Birth of chemistry

First universities of the modern world

The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and theology. Although 1222 is the first time the university was cited in a historical document, most historian believe that the school was around before that date.

The University of Cambridge which was founded in 1209 grew out of an association of scholars who fled from the University of Oxford after disputes with its townspeople. The school was granted its royal charter in 1231 from King Henry III and it is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world.

The University of Paris was founded in 1150 and operated until 1970 . The school was officially chartered in 1200 by King Philip II and recognized by Pope Innocent III in 1215.

The University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain and the third oldest university in continuous operation in the world. Like all ancient universities, the University of Salamanca started out as a Cathedral School and was founded in 1130

The University of Oxford or more commonly known as just Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Although the university has no known foundation date, most historians agree that teaching at Oxford existed in some form since 1096. Around 1167, Oxford rapidly expanded as English students returned home after Henry II banned them from attending the University of Paris.

The University of Bologna is the oldest university in continuous operation and was the first place of study to use the term “universitas”

The school received its charter in 1158, but a committee of 19th century historians traced the university’s founding to 1088.

Giordano Bruno

Ironically, every exoplanet confirms not the cosmology of Kepler, but of Giordano Bruno, the Italian philosopher who was burned alive in Rome, in 1600, as a heretic.

Bruno said the universe has no center, and stars are suns, surrounded by planets and moons. Remarkably, he thus outlined large-scale aspects of our cosmology, while Copernicus and Kepler mistakenly thought the universe is spherical, the sun is its center, unmoving, and stars are not suns surrounded by planets.

“Bruno was not condemned for his defense of the Copernican system of astronomy, nor for his doctrine of the plurality of inhabited worlds.”

Likewise, historian Frances Yates declared: “the legend that Bruno was prosecuted as a philosophical thinker, was burned for his daring views on innumerable worlds or on the movement of the Earth, can no longer stand.”

Bruno was condemned for several heresies, but the one about multiple worlds was the strongest case against him. He didn’t defend an esoteric belief in immaterial worlds. Instead, he asserted parts of our cosmology: our acentric universe has innumerable suns, surrounded by planets, even some that may resemble our inhabited Earth.

Bruno said he inferred the existence of worlds from God’s omnipotence: by having infinite power God made innumerable worlds. Ironically, Bruno’s soaring view of the cosmos—more correct than Copernicus—stemmed from religious beliefs.

Sir Francis Bacon

In 1620, around the time that people first began to look through microscopes, an English politician named Sir Francis Bacon developed a method for philosophers to use in weighing the truthfulness of knowledge. While Bacon agreed with medieval thinkers that humans too often erred in interpreting what their five senses perceived, he also realized that people's sensory experiences provided the best possible means of making sense of the world. Because humans could incorrectly interpret anything they saw, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt, Bacon insisted that they must doubt everything before assuming its truth.

Testing hypotheses

In order to test potential truths, or hypotheses, Bacon devised a method whereby scientists set up experiments to manipulate nature and attempt to prove their hypotheses wrong. For example, in order to test the idea that sickness came from external causes, Bacon argued that scientists should expose healthy people to outside influences such as coldness, wetness, or other sick people to discover if any of these external variables resulted in more people getting sick. Knowing that many different causes for sickness might be missed by humans who are unable or unwilling to perceive them, Bacon insisted that these experiments must be consistently repeated before truth could be known: a scientist must show that patients exposed to a specific variable more frequently got sick again, and again, and again.

Once Bacon's philosophies regarding experimentation and observation came to be accepted, people began using them to harness nature for profit. The study of nature came to be less about changing traditional attitudes and beliefs and more about stimulating the economy. By the end of the following century, the Scientific Revolution had given birth to an Industrial Revolution that dramatically transformed the

Early science and birth of chemistry

1088-Bologna University was founded in Italy.

The University of Bologna is the oldest university in continuous operation and was the first place of study to use the term “universitas”

1096-Oxford University was founded in England.

The University of Oxford or more commonly known as just Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Although the university has no known foundation date, most historians agree that teaching at Oxford existed in some form since 1096. Around 1167, Oxford rapidly expanded as English students returned home after Henry II banned them from attending the University of Paris.

1164-Salamanca University was founded in Spain.

The University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain and the third oldest university in continuous operation in the world. Like all ancient universities, the University of Salamanca started out as a Cathedral School and was founded in 1130.

1209-Cambridge University was founded in England.

The University of Cambridge which was founded in 1209 grew out of an association of scholars who fled from the University of Oxford after disputes with its townspeople. The school was granted its royal charter in 1231 from King Henry III and it is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world.

1222-Padua University was founded in Italy.

The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and theology. Although 1222 is the first time the university was cited in a historical document, most historian believe that the school was around before that date.

1224-Neples University was founded in Italy.

1543-Helio centric model of Planets by Copernicus.
        Rapid accumulation of knowledge never happened before 17th century.
1600-Bruno the Italian philosopher and thinker was burned on February 16, in Rome.
        Bruno said the universe has no center, and stars are suns, surrounded by planets and moons. Remarkably, he thus outlined large-scale aspects of our cosmology, while Copernicus and Kepler mistakenly thought the universe is spherical, the sun is its center, unmoving, and stars are not suns surrounded by planets.

