production (handicraft).

abstract, added 12/20/2006


History of Russia in the period between the February and October events (an attempt to establish a democratic state with a multi-party system). A.F. Kerensky as a politician of a new era in the analysis of the events of the development of Russia from February to October 1917.

thesis, added 09/18/2008


The history of the development of metallurgy in Russia. A trip abroad to study chemistry, mining and metallurgy, a graduate of the academic university M.V. Lomonosov. Lomonosov's education from a prominent specialist in mining and metallurgy I. Genkel.

abstract, added 03/16/2011


The Mystery of Ceramics. The emergence of metallurgy in the Paleolithic era, the motives for its development. The first sailors Sail idea. Ancient rafts from tree trunks. Route selection methods. New facts and "official" history. Ancient thalassocracy.

abstract, added 03/05/2012


The history of the creation of the first federalist party on the initiative of the statesman Alexander Hamilton. Brief biography and political activities of the 3rd US President Thomas Jefferson. The history of the emergence and development of the US party system.

presentation, added 03/09/2012


The emergence of the first states on the territory of modern Central Asia, the history of their formation and development. The main reasons for the growth and development of urban infrastructure. The concept of the Asian mode of production, its essence and features, stages of study.

abstract, added 02/03/2009


Stages of formation and development of cities and urban economy: the ancient period and the Middle Ages, cities in the Renaissance and in the post-industrial period. Formation of urban economy systems in Russia. Development of cities in the Soviet and post-Soviet period.

Prepared by: Kovaleva N., Babicheva V., Grade 9

Teacher: Agibalova G.M.

The history of the development of chemistry in ancient states

Introduction;

Chemical knowledge of primitive people;

Chemistry in Ancient Egypt;

Mummification;

Alchemy of the Arabs;

Alchemy in Western Europe;

Making gunpowder in China;

Chronicle of the development of chemistry in Russia.

Planet Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Then it neither internally nor externally resembled the current Earth at all. Internally, because it was not stratified into shells - geospheres; externally, because the usual relief for us with mountains, valleys, rivers and seas has not yet formed. It was a huge ball, "rolled" by universal gravitation from small cosmic bodies. When the temperature of the earth's surface dropped below +100 ْ, water appeared, the hydrosphere arose.

Delving into the history of the Earth, scientists became convinced that the development of our planet proceeded from simple to complex. This is why for a long time it was believed that at first the Earth was lifeless. It was enveloped in an oxygen-deprived atmosphere, full of poisonous substances; volcanic explosions thundered, lightning flashed, hard ultraviolet radiation penetrated the atmosphere and the upper layers of water ... Nevertheless, all these destructive phenomena worked for life. Under their influence, the first organic compounds began to be synthesized from the mixture of hydrogen sulfide vapors, ammonia and carbon monoxide that enveloped the Earth, and gradually the ocean was filled with organic matter.

This, at first glance, logical picture of the origin of life on Earth, unfortunately, is not confirmed by modern scientific data. Does this mean that life was brought from the depths of the Universe along with the substance from which the planet was formed, and that life already existed in this substance itself, and when it got to Earth, it gradually acquired a form familiar to us? This idea was first expressed by the ancient Greek scientist Anaximander in the 6th century BC. e. The same point of view was held at different times by many famous scientists, including Herman Helmholtz and William Thomson, Svante Arrhenius and Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, who believed that the biosphere is “geologically” eternal and life on Earth exists for as long as the Earth itself as a planet.

Chemical knowledge of primitive people.

At the lower levels of the cultural development of human society, under the primitive tribal system, the process of accumulation of chemical knowledge was very slow. The living conditions of people who united in small communities, or large families, and earned their livelihood by using ready-made products that nature provided, did not favor the development of productive forces.

The needs of primitive people were primitive. Strong and permanent ties between individual communities, especially if they were geographically distant from each other, did not exist. Therefore, the transfer of practical knowledge and experience required a long time. It took many centuries for primitive people, in a fierce struggle for existence, to master some fragmentary and random chemical knowledge. Observing the surrounding nature, our ancestors got acquainted with individual substances, some of their properties, learned how to use these substances to meet their needs. So, in distant prehistoric times, a person got acquainted with table salt, its taste and preservative properties.

The need for clothing taught primitive people the primitive ways of dressing animal skins. Raw, untreated skins could not serve as any suitable clothing. They broke easily, were tough, and quickly rotted when in contact with water. Processing the skins with stone scrapers, a person removed the core from the back of the skin, then the skin was subjected to a long soak in water, and then tanned in the infusion of the root of some plants, then it was dried and, finally, fattened. As a result of all these operations, it became soft, elastic and durable. It took many centuries to master such simple methods of processing various natural materials in primitive society.

A huge achievement of primitive man was the invention of methods for making fire and using it to heat dwellings and to cook and preserve food, and later for some technical purposes. The invention of ways to make fire and use it, according to archaeologists, occurred about 50,000-100,000 years ago and marked a new era in the cultural development of mankind.

The mastery of fire led to a significant expansion of chemical and practical knowledge in primitive society, to the acquaintance of prehistoric man with certain processes that occur when various substances are heated.

However, it took many millennia for a person to learn to consciously apply the heating of natural materials in order to obtain the products he needed. Thus, the observation of changes in the properties of clay during its calcination led to the invention of pottery. Pottery has been recorded in archaeological finds from the Paleolithic era. Much later, the potter's wheel was invented and special kilns for firing pottery and ceramic products were put into practice.

Already in the early stages of the primitive tribal system, some earthen paints were known, in particular, colored clays containing iron oxides (ocher, umber), as well as soot and other dyes, with which primitive artists depicted animal figures and hunting scenes on the walls of caves. , fights, etc. (for example, Spain, France, Altai). Since ancient times, mineral paints, as well as colored vegetable juices, have been used for painting household items and for tattooing.

Undoubtedly, primitive man also became acquainted very early with certain metals, primarily with those that are found in nature in a free state. However, in the early periods of the primitive tribal system, metals were used very rarely, mainly for jewelry, along with beautifully colored stones, shells, etc. However, archaeological

The finds indicate that in the Neolithic era, metal was used to make tools and weapons. At the same time, metal axes and hammers were made like stone ones. Metal thus played the role of a variety of stone. But there is no doubt that primitive people in the Neolithic era also observed the special properties of metals, in particular fusibility. A person could easily (of course, accidentally) get metals by heating some ores and minerals (lead sheen, cassiterite, turquoise, malachite, etc.) on a fire. For a Stone Age person, a fire was a kind of chemical laboratory.

Since ancient times, iron, gold, copper, and lead have been known to man. Acquaintance with silver, tin and mercury belongs to later periods.

Alchemy - the key to all knowledge, the crown of medieval learning - full of desire to get the philosopher's stone, which promised its owner untold wealth and eternal life.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol almost said this about alchemy.

Here we give the floor to him, as if he had really been in the laboratory of a medieval alchemist: “Imagine some German city in the Middle Ages, these narrow, irregular streets, tall, colorful Gothic houses and among them some dilapidated, almost lying down, considered uninhabited, on the cracked walls of which moss and old age are molded, the windows are deafly boarded up - this is the dwelling of an alchemist. Nothing in it speaks of the presence of the living, but in the dead of night the bluish smoke flying out of the chimney reports the vigilant wakefulness of the old man, who has already turned gray in his searches, but is still inseparable from hope, and the pious artisan of the Middle Ages flees with fear from his home. , where, in his opinion, the spirits founded their shelter, and where, instead of spirits, an unquenchable desire founded a dwelling, an irresistible curiosity that lives only by itself and is kindled by itself, kindling even from failure - the original element of the entire European spirit - which the Inquisition pursues in vain, penetrating into all the secret thoughts of man: it escapes by and, clothed with fear, indulges in its occupations with even greater pleasure.

Close, isn't it? - from such an impressive description of a medieval alchemist to devilry and witchcraft "Viya", fantastic short stories "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka".

ALCHEMY - a peculiar cultural phenomenon common in China, India, Egypt, ancient Greece, in the Middle Ages in the Arab East and Western Europe; according to orthodox science, a pre-scientific direction in the development of chemistry. Stand out stable, interconnected alchemical traditions - Greco-Egyptian, Arabic and Western European. Chinese and Indian traditions stand apart. In Russia, alchemy was not widely used.
The main goal of alchemy was the transmutation of base metals into noble ones (in connection with which the search was made for a means for turning metals into gold - the philosopher's stone), as well as obtaining an elixir of immortality, a universal solvent, etc. Along the way, alchemists made a number of discoveries, developed some laboratory techniques and methods for obtaining various products, incl. paints, glasses, enamels, metal alloys, medicinal substances, etc.
The outstanding scientist, alchemist and philosopher Roger Bacon, among the first medieval thinkers, proclaimed direct experience as the only criterion for true knowledge.
Many researchers point to the likelihood of successful alchemical experiments as early as the 6th-5th millennium BC. For example, attention is drawn to several hundred kilograms of gold found in cemeteries near the city of Varna, while there are no gold deposits in the Balkans. Abundant gold treasures with the almost complete absence of gold mining were found in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Nigeria; the sites of Inca gold mining are unknown. However, wherever the abundance of gold is difficult to explain, there are copper deposits. Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Vladimir Neiman put forward a hypothesis that at least part of the gold of the Balkans, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Nigeria, South America was artificially obtained from copper. It is possible that its production was based on ancient knowledge.
In the centuries before the advent of AD, they tried to produce alchemical gold on the territory of the Roman Empire, which prompted Gaius Julius Caesar, who was afraid that the secret would be in the hands of the enemies of the empire, to issue a decree on the destruction of alchemical texts. It is assumed that at the same time the secret of obtaining gold became the property of the Egyptian priests, and this fact itself was kept in strict secrecy until the 2nd-4th centuries, when information that the priests supposedly knew how to turn substances into gold began to spread. thanks to the activities of the Alexandria Academy.
As a result of the execution of the decrees of Caesar and Diocletian, hundreds of manuscripts perished, and the secret of making gold was believed to be lost. However, over the next few centuries, rumors periodically arose in various places about the transformation of metals into gold. A revival in Europe of general interest in alchemy began in the Middle Ages. Alchemy became especially widespread in Western Europe in the 14th-17th centuries. It is assumed that at this time some alchemists managed to get gold: either the preserved ancient knowledge was used, or ancient recipes were rediscovered.
Outstanding alchemists, as a rule, lived and worked under the close attention and tutelage of monarchs and the Catholic Church. Many monarchs and higher hierarchs of the church were themselves alchemists. The English King Henry VI, at whose court many alchemists worked, informed the people with a special message that work on obtaining the philosopher's stone was being completed in his laboratories. Soon, according to historical chronicles, he actually corrected the financial situation of the country.
Alchemists, according to the historical chronicle, helped replenish the treasury of the French king Charles VII

In 1460, the alchemist George Ripple, a personal friend of Pope Innocent VIII, donated to the Order of St. John the gold, which is believed to have been obtained by alchemy, for a gigantic sum of several thousand pounds sterling at that time.
According to various sources, in the entire medieval history of alchemy, no more than two or three dozen people managed to get gold. Among them, the Parisian scribe of books Nicolas Flammel, who received alchemical gold and silver in 1382, on which he built fourteen hospitals and three churches. Flammel became the richest man of his time. Back in the 18th century the French treasury distributed alms from the amounts intended by Flammel for this purpose.
A new stage in the development of alchemy began in the 19th century. with the attempts of some scientists to adapt the achievements of modern science to alchemy. Among others, the American inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla tried to comprehend the secret of obtaining gold, irradiating thin plates of silver with an X-ray machine with gold electrodes; the American physicist, Professor Ira Ramsen, who created an installation with which he hoped to carry out molecular transformations of some metals into others; the American chemist Carey Lee, who in 1896 obtained a yellow metal based on silver, resembling gold in appearance, but having the chemical properties of silver.

Chemistry in Ancient Egypt.

In ancient Egypt, chemistry was considered a divine science, and its secrets were carefully guarded by the priests. Despite this, some information leaked out of the country and reached Europe through Byzantium. VIII century, in the European countries conquered by the Arabs, this science is distributed under the name "alchemy". It should be noted that in the history of the development of chemistry as a science, alchemy characterizes an entire era. The main task of the alchemists was to find the "philosopher's stone", supposedly turning any metal into gold. Despite the extensive knowledge gained as a result of experiments, the theoretical views of alchemists lagged behind by several centuries. But since they carried out various experiments, they managed to make several important practical inventions. Furnaces, retorts, flasks, apparatus for the distillation of liquids began to be used. Alchemists prepared the most important acids, salts and oxides, described the methods of decomposition of ores and minerals. As a theory, alchemists used the teachings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) about the four principles of nature (cold, heat, dryness and humidity) and the four elements (earth, fire, air and water), subsequently adding solubility to them (salt ), combustibility (sulphur) and metallicity (mercury).

At the beginning of the 16th century, a new era begins in alchemy. Its origin and development is connected with the teachings of Paracelsus and Agricola. Paracelsus argued that the main task of chemistry is the manufacture of medicines, not gold and silver. Paracelsus had great success by suggesting that certain diseases be treated using simple inorganic compounds instead of organic extracts. This prompted many doctors to join his school and become interested in chemistry, which served as a powerful impetus for its development. Agricola also studied mining and metallurgy. His work "On Metals" was a textbook on mining for more than 200 years.

In the 17th century, the theory of alchemy no longer met the requirements of practice. In 1661, Boyle spoke out against the ideas prevailing in chemistry and subjected the theory of alchemists to the most severe criticism. He first identified the central object of chemistry research: he tried to define a chemical element. Boyle believed that an element is the limit of the decomposition of a substance into its component parts. Decomposing natural substances into their constituents, the researchers made many important observations, discovered new elements and compounds. The chemist began to study what consists of what.

In 1700, Stahl developed the phlogiston theory, according to which all bodies capable of burning and oxidizing contain the substance phlogiston. During combustion or oxidation, phlogiston leaves the body, which is the essence of these processes. During the almost century-old domination of the phlogiston theory, many gases were discovered, various metals, oxides, and salts were studied. However, the inconsistency of this theory hindered the further development of chemistry.

In 1772-1777, Lavoisier, as a result of his experiments, proved that the combustion process is a reaction of the combination of oxygen in the air and a burning substance. Thus, the phlogiston theory was refuted.

In the 18th century, chemistry began to develop as an exact science. At the beginning of the 19th century Englishman J. Dalton introduced the concept of atomic weight. Each chemical element received its most important characteristic. Atomic-molecular theory became the basis of theoretical chemistry. Thanks to this teaching, D. I. Mendeleev discovered the periodic law, named after him, and compiled the periodic table of elements. In the 19th century two main branches of chemistry were clearly defined: organic and inorganic. At the end of the century, physical chemistry took shape as an independent branch. The results of chemical research have been increasingly used in practice, and this has led to the development of chemical technology.

Mummification.

The funeral rite in ancient Egypt consisted in the mummification of a corpse. All internal organs and the brain were removed from the deceased, the body was soaked for a long time in a special balm, wrapped in a shroud and left in this form in the tomb. The corpse, treated in this way, did not decompose, but dried up and was preserved for a very long time - in the Hermitage, even now, the mummy of a certain priest lies in a completely conditioned state, is about to get up and go. A fantasy mummy is the same mummified corpse, which, however, is partially animated by the forces of darkness or magic. Such a mummy does not commit any conscious destructive acts, but if grave robbers disturb her peace, an unpleasant surprise awaits them. These creatures are commonly found in the tombs of hot, waterless lands, often shamelessly stripped from ancient Egypt. Although mummies are undead in all respects, it is stated that they are animated by energy not from the Negative (like any undead), but from the Positive plane - in other words, they should not be "undead", but something like "super-life". This monster looks like a desiccated corpse wrapped in strips of cloth. Its appearance is so impressive that even the bravest hero can turn to the thirty-third karate technique in horror, barely looking at the mummy. And there is something to be afraid of - the claws of mummies suffer a terrible disease resembling leprosy - mummifying rot (mummy rot). The rot can only be cured with the help of healing magic, otherwise the victim dies within a few months in terrible agony, starting from the very first day of illness. The Infected is easy to identify by the tatters of skin and pieces of flesh that fall from him at every step. Only fire can save from a mummy - an oiled shroud and dehydrated flesh burn amazingly well. In addition to the usual stupid evil mummies, there are great mummies. They are obtained exclusively from the priests of the Egyptian pantheon, who were especially successful in the field of serving their gods. These mummies are much more deadly than normal mummies - their aura of fear is much stronger, and the rot knocks down the victim in just a few days. Not only that: great mummies become more powerful every century, they are no more vulnerable to fire than ordinary people, they have the magic of very high-level priests, they can control ordinary mummies and, most importantly, they are smart. Although the great mummies are usually created as guardians of the tombs, they often leave their places of burial and bring death and destruction.

Mummy - the body of a person or animal, embalmed in accordance with the funeral rites of ancient Egypt. After placing the internal organs of a person in a canopy, the body was dried with soda, and then wrapped with linen bandages, between which you can find jewelry, religious texts, traces of various ointments. Then the mummies were placed in a wooden, stone or gold sarcophagus in the shape of a human body, which was installed in the tomb. The culmination of the procedure was the "opening of the mouth" ceremony, which symbolically restored the mummy's vitality.

Alchemy of the Arabs.

Jabir, or Jaffar, known in Latin Europe as Geber, is a semi-legendary Arab alchemist. He probably lived in the 8th century. Geber summed up the theoretical and practical chemical knowledge known to him, mined in the depths of the Assyro-Babylonian, ancient Egyptian, Jewish, ancient Greek and early Christian civilizations.

Arab alchemists own: the production of vegetable oils, the development of many chemical operations (distillation, filtration, sublimation, crystallization), as a result of which new substances were prepared; the invention of laboratory chemical equipment (alembic, water bath, chemical ovens) - this is what entered our modern chemical laboratories from the mysterious laboratories of Arab alchemists. Many of these achievements are credited to Geber.

The Arab past of chemical science is also captured in chemical terms. "Alnushadir", "alkali", "alcohol" - the Arabic names of ammonia, alkali, alcohol.

Baghdad in the Middle East and Cordoba in Spain are the centers of Arabic learning, including alchemy. Here, within the framework of Arab Muslim culture, the teachings of the great philosopher of Greek antiquity Aristotle are assimilated, commented and interpreted in an alchemical way, the theoretical foundation of alchemy, which came to Western Europe at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century, is developed. It is in the West that alchemy becomes completely independent with its own goals and theory.

Alchemy in Western Europe.

The famous magician and theologian, teacher of the illustrious philosopher of the Catholic Church Thomas Aquinas, Albert Bolshtedsky, nicknamed the Great by respectful contemporaries, mentally addressing the long-suffering alchemist, mournfully wrote: “If you had the misfortune to enter the society of nobles, they will not stop tormenting you with questions: - Well, master, how is it going? When will we finally get a decent result? And, impatiently waiting for the end of the experiments, they will scold you as a swindler, a scoundrel and will try to cause you all sorts of troubles, and if the experience does not work out for you, they will turn all the strength of their fury on you. If, on the contrary, you succeed, they will keep you in eternal captivity, so that you will work forever in their favor.

These bitter words refer to the thirteenth century, when tireless alchemical quests were already about a thousand years old. And before the result - before obtaining perfect gold from an imperfect metal - it was as far away as it was at the beginning of the journey.

Among the alchemists were also charlatans, swindlers, such as, for example, the forgers of metals Capocchio and Griffolino, to whom Dante, after his death, intended the eighth circle of Hell to atone for earthly deceptions.

And so that you know who I am, humming with you Over the suns, look into my features "And make sure that this mourning spirit is Capocchio, the one that in the world of vanity Alchemy forged metals; I, as you remember, if it's you, the Artisan in ape was considerable.

But there were also great martyrs - seekers of true knowledge. That was the Englishman Roger Bacon. He spent fourteen years in the dungeons of the papal inquisition, but did not compromise any of his convictions. And now many of them would do honor to a man of science. Trust only personal direct observation, direct sensory experience. False authorities do not deserve trust - preached four hundred years before the actual formation of the experimental science of modern times, a brilliant Franciscan monk.

So, a thousand years of persecution and the most severe persecution of alchemists, but at the same time a thousand years of life, sometimes very fruitful, of this strange, magical, sorcery occupation. What is the matter here? In the documents of the ecumenical councils there is not even a hint of a ban on alchemical studies. The court alchemist is just as necessary a figure at the court as the court astrologer. Even the crowned persons themselves were not averse to making alchemical gold. Among them, Henry VIII of England Charles VII of France. And Rudolf II of Germany minted coins from counterfeit, "alchemical" gold.

Pagan in origin, alchemy entered the bosom of Christian medieval Europe as a stepdaughter, although not so unloved. The alchemist was tolerated, even with pleasure. And the point here is not only the greed of secular and spiritual monarchs, but, perhaps, the fact that Christianity itself, with its hierarchy of demons and angels, a whole army of "highly specialized" saints and demons, was largely "pagan" with "constitutional" observance monotheism. But let us turn to the theory professed by Western alchemists. According to Aristotle (as medieval Christian thinkers understood him), everything that exists is composed of the following four primary elements (elements), united in pairs according to the principle of opposition: fire - water, earth - air. Each of these elements corresponds to a well-defined property. These properties also appeared as symmetrical pairs: heat-cold, dryness-humidity. It should, however, be borne in mind that the elements themselves were understood as universal principles, the material concreteness of which is doubtful, if not completely excluded. At the basis of all individual things (or particular substances) lies a homogeneous primary matter. Translated into alchemical language, the four Aristotelian principles appear as three alchemical principles that make up all substances, including the seven then known metals. These beginnings are as follows: sulfur (the father of metals), personifying flammability and brittleness, mercury (mother of metals), personifying metallicity and moisture. Later, at the end of the XIV century, the third element of alchemists is introduced - salt, personifying hardness. Thus, the metal is a complex body and is composed of at least mercury and sulfur, which are related to each other in different ways.

And if so, then the change of the latter implies the possibility of transformation, or, as the alchemists said, transmutation of one metal into another. But for this it is necessary to improve the initial principle - the mother principle of all metals - mercury. Iron or lead, for example, is nothing but diseased gold or diseased silver. It must be cured, but for this you need a medicine ("drug"). This medicine is the philosopher's stone, one part of which supposedly can turn two billion parts of base metal into perfect gold.

Says the 14th-century Spanish alchemist Arnaldo of Villanova: “Every substance consists of elements into which it can be decomposed. Let me take an irrefutable and easily understood example. With the help of heat, ice melts into water, which means that it is from water. And now all metals, when melted, turn into mercury, which means that mercury is the primary material of all metals.

Indeed, almost a thousand years of sensory experience of alchemists testified: all metals melt when heated and then become like liquid, mobile and shiny mercury. So all metals are made up of mercury. An iron nail turns red when immersed in an aqueous solution of copper sulphate. This phenomenon was explained exclusively in an alchemical spirit: iron is transmuted into copper, and not displaced by iron from a solution of copper sulfate, copper settles on the surface of the nail. The ratios of the two principles in metals change. Their color also changes.

How did the alchemists themselves define their occupation? R. Bacon, referring to the thrice-greatest Hermes, wrote: “Alchemy is an immutable science that works on bodies with the help of theory and experience and strives to transform the lower of them into higher and more precious modifications by means of natural combination. Alchemy teaches to transform any kind of metal into another with the help of a special tool.

The philosopher and alchemist of the Alexandrian school Stefan taught: “It is necessary to free matter from its qualities, extract the soul from it, separate the soul from the body in order to achieve perfection ... The soul is the most subtle part. The body is a heavy, material, earthly thing that has a shadow. It is necessary to banish the shadow from matter in order to obtain a pure and immaculate nature. Matter must be freed."

But what does "liberate" mean? - Stephan asks further, - "doesn't this mean to deprive, spoil, dissolve, kill and deprive matter of its own nature ...". In other words, to destroy the body, to destroy the form, connected only in appearance with the essence. Destroy the body - you will gain spiritual strength, essence. Remove superficial, secondary - you will get deep, main, intimate. Let's call this formless sought-after essence, devoid of any properties other than ideal perfection, "essence". The search for this "essence" is one of the most characteristic features of the alchemist's thinking, outwardly - and perhaps more than just outwardly - coinciding with the thinking of a European medieval Christian (achieving a moral absolute, spiritual salvation after death, exhausting the body by fasting in the name of the health of the spirit, building the "city of God" in the soul of the believer). At the same time, "essentiality" - let's conditionally call this feature of the alchemist's thinking - coincides to some extent with an almost "scientific" way of comprehending the nature of things. Indeed, isn’t a modern chemist, when determining, for example, the composition of swamp gas, forced to burn it, to completely destroy the “body” of the methane molecule, in order to judge its composition by fragments - carbon dioxide and water, in other words, about its “essential essence, as the alchemists would say! On this path, alchemy is "transmuted" into modern chemistry, into scientific chemistry. However, if only this direction existed in alchemy, chemistry as a science would hardly have arisen. In this way, the essence would appear in the final analysis devoid of any materiality. Empirically - experimental reality, the results of direct observations in this case were neglected.

But there was also an opposite tradition in alchemy. Here is how Roger Bacon describes all six metals (except the seventh - mercury): “Gold is a perfect body ... Silver is almost perfect, but it lacks only a little more weight, constancy and color ... Tin is a little undercooked and undercooked. Lead is even more impure, it lacks strength, color. He's not cooked enough. There are too many earthy non-combustible particles and an impure color in copper ... There is a lot of impure sulfur in iron.

So, every metal already contains gold in potency. By appropriate manipulation, but chiefly by a miracle, an imperfect, dull metal can be made into perfect, brilliant gold. Thus, the body - the chemical "body" - is a thing that is not completely rejected. "The whole passes into the whole" is a principle deeply alchemical in nature. Of course, if we add to this a miracle as the cause of this transformation, transfiguration. For example, tin is not yet “transubstantiated”, not transfigured, gold. Chemical-technological operations on it are only a condition for a miraculous transformation. Of course, a miracle has nothing to do with science. But it is on this second path (the body and its properties are not rejected) that the richest experimental chemical material is accumulated: a description of new compounds, details of their transformations.

Western European alchemy gave the world several major discoveries and inventions. It was at this time that sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids, aqua regia, potash, caustic alkalis, mercury and sulfur compounds were obtained, antimony, phosphorus and their compounds were discovered, the interaction of acid and alkali (neutralization reaction) was described. Alchemists also own great inventions: gunpowder, the production of porcelain from kaolin ... These experimental data formed the experimental basis of scientific chemistry. But only the fusion - organic, natural - of these two seemingly opposite streams of alchemical thought - bodily-empirical and essential-speculative, - closely related to the movement of medieval Christian thought, transformed alchemy into chemistry, "hermetic art" into an exact science.

Let's continue our journey through the countries.

Making gunpowder in China.

But in the 10th century A.D. e. a new substance appeared, specifically designed to create noise. A medieval Chinese text entitled "A Dream in the Eastern Capital" describes a performance given by the Chinese military in the presence of the emperor around 1110. The performance opened with a “roar like thunder”, then fireworks began to explode in the darkness of the medieval night, and dancers in fancy costumes moved in clubs of multi-colored smoke.

A substance that produced such sensational effects was destined to have an exceptional influence on the destinies of the most diverse peoples. However, it entered history slowly, uncertainly, it took centuries of observations, many accidents, trial and error, until people gradually realized that they were dealing with something completely new. The action of the mysterious substance was based on a unique mixture of components - saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal, carefully crushed and mixed in a certain proportion. The Chinese called this mixture ho yao - "fire potion".

Chronicle of the development of chemistry in Russia

Not so long ago, the 250th anniversary of domestic chemistry was celebrated, which was associated with the opening in 1748 of the first Russian chemical laboratory, created thanks to M.V. Lomonosov.

In recent years, our newspaper has published many materials on the formation and development of chemical science in our country, in particular under the headings "Gallery of Russian chemists" and "Chronicle of the most important discoveries." Various problems of the history of domestic chemistry were considered in numerous special articles and essays. The accumulated "data bank" forms the basis for a fairly holistic understanding of the features and patterns of its evolution.

Meanwhile, the reader should have an idea of ​​the main milestones of this evolution. A similar task is set by the authors of the published material. Of course, the selection of facts bears some imprint of subjectivity. But it can be said with confidence that all the most important achievements of chemistry in Russia are reflected in the Chronicle.

We thought it right to preface her with a short essay on the origin of chemical research in our country. By the way, this problem is covered very sparingly in the historical-scientific and even more so in the educational literature.

“... If in ancient Greece seven cities argued among themselves, who owns the glory of being known as the native mountains

abstract

Chemical knowledge and crafts in antiquity

In the discipline "The concept of modern natural science"

Completed by: student group No. DR 0610
Ilyina Anna Andreevna
Checked by: teacher
Moiseenko Anton

Dalnerechenk 2012
Content:

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….3

Chemical elements of wood … … … … … … … … … … … … … ... .... . four
Mysteries of “transmutation” … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …. 6
O t a l ch i m i a c n o n s cient o c h i m i o n … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 11
List of used literature … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .14

Introduction

From time immemorial, a person, faced with various natural phenomena, accumulating information about them and about the objects surrounding him, increasingly used them for his own benefit. Man noticed that under the action of fire, some substances (and life itself) disappear, while others change their properties. For example, fired raw clay gains strength. Man applied this in his practice, and pottery was born. From ores they learned to smelt metals, and by fusing metals, to obtain various alloys; This is how metallurgy was born.
Using his observations and knowledge, man learned to create, and by creating, he learned. Sciences were born and developed in parallel with crafts and industries.
The transformations of substances under the influence of fire were the first chemical reactions carried out by man. According to the figurative expression of the Soviet historian N. A. Figurovsky, the fire was a kind of chemical laboratory.

Chemical elements of antiquity

Some metals - gold, lead, copper, iron - were known to people even during the primitive communal system. Initially, these metals were used to make jewelry, and only later, around the end of the Stone Age (4-5 thousand years BC), tools and weapons began to be made from metals. Gradually, production began to emerge from various crafts. So already in the days of the slave system (4 thousand years BC - V century AD) there was metallurgy, dyeing, ceramics were made, etc. With the development of these industries, knowledge about substances, their properties and transformations was significantly enriched .
Already several thousand years before our era in ancient Egypt they knew how to smelt and use gold, copper, silver, tin, lead and mercury. In the country of the sacred Nile, the production of ceramics and glazes, glass and faience developed. The ancient Egyptians also used various paints: mineral (ocher, red lead, whitewash) and organic (indigo, purple, alizarin). No wonder the famous French chemist Mu Berthelot believed that the very name of the science of chemistry came from the ancient Egyptian word hema: this was the name of the people inhabiting the “black lands” (Egypt), where crafts were developed. However, the Greek alchemist Zosimus (III-IV centuries AD) explained the origin of this word differently: he considered the art of making silver and gold to be chemistry. Other interpretations are also known. Until now, scientists do not have a common opinion on this matter.
Chemical crafts were developed in the 4th-2nd millennium BC. e. And in the countries of Mesopotamia in the Middle East (valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). In those days, the peoples inhabiting Mesopotamia knew metals (from lead, for example, figurines and cult figurines were cast), mineral and organic dyes were widely used, they knew how to make glazes, faience, etc.

Scientists-philosophers of Ancient Greece (7th-5th centuries BC) tried to explain how various transformations are carried out, from what and how all substances originated. Thus arose the doctrine of the beginnings, the elements (from stecheia - the basis), or the elements (from the Latin elementum - the fundamental principle, the beginning), as they were called later.
Thales of Miletus believed that the world is a single whole, and everything that happens in nature is the result of compaction or discharge of a single primary matter, a single primary source - water. Anaximenes of Miletus recognized air as the primary matter, upon cooling and thickening of which water is formed, and from it then, upon subsequent compaction and cooling, earth arises. The philosopher Xenophanes taught that the primary principles are water and earth; matter is not destroyed and does not arise, the world exists forever.
In 544-483. BC e. The famous philosopher Heraclitus lived in the city of Ephesus, who believed that all "bodies" of nature are inherent in perpetual motion. Naturally, at the same time, he recognized the most mobile changeable beginning - fire as the primary matter. The world, according to Heraclitus, was not created by either gods or people, “it was, is and will be an ever-living fire”, which naturally ignites and just as naturally extinguishes.
Another ancient Greek philosopher, Empedocles, observing the burning of a tree, noted that smoke is first formed (air then flame (fire) and finally ash (earth) remains. If there is a cold surface near the flame, then water vapor is deposited on it. Thus , combustion is the decomposition of a burning substance into four elements: air, fire, water and earth.Based on this conclusion, Empedocles was the first to create the doctrine of the four principles ("roots") of nature: "First, listen that there are four roots of everything) that exists - Fire, and Water, and Earth, and the boundless heights of Ether. . . Of these, all that was, and all that will be. These "beginnings" are eternal and unchanging.
Secrets of "transmutation"

In 321 BC. e. in the Nile Delta, a new city was founded - Alexandria, named after the conqueror Alexander of Macendon. Having a favorable geographical position, the city has become one of the largest trade and craft centers. The first academy in history was founded there - a special institution where they were engaged in various studies and taught sciences known at that time.
Prior to the conquest of Egypt, priests who knew chemical operations (obtaining alloys, amalgamation, imitation of precious metals, highlighting paints, etc.) kept them in the deepest secret and passed them on only to selected students, and the operations themselves were carried out in temples, accompanied by magnificent mystical ceremonies . After the conquest of this country, many secrets of the priests became known to ancient Greek scientists, who believed that the imitation of precious metals was a real “transformation” of some substances into others, in accordance with the laws of nature. In a word, in Hellenistic Egypt there was a combination of the ideas of ancient philosophers and the traditional rituals of priests - what was later called alchemy.
About 640 AD e. Egypt was captured by the Arabs, and already at the beginning of the VIII century. their power was established over a vast territory - from Gibraltar to India. Scientific and practical knowledge and culture assimilated by the Arabs in the conquered countries (and especially in Egypt), by the XII century. reached Europe. Trade between the states of the Arab East and European countries played an important role in this. Chemical knowledge that came to Europe from the Arabs began to be called the Arabic word "alchemy".
The Greek alchemist Zosima is the author of many scientific works, including alchemical ones (“Imut”, which refers to the origin of alchemy; “On the good quality and composition of waters”, which describes the production of life-giving water). He is considered one of the founders of alchemy.
Among the Arab alchemists, one of the most prominent was Prince Kalida ibn Kazid (c. 660-704), who spent most of his life in Egypt. He ordered that all known alchemical works be translated into Arabic.
But the Arabs called the true "king of science" the great scientist Jabir ibn Gayan (c. 721-815), known in Europe under the name Geber. Familiar with the teachings of the ancients, he became a follower of Aristotle, whose views on the elements-qualities were rethought by the Arabs.
Guyan believed that metals consist of two main parts (elements): sulfur, which is the carrier of combustibility and variability, and mercury, the “soul” of metals, the carrier of metallicity (brilliance, hardness, fusibility), and the main chemical processes are combustion and melting. The noblest metals are gold and silver, which contain sulfur and mercury in the purest form and in the most optimal proportion. The variety of the latter depends on the quantitative ratio of sulfur and mercury and on impurities. But in nature, this process of connection is very slow, and to speed it up, you need to add a "drug" (a special drug), then the transformation will take about 40 days; if you use the "elixir", then the whole process of obtaining gold will take only 1 hour!
He studied Guyan and the properties, as well as methods for preparing many salts: vitriol, alum, saltpeter, etc.; knew the production of acids: nitric, sulfuric, acetic; when conducting experiments, he resorted to distillation, roasting, sublimation, crystallization. He believed that practice and experiments for alchemists are of paramount importance, without them success is impossible. The works of Guyana (The Book of Seventy, The Book of Poisons, The Sum of Perfections, The Book of Furnaces) have been studied for many centuries.
The largest Arab alchemist Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865-925), the author of the Book of Secrets and the Book of Secrets of Secrets, considered himself a student of the famous Geber. He was the first to classify the substances known at that time, dividing them into three classes: earthy (mineral), vegetable and animal.
Ar-Razi recognized the transmutation of base metals into noble ones, recognized the elements of metals - sulfur and mercury, but, without limiting himself to this, introduced an additional third element - the element of "salt nature", which is the carrier of hardness and solubility. This doctrine of the three elements (sulphur, mercury, salt) was widely spread among European alchemists.
Like Gayan, al-Razi believed that the goal of alchemy should be the knowledge of the properties of substances, the development of all kinds of operations on them, the manufacture of various devices for these operations. In this practical, and not abstract, mystical orientation, the specificity of the teachings of the Arab alchemists was expressed precisely.
The idea of ​​turning base metals into noble ones found many adherents in Western Europe. And now, behind thick walls, in damp cellars, in secluded cells, they are trying to speed up the process of “improving” metals. Base metals are melted, mixed with each other, painted, buried in the ground, but in vain! Why can't you get gold?
Perhaps this process is supernatural? Spells are cast over metals; magic formulas are depicted on the floor, on the walls. . . and again failure.
Or maybe the whole essence lies in the fifth element - the “quint of essence”, which has received many different sublime and mysterious names? Only he alone could turn any metal into gold, give a person eternal life and youth. Now the efforts of alchemists are focused on obtaining the Philosopher's Stone. Hundreds of cryptic recipes have been created, most of which have yet to be deciphered, let alone experimentally verified.
Albert the Great believed that the transmutation of metals consists in the appearance and density. The change in the properties of metals occurs under the action of arsenic (colors metals yellow) and water (compressing and compacting, it increases the density of metals). Describing the conduct of alchemical operations, he gives a number of rules that must be followed in the work: remain silent, hide from human eyes, keep time, etc.
In the XVI century. Especially popular were the works of Basil Valentine (“the mighty king”): “On the Secret Philosophy”, “On the Great Stone of the Ancient Sages”, “The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony”. True, all attempts to establish the true name of the author failed; apparently, an unknown alchemist wrote under this pseudonym, perhaps not alone.
Recognizing the transmutation of metals and the beginnings of alchemists, Vasily Valentin emphasized that the alchemical elements of metals have nothing to do with the real elements of the same name:
But not all medieval scientists accepted the basic theoretical positions of alchemists. And one of these scientists was Avicenna. This Latin name was given to the famous Arab philosopher and physician Abu Ali al-Hussein ibn Sina (980-1037), a Tajik by nationality, who was born near Bukhara. He created about 300 works, and some of them ("Medical Canon", "Book of Healing", "Book of Knowledge") are famous to this day. He described almost a thousand different substances, among which were metals, Avicenna considered sulfur and mercury, but denied the possibility of turning one metal into another, because he believed that there were no ways for this.
The greatest Italian scientist and artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who set as his goal "to comprehend the origin of numerous creatures of nature", did not believe in transmutation and alchemical principles. He relied on the experiment, which he considered an intermediary "between the artful nature and the human race" and which "must be done many times, so that some accidental circumstance would not affect its results."
In search of conditions for the implementation of the mysterious transmutation, alchemists developed such important methods of purification of substances as filtration, sublimation, distillation, crystallization. To conduct experiments, they created special apparatus - a water bath, a distillation cube, furnaces for heating flasks; they discovered sulfuric, hydrochloric and nitric acids, many salts, ethyl alcohol, studied many reactions (reaction of metals with sulfur, roasting, oxidation, etc.).
But in order to turn the alchemical teaching into the provisions of scientific chemistry, it was necessary to “cleanse” it of mystical layers, put it on a genuine experimental basis, and study in detail the composition of substances. The beginning of this complex and lengthy process was laid by iatrochemists (from iatros - doctor) and representatives of technical chemistry.
The development of atrochemistry, metallurgy, dyeing, the manufacture of glazes, etc., the improvement of chemical equipment - all this contributed to the fact that the experiment is gradually becoming the main criterion for the truth of theoretical propositions. Practice, in turn, could not develop without theoretical concepts, which were supposed to not only explain, but also predict the properties of substances and the conditions for conducting chemical processes.

From Alchemy to Scientific Chemistry.

The revival of ancient atomism contributed to a new understanding of the subject of chemical knowledge. Here the works of the French thinker P. Gassendi played an important role. He not only resurrected the atomistic theory, but, according to J. Bernal, turned it "into a doctrine, which included everything new in physics that was found in the Renaissance." To detect particles not visible to the naked eye, Gassendi used an engioscope (microscope); from this he concluded that if such small particles can be detected, then there can be very tiny ones that can be seen later.
He believed that God created a certain number of atoms, differing from each other in shape, size and weight. everything in the world is made up of them. Just as a huge number of various buildings can be built from bricks, logs and boards, so nature creates a great many bodies from several dozen types of atoms. Connecting, atoms give larger formations - "molecules". The latter, in turn, uniting with each other, become larger and "accessible to the senses." Thus, Gassendi was the first to introduce the concept of a molecule into chemistry (from the Latin moles - with a diminutive suffix cula).
etc.................

Science was formed only 300 years ago. Does it make sense to withdraw from the study of chemistry during the time of the "Grey Antiquities"? It may be sufficient to consider how chemistry developed in the 18th and 20th centuries. After all, it was the views of this period that entered the chemical teachings or were rejected. With this approach, we will not be able to understand why and on what basis the basic sciences emerged. You and I will not understand why the atomistic theory and many other views that were expressed by the first natural philosophers made their way with such difficulty. The further we penetrate into the depths of history and consider those rudiments of chemical knowledge that arose at the dawn of human development, the better we will understand our present.

Chemical knowledge among primitive people.

Usually in general methodology courses, types of cognition are considered at the very beginning. And the first type of knowledge that methodologists single out is ordinary knowledge, thanks to which a person gains life experience and works out technological methods.
It is from these positions that we must consider the contribution of primitives to chemical knowledge. Observations of natural phenomena, contemplation of nature was the first experience that was generalized, and a person mastered certain skills and knowledge.
As many historians of science note, the fire was the first human laboratory. Having mastered fire  100 thousand years ago, man began to experience the effect of fire on stones, minerals, ceramics, and ores.
Obviously, in this way, he could melt the metals from which he made various decorations. The names of metals were associated with cosmic phenomena. So the name of gold is Aurum - "Aurora" - morning dawn. The ancient Egyptians, Armenians and other peoples knew about meteoric iron. In the era of primitive society, some mineral paints (ocher, umber) were also known.
All this incomplete, fragmentary knowledge we have thanks to the successes of chemistry in the 20th century. In 1960, the American physical chemist Willard Frank Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize: "For the introduction of the method of using carbon-14 to determine the age in archeology, geology, geophysics and other fields of science." This method itself, the method of radiocarbon dating (using the 14C isotope), was proposed by him in 1947. Thus, chemistry itself allowed us to know its distant past.

The origin of handicraft chemistry.

Practical and handicraft chemistry originated in the era of slavery in all countries of Central and Near Asia, North Africa and on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. What are the main crafts we meet at this time?
There are 3 types of handicraft chemical equipment:
1. High-temperature processes - ceramics, glassware, metallurgy;
2. Pharmaceutics and perfumery;
3. Obtaining paints and staining technique.
So, let's look at each direction in more detail.

High-temperature processes (metallurgy, ceramics, glass-making).

In metallurgy, information about metals and methods for their smelting from ores was rapidly expanding.
Glassmaking has been mastered for a long time. There is a legend that glass was discovered by accident by Phoenician sailors who were in distress and landed on one island, where they lit a fire and overlaid it with lumps of soda. When the fire went out, the sailors found the beads. But a legend is a legend, although it is sometimes based on real facts. Archaeological excavations indicate that in ancient Egypt, their glass beads date back to 2500 BC. Large glass products could not be produced at that time, so large products (vases) were made from sintered material.
In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. in ancient Egypt, the real production of glass for decorative and ornamental material began to develop. The potassium content of the glass is low, indicating that the silica was melted with soda. Due to the high content of soda, it was possible to reduce the melting temperature, however, the quality characteristics deteriorated. Coloring, of course, depended on additives.
In Mesopotamia, advanced glass production already appeared in the 17th century BC.
In Eastern Palestine, in excavations dating back to 3 thousand BC. glass furnaces were discovered. Glassblowing appears to have been invented at the dawn of a new era, and earlier glassware was cast.
The manufacture of ceramics is the oldest of the handicraft industries. In addition to dishes, tiles were made for the exterior decoration of buildings. This type of craft was developed in China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.

Pharmacy and perfumery

A number of recipes for pharmaceuticals, the so-called "Ebers Papyrus" (16th century BC). Although they do not contain purely chemical procedures, they indicate that the artisans had such techniques in their arsenal: digestion, infusion, squeezing, fermentation, pumping, etc. According to the historian Pliny, many medicines were known in his time. FeSO4 was used as an emetic, alum solutions were used for compresses and gargling. Poisons were known that were used in hunting and during the war. Perfumery and cosmetics were obtained by squeezing, extraction, etc., as a rule, from plants.

Obtaining paints and dyeing technology.

