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,
spiritualism, and art.

WHAT IS Alchemy was the "chemistry" of the Middle Ages and early modern
times, involving both occult and natural philosophy and practical

ALCHEMY? 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 ONE IN ALCHEMY USUALLY TURNING BASE THE ALCHEMIST IDEA OF TRANSMUTATION
THING INTO ANOTHER. METALS INTO GOLD. 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
OF MATTER
The true goal of To those ends, The master alchemist,
alchemy was to create alchemists devoted their would be able to
perfection in all time to studying and create matter he
materials and elements. understanding desired such as creating
everything they could gold from lead
about matter.
ALCHEMY AND MODERN SCIENCE
Since the study of
matter was central to
alchemy, it made major - Medicine - Chemistry
contributions to other
sciences:

- Metallurgy - This include adjusting

• It`s thanks to those early gold purity,
studies that we can electroplating and more
manipulate metal with metal refining
efficiency we do today.
techniques.
 Alchemy was born in ancient Egypt,
where the word Khem was used in
reference to the fertility of the flood
plains around the Nile. Egyptian beliefs

THE FOUR
First one is Egyptian period in life after death, and the
mummification procedures they
developed, probably gave rise to
rudimentary chemical knowledge and a
PERIODS goal of immortality.

OF By 332 BC, Alexander the Great had

conquered Egypt. Greek philosophers
ALCHEMY became interested in the Egyptian ways.
Greek views of how matter is made up
of the four elements of nature - Fire,
Earth, Air and Water, were merged with
the Egyptian sacred science. The Result
was Khemia, the Greek word for Egypt.
 The second period of alchemy is the Greek period

THE FOUR
PERIODS
OF The Greeks made few additions to the practical
knowledge of alchemy and, in fact, sent the proto-
ALCHEMY science the wrong 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

01
Elixir, in alchemy, it is a
substance thought to be
capable of changing base
metals into gold.
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
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 development of the
practical side of chemistry: performing
experiments.
 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 stones.
 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

Hot + Wet = Air
Cold + Wet = Water
Relation of the four elements and the four qualities.
(This diagram is known as an Aristotelian square.)
Cold + Dry = Earth
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 Dee for the rest of his life.
 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 argue that Kelley invented it.
 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.

SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS UNSCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS

• 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.
• 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!