The Story of Chemistry

Anne Rooney

Nov. 2017 · Arcturus Publishing

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'The importance of the end in view prompted me to undertake all this work, which seemed to me destined to bring about a revolution in physics and chemistry.' Antoine Lavoisier, 1773

Great advances in human history have often rested on and prompted progress in chemistry. The exploitation of fire, the development of pigments, and the discovery that metals could be smelted and worked laid the foundations of civilization. The search for better tools and weapons drove metallurgy, and the need for medicines and perfumes lay behind the first laboratories.

This book traces a story of exploration and discovery, from the earliest applications of chemistry by our ancient forebears. For more than 1,000 years, alchemists pursued the transformation of matter until the advent of modern chemistry in the 17th century set us on the path to the complex science of today.

Topics include:
• prechemistry since prehistory
• alchemy and the transmutation of metals
• the rise of the scientific method
• identifying the chemical elements
• understanding gases
• the nature of the atom
• organic chemistry
• chemical analysis

Beautifully illustrated throughout

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Anne Rooney gained a degree and a PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge. After a period of teaching at the universities of Cambridge and York, she became a full-time writer. She has written many books on the history and philosophy of science, and on other aspects of science and technology. She lives in Cambridge, England, and has been Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge, the University of Essex and Anglia Ruskin University.