We have already noted that in ancient times, mineral paints were widely used for rock and wall painting, and for cosmetic purposes, paints of plant and animal origin. In ancient Egypt, earth paints, as well as artificially obtained oxides and other metal compounds, were used for rock and wall painting. Most often, ocher, red lead, whitewash, sax, ground copper sheen, oxides of iron, copper, etc. were used. Vitrunius (1st century AD) described the preparation of ancient Egyptian glaze: sand was calcined in a clay pot along with soda and copper filings.
In general, the use of colored copper compounds to obtain glazes was widely used. Blue glaze tinted with copper is recorded in items dating back to 2800 BC. At a later time, cobalt was found in the composition of glasses (500 BC). From the beginning of the first millennium BC. The Egyptians began to use lead glaze, which gave yellow and greenish colors.
In Western Asia and Egypt, along with mineral paints, vegetable natural dyes were also used. The technology for obtaining the coloring beginning of the ball is the most diverse - this is dissolution in alkalized water and oils, this is fermentation, this is extraction, etc.
Sometimes getting the dye was a very laborious task. So in Mesopotamia, kurkur was known as early as the 2nd millennium BC.
The paint was obtained from a bivalve mollusk of the genus Murex, which lived in the shallows of the island of Cyprus. The coloring matter is located in a small gland in the form of a sac. It was squeezed out and applied to the fabric. When dried in the light, the color of the fabric began to change: green - red - purple-red. If this fabric is washed with soap, then the color becomes bright crimson. To obtain 1.5 g of dry dye, it was necessary to process 12 thousand mollusks.
The Egyptians made purple by applying red to blue, and they made green by applying blue to yellow.
Aluminum alum, iron salts (FeSO4, (CH3COO)2Fe) were taken as mordants. Copper, lead and tin mordants began to be used in the second half of the 1st millennium BC.
West of the Nile, in ancient Egypt, aluminum alum was mined in the desert. Therod, who is rightly called the "father of history," writes that in the 4th century BC. 1000 talents (more than 36 tons) of "binding earth" were sent from Egypt to Delphi. We first met with weight units. You noticed that the measure of weight coincides in name with the denomination of banknotes. And this is no coincidence. The fact is that metal coins often served as a measure of weight in the states of Asia Minor, Middle Asia and Western Asia. When studying ancient weights and coins, it was found that the oldest system of weight units known to us is based on the weight of one grain of bread (grain); 60 grains weigh 1 shekel, 60 shekels - 1 mina, 60 mins - 1 talent. True, there were at least 3 mines in Ancient Babylon: ordinary, “silver” and “gold”. In modern measures of measurement, a grocery (ordinary) mine was 491.2 g; "silver" - 545.7 g; and "golden" - 409.3 g. These measures of weight served as the basis for weight units in other countries. In the 6th century BC. the Greek legislator Solon (638-559 BC) transformed the system of weight units. In particular, the weight of 1 min in ancient Greece was 450 g, and 60 min or a talent was 27 kg.
But back to mordants and dyes. "Binding Earth" has been known for a very long time. In 2 thousand BC. the Greeks used alum for dyeing. The use of alum for tanning leather and in medicine was known as early as the time of Nebuchadnezzar (12th century BC)
On the threshold of the New Era, the range of natural dyes has expanded significantly. Other plants have been found as sources of colors. New dyeing technologies appeared: printing of fabrics in Egypt. The range of mineral paints has also expanded: verdigris [(CH3COO)2Cu], white lead [(CH3COO)2Pb, PbCl2]. Lacquers like drying oil appeared. Chinese ink and Chinese varnishes were widely used.
So, let's sum up this period of the prehistory of chemistry. Evaluating it, the famous chemist and historian of chemistry Paul Walden wrote: “These empiricists of antiquity mastered the art of transforming substances to a high degree only through systematic experience and observation, meaningful “Testing” and “Thinking”. It was during this period that handicraft techniques appeared, which later became part of the practice of chemical laboratories. This includes roasting, melting, boiling, filtration, drying, crystallization, distillation, as well as cementing techniques. The method of desalination of sea water by distillation was also known in antiquity. Appeared in the practice of artisans of antiquity and the first qualitative methods of analysis.
But was it only this, in modern terms, empirical material that was obtained in this period of history? These works were the basis of the first theoretical constructions. But one thing is not in doubt at the present time, that Greek natural philosophy, in which the first views on the structure of matter appeared - the basis of the chemical views of a later period - originated in the mythology of the ancient peoples. We can easily find the "substances" of the first natural philosophers of Ancient Greece in the elements of mythology, which already had substantial significance within mythological thinking. Mythological thinking thus preceded philosophical and natural philosophical thinking, and the first builders of philosophical systems knew mythology very well. Therefore, it is no coincidence that we find all the fundamental principles of ancient Greek philosophers in mytho-epic cosmogonies.
Much remains to be done by historians of science and cultologists so that you and I can rethink this layer of human culture. After all, it is quite obvious that the human mind, which rationalized the myth, did not flash once in the heads of the first philosophers. This mind itself, theoretical thinking itself, was formed as a result of the rethinking of this myth. We find confirmation of these words in the ancient Greek philosophers themselves. So, analyzing the views of Thales, Aristotle noted: “... very ancient thinkers, who lived long before the present generation and first engaged in theology, held precisely such views regarding nature: they made the Ocean and Tethys the sources of origin, and water became their oath of the gods, namely Styx, as they called it, for the most respected is the oldest, and the oath is the most respected.
We have come to the next section, which was traditionally included in the course "History of Chemistry", and "History of Natural Science" in general. This is a section dedicated to the natural philosophy of the ancient world.

The emergence and development of natural-philosophical ideas about matter.

In the last centuries of the last outgoing era, the first philosophical teachings began to appear. These were the teachings of Confucius in China, Buddha in India, and many others. Why are these teachings classified as philosophical?
First of all, because they were worldview systems, although some of them relied on the interpretation of myths and included mythology as an integral part of the doctrine. What is most important to us is that these philosophical systems contained the doctrine of the beginnings of all things. These were, first of all, ontological systems.
The most complete teachings about substances and principles are presented by the ancient Greek philosophers. Traditionally, the analysis of the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers begins with an examination of the teachings of Thales from Miletus (c. 620-540 BC).
One of the sages of the ancient world, he is rightfully considered the father of ancient Greek science. In the old days, they wrote about him that he was the "first" philosopher, the "first" physicist, the "first" mathematician and astronomer.
He founded the Ionian school of natural philosophers. He was an active participant in the political and economic life of his policy (city). He was an active man, a merchant who visited Egypt, and Phenicia, and Babylon.
There is an opinion that the ancient Greek philosophers did not engage in empirical experiments. The first experiments with amber to study electrical phenomena were carried out by Thales. We have already spoken about the view of Thales on the primary matter. And the source of this view was pointed out to us by Aristotle. "Water" is the fundamental principle of everything that exists on earth. "Air" is evaporated "water", and after the evaporation of water, "earth" remains. Where? From solution! After all, this is sea water containing salts, as we now know very well. And mere observation does not contradict these views. Everything is in the water. It is difficult to challenge this view, given the level of knowledge of the time.
Alaximenes of Milan (585 - 525 BC) had a different idea. The beginning of everything is “air”, which, condensing, passes into “water” and falls in the form of rain, and “water”, evaporating, gives the earth.
In Heraclitus of Ephesus (540 - 475 BC), fire is the origin. And this is understandable if we remember that we owe Heraclitus the dialectical form of cognition of the world. The variability of the world, constant renewal best conveys the image of fire.
Naturally, there were teachings emanating from two principles that give birth to everything, as in the case of man (anthropomorphism).
But for us the teachings of Aristotle and Democritus are more interesting. It was these teachings that determined the formation of scientific views in chemistry. They are the source of the struggle of various theories and different views on the structure and composition of chemicals. It is also surprising that these two teachings appeared almost at the same time.
So, let's start with the teachings of Aristotle. This teaching comes directly from Socrates through Plato and, of course, it unites and develops the teachings of other philosophical schools of Ancient Greece. The teaching of Aristotle is, as it were, a continuation and development of the teaching of Empedocles on the elements, which goes back to cosmology. In the teachings of Empedocles, the cosmos is formed by 4 elemental elements (fire, air, water and earth). These elements are combined in different proportions due to two "forces" - Love and Enmity. These "forces" in Empedocles are not external in relation to his elemental elements, but the elemental elements themselves are endowed with these qualities. But how do complex bodies arise from these elements? Here, a contradiction was discovered in the teachings of Empedocles, which was revealed by Philonon (6th century AD): “He contradicts himself, saying that the elements are immutable, and that they do not arise from each other, but (everything) the rest ) of them; on the other hand, arguing that during the reign of Love, everything becomes and a qualityless Ball is formed, in which the originality of neither fire nor any of the other (elements) is preserved, since each of the elements loses (here) its own form ” .
In other words, according to Empedocles, the whole is devoid of quality, and the parts included in this whole are endowed with it. The usual, metaphysical approach does not allow us to solve this problem. To understand the teachings of Empedocles, one must first consider the biomorphic concept that underlies his teachings. Empedocles' "elements" cease to exist as a whole (in space) in the organic whole, like the juices that plants feed on, leading to its growth and development, and lose their individuality in it, in the plant. At the same time, Empedocles abstracts from the structure of the whole. Empedocles does not distinguish between animate and inanimate nature. The entire cosmos is a combination of its "roots" - the elements. And these elements in Empedocles are conceived as dynamic opposites: “all of the four elements; the nature of the latter consists of opposites: dryness and humidity, warmth and cold ... ".
How does the natural philosophy of Aristotle differ from the teachings of Empedocles? Empedocles, as we have already seen, has no idea of ​​the origin of elements and does not consider qualitative changes. Aristotle focused his attention precisely on qualitative changes.
We began with you an analysis of the philosophical teachings of Ancient Greece, which were decisive for the development of theoretical teachings in chemistry from Aristotle for several reasons. First, the writings of Aristotle are better known. Secondly, it was Aristotle who examined the atomistic doctrine in the most detail, and he also pointed out its weaknesses.
Aristotle was probably the first thinker of antiquity who highly appreciated the teachings of the atomists. It was Aristotle who first noted that the atomists created such a doctrine that clarified the understanding of the difference between the concepts of emergence and the concept of a simple change of a thing. But at the same time, Aristotle criticized Democritus for denying the independent existence of qualities. A critical analysis of the views of his teacher Plato and the atomists led Aristotle to the conclusion that any object distinguished by the presence of certain qualities cannot be formed from conceivable objects devoid of quality. In accordance with the teachings of Democritus, everything consists of atoms and voids. The changes that we observe in bodies are a change in composition, creation is a combination of atoms, and annihilation is a separation of atoms. Aristotle, criticizing these views, acted as a dialectician, arguing that the division of the whole into parts is not only the destruction of the old, but also the birth of the new, and the connection is the birth, but also the destruction. “If water is divided into tiny particles, then air is born immediately, while if water particles are combined, air is born very slowly.”
Based on a critical analysis of previous teachings about the elements, Aristotle creates his own philosophical system. He builds it "from above" "down", i.e. “from higher to lower”, from “complex to simple”. What does Aristotle mean by elements? Under the elements, Aristotle understands "something" that arises and is destroyed during any transition. These elements we can perceive by "qualities". It should be noted that real and ideal elements are distinguished in the doctrine.
Schematically, the views of Aristotle can be represented as follows:

This scheme can be deciphered as follows: the element - fire has two qualities: warmth and dryness, etc. This is the so-called normal state of the element, but in the extreme (real) state, the balance is shifted towards heat - this is real fire. Ice is water in which, due to a shift in equilibrium, cold dominates, and moisture is practically absent.
Based on the scheme presented by us, it is possible to analyze the mechanisms of interconversions of elements. The first way is a sequential transformation:

Fire (t - s)  air (t - c)

It is carried out easily, since only the conversion of the 1st quality into the opposite is necessary.
More difficult is the transformation of elements located diagonally, since conversions must undergo 2 qualities:

Fire  water
Air  earth

And, finally, a third mechanism can be cited, when two elements pass into the third through the elimination of 2 qualities.

Fire (t - s) + water (x - c)  earth (c - x) + t + c

It should be noted that Aristotle's 4 elements are not equivalent: they are divided into 2 pure (fire and earth) and 2 mixed (water and air)
Another important remark about the Aristotelian elements. Aristotle's elements are the limit of perfection that does not exist in nature. Water in the sea, in the river, in a raindrop only remotely resembles the Aristotelian element "water". These two "waters" are never identical.
For us, it is also interesting how Aristotle considered the origin of specific substances, such as metals.
According to Aristotle, the earth under the influence of solar heat gives two types of evaporation:

X + v \u003d steam t + s \u003d smoke steam + earth \u003d metal !!!

.
The founders of atomistics (ancient) are Leucippus and Democritus. Despite all the progressiveness of this doctrine, it influenced the development of natural science only in modern times, and in a noticeably revised form. There are several reasons for this. The main ones are the following. As we have already shown above, the teaching of Aristotle absorbed and critically reworked the teaching of the atomists, pointing out the weaknesses of this teaching. On the other hand, the atomistic doctrine came into conflict with various teachings, so it could not develop successfully in the Middle Ages.
We will consider the atomistic teaching of the ancient Greek philosophers in more detail later. And now let's move on to another, very important stage in the development of chemistry, which is perceived by many historians of science and, especially by historians of chemistry, very ambiguously. This stage is called the period of alchemy.

view of the subsequent development of science after their scientific and practical significance becomes obvious.

To understand the process of development of chemistry in our era, the study of the history of the latest discoveries and research is of the greatest importance. Therefore, acquaintance with the history of chemistry of the last century is of particular importance for future chemists.

Marx K. and Engels F. Soch., vol. 14, p. 338.

» CHAPTER 7.

CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT

CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE IN PRIMARY PEOPLE

The process of accumulation of chemical and practical knowledge began in ancient times. It flowed slowly. The living conditions of people under the primitive tribal system, who earned their livelihood through the use of natural products, did not favor the development of productive forces. Several thousand years passed before primitive people, in a fierce struggle for life, mastered some random chemical knowledge. In prehistoric times, people got acquainted with table salt, its taste and preservative properties. The need for clothing taught our distant ancestors to process animal skins with primitive methods.

The mastery of fire took place approximately 100 thousand years ago and marked a new era in the history of culture. For a man of the Stone Age, the fire also became a kind of chemical laboratory. On fire, he tested various stones and minerals, burned pottery. The first samples of metals from ores were also obtained here - lead, tin and copper.

In the early stages of the primitive order, metals, especially those found in the native state, were used for jewelry. And in the Neolithic era, metals were already used to make tools and weapons. In a number of regions, people were also familiar with certain properties of metals, such as fusibility.

The names of some metals in the languages ​​of ancient peoples are associated with cosmic phenomena. Gold, for example, was called the solar metal or simply the sun. The name Aurum comes from the Latin "aurora" - morning dawn. The ancient Egyptians, Armenians and other peoples knew about meteorite iron, called it "fallen from the sky" and "dropped from the sky". In the era of primitive society, some mineral paints (ocher, umber, etc.) were also known, which were used to color various household items, fabrics, for cave painting and tattooing.

"^ The initial achievements of man in the field of practical chemistry were very modest, but on their basis the development of chemical knowledge took place in subsequent eras.

CRAFTSMANSHIP IN A SLAVE SOCIETY

In a slave-owning society based on the exploitation of the labor of a huge number of slaves, the specialization of production processes was born, artisans appeared - professionals in various fields of chemical engineering. Significant achievements have been made in the field of metallurgy. Several millennia BC. e. in the ancient regions of Mesopotamia, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor and Egypt, gold was mined, refined and processed. The methods of extraction from the ores of copper, tin, lead, and later silver and mercury were well known. Of particular interest is the widespread use in the ancient world of copper (“copper age”), and later bronze (“bronze age”) products. The assumption that all these items are made from native copper does not stand up to scrutiny, if we keep in mind the comparative rarity of native copper in nature. Undoubtedly, large quantities of copper were obtained in antiquity not only from oxide ores, but also from sulfur ones. Apparently, sulfurous ores were subjected to oxidizing roasting before copper was smelted, as described in later writings (for example, by Theophilus Presbyter in the 10th century). Products made of pure copper were produced in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, in Egypt in the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e. By the middle of the III millennium BC. e. the beginning of the Bronze Age.

Iron in this era was known only meteoric. Iron from metal ores was not then obtained, despite the fact that this did not require high temperatures at all. Only in the XII century. BC e. in Asia Minor, in the south of Armenia, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, products from "earthly" iron appeared and the "Iron Age" began. Archaeological data indicate that the southern regions of modern Armenia, Anatolia and Asia Minor should be considered the most likely homeland of metallurgical industries. [The next important step was the development of the production of ceramics, glass, mineral and vegetable dyes, astringent building materials, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, etc. e.(

ANTIQUE NATURAL PHILOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS

The development of handicraft chemical technology in the countries of the ancient world and the related practical information about substances and their transformations brought to life the initial ideas about the nature of various substances and the principles that make them up.

The emergence of these ideas dates back to the 7th-5th centuries. BC e., when Confucius and Lao Tzu lived and founded their philosophical teachings in China, Buddha in India, Zaroaster in Persia, Thales and other philosophers in Greece. It is significant that at the heart of the teachings of all these

• Activities and pedagogical views of Jan Amos Comenius
• The rate constant is calculated by the formula Rate constant value
• Phase diagrams of two-component systems "polymer - solvent" Phase diagrams of two-component systems "polymer - solvent"
• Fine and hyperfine structure of optical spectra
• How to learn chemistry on your own from scratch: effective ways
• Properties and characteristics of alkenes
• Characteristics of a student from the place of internship
• Characteristics for a student who had an internship at an enterprise: writing rules
• Biography of Faraday. Great scientists. Michael Faraday. discovery of electromagnetic rotation
• Modern innovations in education

• Substituents on the benzene ring are divided into two groups Reactions of the benzene ring
• Types of chemical reactions in organic chemistry Electrophilic addition reactions
• Methods for separating heterogeneous mixtures
• Polymethacrylic acid
• General characteristics of the elements of the VI A subgroup Elements 6a of the subgroup
• Theoretical foundations of physics
• Graph theory in chemistry. graph theory. Basic definitions and theorems of graph theory
• Algebra and harmony in chemical applications
• Tests on the course "Ecology and nature management
• WWF Russia Director Igor Chestin: Yakutia is among the leaders I know that you travel a lot… Why do you need this