The Alchemists

The Alchemists

Brewing the Elixir.

Philosopher's Stone

The first chemists, or protochemists,  were the Alchemists, whose goals were to achieve perfection, enlightenment and heavenly bliss by creating a philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. The stone would be able to turn lesser base metals such as mercury or lead into noble metals such as silver and gold (probably to get rich) and the elixir would rejuvenate and confer immortality, or at least longevity.

Alchemy first began in China and Egypt around the 5th century BCE, and saw a surge in the middle ages in Europe. By the 18th century it was abandoned for what is now modern chemistry and medicine, but today's body of scientific knowledge has its roots in alchemy.

Creating light through magic.

Casting a spell.

Some of the more popular incarnations of Alchemists are wizards and necromancers. In addition to Europe, records of alchemy are found in Egypt, the old Islamic world, China and India. References to alchemy have been found written in Sanskrit.

This famous Chinese symbol, the Taoist taijitu, is originally from Chinese Alchemy.

 So what did these guys do?

A famous Alchemical diagram.

In their pursuit of the elixir and the stone, Alchemists developed the experimental method and basic laboratory techniques, versions of which are still used today!
They theorized as to what matter is and suggested that all matter stems from the four basic elements: earth, fire, air and water.

An early lab.

From this stemmed basic terminology and the idea that matter can be classified.
While alchemy had a profound effect on the development of science, it differs quite a bit from real science since it embraced Hermetic ideas of magic, religion, mythology and spirituality. Cryptic symbols and mystical tales were integral parts of alchemy. 

The universe according to Alchemists.

Magnum Opus, latin for "The Great Work", is an alchemical term for the process of creating the philosopher's stone and is attached to laboratory processes of a series of four stages of chemical color changes:

• nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
• albedo, a whitening or leucosis
• citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
• rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis.
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• It has been used to describe personal and spiritual transmutation in the Hermetic tradition as well.

Overall, Alchemists led the way to the "chemical" industries of the day—ore testing and refining, metalworking, production of gunpowder, ink, dyes, paints, cosmetics, leather tanning, ceramics, glass manufacture, preparation of extracts, liquors, and so on. Alchemists contributed distillation to Western Europe, which is how alcoholic beverages are made. Alchemists attempted to arrange information on substances, so as to clarify and anticipate the products of their chemical reactions, and this resulted in early conceptions of chemical elements and the first rudimentary periodic tables. They learned how to extract metals from ores, and how to compose many types of inorganic acids and bases.

Page from alchemic treatise of Ramon Llull, 16th century.

During the 17th century, practical alchemy started to disappear in favor of its younger offshoot chemistry, Robert Boyle, the "father of modern chemistry".  In his book, The Skeptical Chymist, Boyle attacked Paracelsus and the natural philosophy of Aristotle being taught at universities. However, Boyle's biographers, in their emphasis that he laid the foundations of modern chemistry, neglect how steadily he clung to alchemy, in theory, practice and doctrine. The decline of alchemy continued in the 18th century with the birth of modern chemistry, which provided a more precise and reliable framework within a new view of the universe based on rational materialism.

Here are some videos about Alchemy: