SCIENCE EVOLUTION

(THE ALCHEMY)
REPORTERS: ANGELO D.C ESPINO
KLARISSA GARCIA
MAILY ROSE EBIO
 Alchemy was an early philosophical and spiritual field
of study that combined chemistry with metalwork. But
it was also an investigation of nature. Alchemy
included physics, medicine, astrology, mysticism,

WHAT IS
spiritualism, and art.

ALCHEMY
Alchemy was the "chemistry" of the Middle Ages and
early modern times, involving both occult and natural
philosophy and practical chemistry and metallurgy.

?
It comes from the Arabic/Greek alkimya or “the art of
transmuting”.
 ALCHEMY

The study of alchemy was an ancient form of scientific study

that is no longer practiced.

-Although it is no longer around, alchemy can be considered

as the “grandfather” of other modern sciences.
Alchemy actually had a number of goals and purposes but
attempts at transforming lead into gold are the most
remembered by far.
-This facet of the study made great contributions to
metallurgy and metal refining.
 TRANSMUTATION

TRANSMUTATION MEANS TURNING IN ALCHEMY USUALLY TURNING THE ALCHEMIST IDEA OF

ONE THING INTO ANOTHER.
BASE METALS INTO GOLD. TRANSMUTATION WAS TAKEN
MUCH FURTHER IN OTHER OCCULT
BELIEFS LIKE TRANSFORMING
SOUL INTO SOMETHING MORE
PURE.
 CHRYSOPOEIA

Chrysopoeia = the transmutation of other elements into

gold.
- Chrysopoeia was a central goal for many alchemists.

A common misconception is that alchemists only tried to

find a solution for chrysopoeia. In reality, this was only
one area of study for alchemists.
THE
STUDY
The true goal of To those ends, The master
OF alchemy was to
create perfection
alchemists
devoted their time
alchemist, would
be able to create

MATTER
in all materials and to studying and matter he desired
elements. understanding such as creating
everything they gold from lead
could about
matter.
ALCHEMY AND MODERN SCIENCE
Since the study of
matter was central
to alchemy, it
- Medicine - Chemistry
made major
contributions to
other sciences:
- This include
- Metallurgy adjusting gold
• It`s thanks to those purity,
early studies that we electroplating and
can manipulate metal more metal
with efficiency we do refining
today.
techniques.
THE
FOUR
PERIODS
OF
ALCHEMY
 The second period of alchemy is the
Greek period
THE
FOUR
PERIODS The Greeks made few additions to the
OF practical knowledge of alchemy and, in
fact, sent the proto-science the wrong
ALCHEMY way. Their contributions were largely
based upon theorizing and speculating
about the properties of matter, whilst
attempting to deduce what caused
certain substances to be indivisible
elements.
 THE GREEK PERIOD OF ALCHEMY

• THE GREEKS BELIEVED THAT THERE

WERE ONLY FOUR ELEMENTS.

D D ~
D
___ ___

earth air fire water

 THE FOUR PERIODS OF ALCHEMY

• THIRD PERIOD OF ALCHEMY IS THE ARABIAN PERIOD

IN THE 7TH CENTURY THE ARABS STARTED A PROCESS OF TERRITORIAL

EXPANSION THAT QUICKLY BROUGHT THEM EMPIRE AND INFLUENCE RANGING
FROM INDIA TO ANDALUSIA. FRUITFUL CONTACTS WITH ANCIENT CULTURAL
TRADITIONS WERE A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF THIS TERRITORIAL
EXPANSION, AND ARABIC CULTURE PROVED READY TO ABSORB AND
REINTERPRET MUCH OF THE TECHNICAL AND THEORETICAL INNOVATIONS OF
PREVIOUS CIVILIZATIONS.
 THE FOUR PERIODS OF ALCHEMY

• THE FOURTH ONE IS THE PERIOD OF EUROPIAN ALCHEMY.

IN EUROPE, ALCHEMY LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF MANUFACTURE OF AMALGAMS AND
ADVANCES IN MANY OTHER CHEMICAL PROCESSES AND THE APPARATUS REQUIRED FOR
THEM. EVENTUALLY, BY THE 16TH CENTURY, THE ALCHEMISTS IN EUROPE HAD
SEPARATED INTO TWO GROUPS.
THE FIRST GROUP FOCUSED ON THE DISCOVERY OF NEW COMPOUNDS AND THEIR
REACTIONS - LEADING TO WHAT IS NOW THE SCIENCE OF CHEMISTRY.
THE SECOND CONTINUED TO LOOK AT THE MORE SPIRITUAL, METAPHYSICAL SIDE OF
ALCHEMY, CONTINUING THE SEARCH FOR IMMORTALITY AND THE TRANSMUTATION OF
BASE METALS INTO GOLD.
THIS LED TO THE MODERN DAY IDEA OF ALCHEMY.
 NICOLAS FLAMEL

• YOU MAY HAVE HEARD HIS NAME IN HARRY

POTTER, BUT NICOLAS FLAMEL WAS A REAL. HE
WAS BORN IN FRANCE IN THE YEAR 1330 AND
SOME BELIEVE HE POSSESSED THE
PHILOSOPHER`S STONE WHICH ALLOWED HIM
TO SUCCEED AT THE TWO GOALS OF ALCHEMY.
 THE TWO GOALS OF ALCHEMY
• To find the “elixir of life” (it was thought that this magical elixir
would
bring wealth, health, and eternal life).

• To find or make a substance called the “philosopher’s stone.”

When
heated and combined with copper or iron it would turn it into gold,
thought to be the highest and purest form of matter
 THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
01
Elixir, in alchemy, it is
a substance thought to
be capable of changing
base metals into gold.
02
The same term, more
fully elixir vitae, “elixir
of life”, was given to
the substance that
would indefinitely
prolong life- a liquid tha
was believe to be allied
with the
philosopher`s stone.
03
In pharmacy, an elixir
is usually defined as a
sweetened
hydroalcoholic solution
containing flavoring
materials and usually
medicinal substance.
 THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

• IN WESTERN ALCHEMY, IT IS AN UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE, ALSO CALLED “THE

TINCTURE” OR “THE POWDER” SOUGHT BY ALCHEMISTS FOR ITS SUPPOSED
ABILITY TO TRANSFORM BASE METALS INTO PRECIOUS ONCES, SPECIALLY
GOLD AND SILVER.
• ALCHEMISTS ALSO BELIEVED THAT AN ELIXIR OF LIFE COULD BE DERIVED
FROM IT.
• IN AS MUCH AS ALCHEMY WAS CONCERNED WITH THE PERFECTION OF
HUMAN SOUL THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE WAS THOUGHT TO CURE
ILLNESSES , PROLONG LIFE, AND BRING SPIRITUAL REVITALIZATION.
 THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

• THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE, VARIOUSLY DESCRIBED, WAS SOMETIMES

SAID TO BE A COMMONG SUBSTANCE, FOUND EVERYWHERE BUT
UNRECOGNIZED AND UNAPPRECIATED.

• THE QUEST FOR THE STONE ENCOURAGED ALCHEMISTS FROM THE MIDDLE
AGES TO THE END OF THE 17TH CENTURY TO EXAMINE IN THEIR
LABORATORIES NUMEROUS SUBSTANCES AND THEIR INTERACTIONS. THE
QUEST THEREBY PROVIDE A BODY OF KNOWLEDGE THAT ULTIMATELY LED TO
THE SCIENCES OF CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY AND PHARMACOLOGY.
 THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

