History of Chemistry

Pre-Historic Era 400 B.C

- A pre-historic man used fire to do crude metallurgy - A theory was proposed by Aristotle that everything is
and to make pottery and bricks. composed of the four elements: earth, air, fire, and
- One of the first metals to be used is gold. water.
- Aristotle also proposed that there were also four
fundamental properties: hot, cold, wet, and dry.
300 B.C – 500 B.C 600 A.C – 700 A.C
- Greek philosophers became interested in Egyptian - When Arabs occupy Egypt in the early 600 A.C, the
Religion and they tried to merge Aristotle’s four development of science spread throughout Spain in 700
elements into the said religion. A.C.
- Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions. - Alchemists attempt to transmute cheap metals into
gold.
- The substance they used to transmute cheap metals
into gold is called philosopher’s stone.
- Alchemists sought spiritual perfection and immortality
by applying the idea of cleansing and the pursuit of
perfection to humankind.
- During the late 700 A.C alchemy started to fade
because some philosophers/alchemists used this for
black magic.
1500 – 1590 1597
- Chemistry was mainly considered with the application - The first textbook of chemistry was written
to medicine. - Robert Boyle studied gases and criticized the basic idea
- Aristotle’s four-element theory was questioned. of alchemy in his book “The Skeptikal Chemist”
- Study about gases began.
- Quantitative Experiments were undertaken for the first
time.
1700 1743 – 1794
- The phlogiston theory was proposed by George Ernst - Anton La Voiser dispelled the Phlogiston Theory by
Stahl. proving that Oxygen causes combustion.
Note: this theory was started by Johann Becher in 1667. - Anton La Voiser also discovered the law of
- Phlogiston was described as the substance in conservation of mass. He also discovered that matter
combustible material that is given off when a material can change form but cannot be created nor destroyed in
burns. any chemical reaction
- Benjamin Franklin discovered 2 electrical charges in
1752, the positive and negative charges.
1803 1900
- Atomic Theory of Dalton was proposed - Development of theories of the structure of atoms and
- Periodic law and periodic table was developed. the formation of compounds
1909 1913
- Robert Milkan determines the mass of electron - Neil Bhor Atomic/Planetary Model was proposed.
Development of the Periodic Table

1669 1829
- Hennig Brand accidentally discovered Phosphorus - Johann Dobereiner a German chemist discovered the
while finding the Philosopher’s Stone. halogen triad and the alkali metal triad.
Note: it wasn’t publicized until Boyle discovered
Phosphorus in 1680.
1862 1863
- The first periodic table was created. - John Newlands creates his own version of the periodic
table and he also proposed the law of octaves.
1869 1895
- The Father of Periodic table Dmitri Mendeleev created - Lord Rayleigh an English Mathematician discovered
his own version of the periodic table. the Argon, and it became a new gaseous element.
1898 1897
- William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh established the zero - J. J. Thomson an English Physicist first discovered
“0” group or the noble gases. electrons.
- William Ramsey also predicted the discovery of the - John Townsend (Irish-British mathematical physicist)
element neon. and Robert Millikan (American experimental physicist)
determined their exact charge and mass.
1900 1903
- Antoine Henri Becquerel found out that the electrons - Rutherford stated that atoms breaking down is what
and the beta particles identified by Curies are the same. causes radioactivity.
1911 1913
- A discovery that electrons orbit atom nucleus was - Bohr observed that electrons circulate around a
made by Rutherford and German physicist Hans Geiger. nucleus in distinct energy levels called orbitals. When
moving from one orbital to another, radiation is released.
1914 1932
- The first protons in the atomic nucleus were discovered - James Chadwick made the initial discovery of
by Rutherford. Additionally, he performed the first-ever neutrons, and isotopes were recognized. This served as
transmutation of an oxygen atom into a nitrogen atom. the periodic table's whole foundation.
Rather than atomic mass. - The first atom was split in the same year by
- English physicist Henry Moseley provided atomic Englishmen Cockroft and Walton, who used a particle
numbers based on the number of electrons in an atom. accelerator to blast lithium, converting it into two
helium nuclei.
1945
- Lanthanides and actinides, which are often positioned
below the periodic table (atomic number > 92), were first
found by Glenn Seaborg.
Development of Atomic Theory
400 B.C Late 400 B.C
- Democritus was the first one to discover the atomic - Aristotle refute Democritus statement regarding the
theory. In his discovery, he discussed that all matter is atomos, because he believes that all things are made up
made up of small indivisible tiny particle/unit that is of the four elements.
called “atomos”.
1704 1803
- Proposed a mechanical world with moving tiny solid - John Dalton proposed his own atomic theory, he stated
masses. that elements consisted of atoms that were identical and
had the same mass and compounds were atoms from
different elements but combined together.
1897
- J.J. Thomson provided the first hint that an
atom is made of even smaller particles. He was the first
one to propose the idea of negatively charged electrons
and unknown positive charges.
- He proposed a model of the atom that is sometimes
called the “Plum Pudding” model.
1909 1908
- Robert Millikan an American physicist measured the - Ernest Rutherford debunked Thompson’s plum pudding
charge of an electron using oil droplets. He discovered and proposed the idea that atoms have a "nucleus," or
that the electron charge is 1.60 x 10-19 C, while the small, dense, positively charged center.
electron’s mass is 9.11 x 10-28 g
1914 Henry Mosely found that an element’s atomic 1922
number is defined by the number of protons in it. Niels Bohr suggested a change to Rutherford’s theory. He
expanded on the idea that an atom's mass is mostly
located in its nucleus. He also proposed that electrons
orbit the nucleus in specific ways.
Modern Atomic Theory
- The current atomic theory states that electrons do not
orbit while traveling at great speeds in an electron cloud
around the nucleus in tidy planet-like orbits. In the
electron cloud, the nucleus is circled by electrons
billions of times each second. A particle's location relies
on how much energy it has; electrons do not move in
random patterns.