• THE PROCESS BY WHICH IT WAS HOPED COMMON METALS SUCH AS IRON,

LEAD, TIN AND COPPER COULD BE TURNED INTO THE MORE VALUABLE
METALS INVOLVED HEATING THE BASE MATERIALS IN A CHARACTERISTIC
PEAR-SHAPED GLASS CRUCIBLE( CALLED THE VASE OF HERMES OR THE
PHILOSOPHER’S EGG).
• COLOR CHANGES WERE CAREFULLY WATCHED- BLACK INDICATING THE
DEATH OF THE OLD MATERIAL PREPARATORY TO ITS REVITALIZATION;
WHITE, THE COLOR REQUIRED TO CHANGE INTO SILVER; AND RED, THE
HIGHEST STAGE, THE COLOR REQUIRED TO CHANGE INTO GOLD.
THE PERSONALITIES OF
ALCHEMY
 ABU MUSA JABIR IBN HAYYAN
 Jabir, born around 721 and died
around 815 in the village Tus (in
today’s Iran), grew up in a family
where chemistry was not unknown,
as his father was a pharmacist. That
would most likely be the cause of his
interest in chemistry.

  They name him as the ‘The Father

of Chemistry’

  One of the fundamental aspects

Jabir brought forward was the
 MATERIAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF
JABIR
TO HIM, EXPERIMENTING WITH MATTER MEANT THAT HE COULD
MIX, HEAT, COOL, GRIND, BAKE AND STIR VARIOUS
SUBSTANCES. THE TRADITIONAL IMAGE OF AN ‘ALCHEMISTIC’
WORKPLACE LOOKED A LOT LIKE WHAT WE WOULD CALL A
CHEMISTRY LABORATORY TODAY.
IN ORDER TO PERFORM HIS EXPERIMENTS ACCURATELY, HE
DESIGNED DIFFERENT KINDS OF NEW VESSELS LIKE THE
RETORT. HIS EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS CHEMICAL
PROCESSES ALLOWED HIM TO TRIGGER REACTIONS LIKE
REDUCTION CALCINATION AND PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT:
DISTILLATION.
 ANAXAGORAS OF CLAZOMENAE
A Greek philosopher of the 5th century B.C.E. (born ca.
500–480), was the first of the Pre-Socratic philosophers to
live in Athens.

He was the first to give a correct

explanation of eclipses  and was
both famous and notorious for his
scientific theories, including the
claims that the sun is a mass of
red-hot metal, that the moon is
earthy, and that the stars are fiery
 EMPEDOCLES
 IS CREDITED WITH THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
OF THE CONCEPT OF FOUR ELEMENTS: EARTH,
AIR, FIRE, AND WATER, WHICH WERE
CAPABLE OF COMBINING TO FORM ALL OTHER
SUBSTANCES.
 PLATO
ADOPTED THE FOUR ELEMENT
THEORY EARTH, AIR, FIRE AND
WATER AND HINTED AT A FIFTH
ELEMENT, AN ETHER, WHICH
EVENTUALLY BECAME
ASSOCIATED WITH THE HEAVENS.
 THE PLATONIC SOLIDS

 Plato also stated that

each of the four kinds of
matter is composed of
geometrical solids
(“Platonic solids”) further
divisible into triangles.
 ARISTOTLE
 DISCOUNTED THE GEOMETRIC FORMS OF THE
ELEMENTS USED BY HIS TEACHER PLATO, BUT HE
RETAINED THE FIFTH ELEMENT, THE ETHER,
WHICH HE BELIEVED FORMED THE HEAVENLY
BODIES AND FILLED SPACE.
 ARISTOTLE ATTRIBUTED MATTER WITH FOUR
QUALITIES - HOT, COLD, WET, AND DRY - WHICH
COMBINED IN MAKING UP MATTER. THESE
QUALITIES WERE PROBABLY SYMBOLIC OF THE
PROPERTIES OF MATTER RATHER THAN THE
FUNDAMENTAL BUILDING BLOCKS AS WAS LATER
THOUGHT.
 ARISTOTLE
The four qualities can form six
possible pairs, but since
opposites cannot be coupled
together, as hot with cold or as
wet and dry, there remained
only four pairs:

Hot + Dry =
Fire
Relation of the four elements and the Hot + Wet =
four qualities. (This diagram is known as
an Aristotelian square.) Air
ALCHEMY AFTER THE
MIDDLE AGES
 PARACELSUS (BORN PHILIPPUS AUREOLUS
THEOPHRASTUS BOMBASTUS VON HOHENHEIM,
1493 –1541)
 He was the first toxicologist, a person who studies poisons.
Paracelsus believed that the body’s organs worked alchemically.
That is, their function was to separate the impure from the pure.

 He proposed that a balance of three substances (mercury, sulfur,

and salt) was necessary for maintaining health. Paracelsus
treated the plague and other diseases with an alchemical
approach. It included administering inorganic salts, minerals, and
metals.

 He believed that what he called the “alkahest,” the supposed

universal solvent, was the philosopher’s stone. But he had no
interest in metals, writing, “Many have said of Alchemy, that it is
for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but
to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines.”
 ROBERT BOYLE (1627 – 1691)
• IN 1662, ROBERT BOYLE (1627 – 1691) CAME UP WITH WHAT
WE CALL BOYLE’S LAW. IT STATES THAT THE VOLUME OF A GAS
DECREASES AS THE PRESSURE ON IT INCREASES — AND VICE
VERSA. FOR THIS DISCOVERY AND OTHERS, BOYLE IS SOMETIMES
CALLED THE FATHER OF MODERN CHEMISTRY
• CENTRAL TO BOYLE’S EFFORTS WAS HIS “CORPUSCULARIAN
HYPOTHESIS.” BOYLE BELIEVED THAT ALL MATTER CONSISTED OF
ARRANGEMENTS OF TINY IDENTICAL PARTICLES CALLED
CORPUSCLES. TRANSFORMING COPPER TO GOLD SEEMED TO BE
JUST A MATTER OF REARRANGING THE PATTERN OF ITS
CORPUSCLES INTO THAT OF GOLD.
 JOHN DEE ( JULY 13,1527-1608 OR
1609)
 Was a sixteenth-century astronomer and
mathematician who served as an occasional
advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, and spent a good
portion of his life studying alchemy, the occult,
 and metaphysics.
He began his experiments in trying to contact
discarnate entities in 1581, mainly fuelled by
strange dreams, feelings and mysterious noises
within his home. On 25 May 1582 he recorded
that he had made his first contact with the spirit
world, through the medium of his crystal ball. This
had taken Dee years of work to achieve, through
studying the occult and alchemy. Spirit contact
would prove to be a major driving force behind
 SIR EDWARD KELLEY OR KELLY, ALSO KNOWN AS
EDWARD TALBOT (1 AUGUST 1555 – 1 NOVEMBER 1597)
 Was an colorful figure in English Renaissance occultism and
self-declared spirit medium who worked with John Dee in his
magical investigations. Besides the professed ability to summon
spirits or angels on a crystal ball, which John Dee so valued Kelley
also claimed to possess the secret of transmuting base metals
into gold.

 In November 1582 John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly encountered an

Angel, Uriel. The Angel gave instructions for a magical talisman
with which they could contact the spirit world more easily. Many
of their ritual objects including Dee's obsidian scrying mirror are
now in the British Museum.

 Kelley’s “angels” sometimes communicated in a special “angelic”

language called Enochian. Dee and Kelley claimed the language
was given to them by angels. Some modern cryptographers
 A NEW FRAMEWORK

• BY THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, THE FIELD OF CHEMISTRY HAD FULLY

SEPARATED FROM TRADITIONAL ALCHEMY. YET CHEMISTRY SOUGHT TO
TACKLE THE SAME QUESTIONS ALCHEMY ONCE DID. EXPERIMENTATION
BASED ON THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD, THE PUBLICATION OF RESEARCH
RESULTS, THE SEARCH FOR NEW ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS AND THEIR
APPLICATION IN MEDICINE TO HELP MANKIND, WERE ALL CONCERNS FIRST
ADDRESSED BY ALCHEMISTS. NOW THEY WERE PART OF MODERN SCIENCE.
 ANTOINE-LAURENT LAVOISIER (1743 –
1794)
• IN 1789, LAVOISIER WROTE THE FIRST TRUE
CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOK. LIKE BOYLE, HE IS OFTEN
REFERRED TO AS THE FATHER OF MODERN
CHEMISTRY. LAVOISIER AGREED WITH BOYLE THAT
ARISTOTLE’S FOUR-ELEMENTS THEORY WAS
WRONG. IN HIS TEXTBOOK, HE MADE A LIST OF
METALLIC AND NONMETALLIC ELEMENTS.
 DMITRI MENDELEEV (1834 –
1907)
• IT WAS MENDELEEV WHO WOULD ORGANIZE ALL
THOSE ELEMENTS INTO THE PERIODIC TABLE. IN
1869, HE SHOWED THAT THE ELEMENTS COULD BE
ARRANGED IN A PERIODIC — REGULAR AND
RECURRING — RELATIONSHIP TO EACH OTHER
BASED ON THEIR ATOMIC WEIGHTS. HIS PERIODIC
TABLE ALSO COULD ACCURATELY PREDICT THE
PROPERTIES OF ELEMENTS THAT HAD YET TO BE
DISCOVERED. MENDELEEV’S TABLE IS STILL USED
TODAY
CONTRIBUTIONS OF ALCHEMY
TO OUR MODERN WORLD
 CONTRIBUTIONS OF ALCHEMY TO OUR
MODERN WORLD.
S C I E N T I F I C C O NT R I BU T I O N S
• REFINED HOW TO CRYSTALLIZED,
CONDENSE, DISTILL, EVAPORATE AND
DISSOLVE METALS AND MATERIALS.
• DEVELOP STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE AND
SPECIALIZED SET-UPS OR EQUIPMENT.
• DISCOVERED AND INVESTIGATED THE
PROPERTIES OF MANY NOW-USEFUL
SUBSTANCES SUCH AS PHOSPHORUS,
SULFUR AND POTASH.
U N S C I EN T I FI C
C O NT R I B UT I O NS
• USED INCANTATIONS, MAGIC SPELLS
AND SYMBOLS.
• USED ESOTERIC SYMBOLS CONNECTED
TO ASTROLOGY AND RELIGION.
• CONCERNED WITH RICHES , PURITY,
IMMORTALITY AND SPIRITS.
• PROMOTED THE ARISTOTELIAN
CONCEPTS OF ELEMENTS.
 ALCHEMIST CONTRIBUTION TO CHEMISTRY

• EARLY ACIDS AND BASE WERE DISCOVERED.

• GLASSWARE FOR RUNNING CHEMICAL REACTION WAS DEVELOPED.

• ALCHEMY HELPED IMPROVE THE STUDY OF METALLURGY AND THE

EXTRACTION OF METALS FROM ORES.
 SUMMARY
• HOWEVER THE ALCHEMISTS WERE NEVER SUCCESSFUL IN CHANGING LEAD
INTO GOLD. BUT MODERN NUCLEAR PHYSICS CAN ACCOMPLISH THIS TASK.
• LEAD IS SUBJECTED TO NUCLEAR BOMBARDMENT IN A PARTICLE
ACCELERATOR. A SMALL AMOUNT OF GOLD CAN BE OBTAINED BY THIS
PROCESS. HOWEVER THE PROCEDURE IS FAR MORE THAN THE AMOUNT OF
GOLD OBTAINED. SO THE REAM OF THE ALCHEMIST HAS NEVER AND (WILL
NEVER) COME TRUE .
 SUMMARY
• GOLD HAS BEEN CONSIDERED VALUABLY BY ALL CIVILIAZATIONS.
• THE ALCHEMIST TRIED TO FIND THE PHILOSOPHER`S STONE THAT WOULD
ALLOW THEN TO MAKE GOLD FROM LEAD.
• MANY DISHONEST SCHEMES WERE CREATED, BUT NOBODY EVER MADE
GOLD FROM LEAD.
• THE ALCHEMISTS DID CONTRIBUTE MANY ADVANCES TO THE NEW SCIENCE
OF CHEMISTRY.
THE ALCHEMICAL TABLE OF SYMBOLS
The
Alchemist
Frankly, I’d be satisfied
if I could turn gold
into lead!