Bruno was condemned for several heresies, but the one about multiple worlds was the strongest case against him. He didn’t defend an esoteric belief in immaterial worlds. Instead, he asserted parts of our cosmology: our acentric universe has innumerable suns, surrounded by planets, even some that may resemble our inhabited Earth.

1608-Telscope was invented in Netherland.
1609-Keplers laws of Planetary motion.
1614-Use of logarithms for calculation by Neper.
1620-Francis Bacon experimental science philosophy.
        In 1620, around the time that people first began to look through microscopes, an English politician named Sir Francis Bacon developed a method for philosophers to use in weighing the truthfulness of knowledge. While Bacon agreed with medieval thinkers that humans too often erred in interpreting what their five senses perceived, he also realized that people's sensory experiences provided the best possible means of making sense of the world. Because humans could incorrectly interpret anything they saw, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt, Bacon insisted that they must doubt everything before assuming its truth.

In order to test potential truth, or hypotheses, Bacon devised a method whereby scientists set up experiments to manipulate nature and attempt to prove their hypotheses wrong.

Once Bacon's philosophies regarding experimentation and observation came to be accepted, people began using them to harness nature for profit. The study of nature came to be less about changing traditional attitudes and beliefs and more about stimulating the economy. By the end of the following century, the Scientific Revolution had given birth to an Industrial Revolution.

1638-laws of falling bodies by Galileo Geleli.
1643-Mercury barometer by Torricelli.
1649-Democracy established in England. King Chales was executed.
1660-The royal Society was established in London for improvement of natural knowledge.
1661-Robert Boyle defined element, acid and base concept.
1665-Microscope was invented by Robert Hooke.
1666-French Academy of Science started from Paris. The ore processing was studied there.
1687-newton's laws of motion and law of gravitation.

Birth of chemistry

Demons in the ore: 1742-1751

Miners in the Harz mountains have often been frustrated by a substance which appears to be copper ore but which, when heated, yields none of the expected metal. Even worse, it emits noxious fumes. In about 1735 Georg Brandt is able to show in his Swedish laboratory that the  previously unknown substance was Cobalt. It has been identified, and Brandt gives its name to the new substance - as cobalt

A similar demon is blamed by miners in Saxony for another ore which yields a brittle substance instead of copper. The impurity in ore of this type is analyzed in Sweden in 1751 by Axel Cronstedt. He identifies its components as arsenic and a previously unknown hard white metal, quite distinct from copper. He honours the new substance and calls it nickel.

1754-Joseph Black heated lime-stone and produced his fixed air.

Joseph Black and fixed air: 1754-1756

Black has observed that if he heats chalk (calcium carbonate), he gets quicklime (calcium oxide) and a gas, the presence of which he can identify by its weight. Unwilling as yet to speculate on its identity, he calls it fixed air - because it exists in solid form until released.

1766-Henry Cevendish discovered inflammable gas, the hydrogen.
1773-Sheele isolated oxygen using silver carbonate.
1774-Priestly discovered Oxygen by heating HgO.

Priestley and oxygen: 1774

In August 1774 Priestley directs his lens at some mercury oxide. He discovers that it gives off a colourless gas in which a candle burns with an unusually brilliant light.

In October 1774, visiting Paris with his noble patron, he describes his discovery to a gathering of French scientists. Among them is Lavoisier, who develops Priestley's experiments in his own laboratory and realizes that he has the evidence to disprove the phlogiston theory.

1775-Micro-Organisms observed using Microscope.

Lavoisier: 1777-1794

Although Antoine Laurent Lavoisier has no single glamorous discovery to add lustre to his name (such as identifying oxygen), he is regarded as the father of modern chemistry. The reason is that during the last two decades of the 18th century he interprets the findings of his colleagues with more scientific clarity than they have mustered, and creates the rational framework within which chemistry can develop.

1778-Lavoisier named the elements, hydrogen Oxygen and Nitrogen. He announced that air is composed of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen.
He explained the combustion. He concluded that during calcination, metals absorb oxygen and increase their weight.

He was able to show that Priestley's gas is involved in chemical reactions in the processes of burning and rusting, and that it is transformed in both burning and breathing into the 'fixed air' discovered by Joseph Black. His researches with phosphorus and Sulphur cause him to believe that the new gas is invariably a component of acids. He therefore gives it in 1777 the name oxygen ( 'acid maker'). On a similar principle Lavoisier coins the word hydrogen ('water maker') for the very light gas isolated by Cavendish.

With these two names chemistry takes a clear and decisive step into the modern era. It is an advance which Lavoisier soon consolidates.

1781-Cavendish synthesized water by burning Hydrogen in Oxygen.

Cavendish mixes hydrogen and oxygen, in the proportion 2:1, in a glass globe through which he passes an electric spark. The resulting chemical reaction leaves him with water, which stands revealed as a compound (H2O).

1782-Lavoisier established the law of conservation of mass.
He said, "In a chemical change nothing is lost and nothing is created and everything is transformed.”

He was considered the father of modern chemistry.
1789-For the first time, He Made a list of 23 known elements. He wrote the elementary treatise of chemistry. This text clarified the concept of element as a substance that could not be broken down by any known method of chemical analysis.

1793-Alessandro Volta, an Italian Physicist and chemist, discovered the Principle of primary battery. In 1800, Volta invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery, which produced a steady electric current. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was zinc and copper. Volta's method of stacking round plates of copper and zinc separated by disks of cardboard moistened with salt solution was termed a voltaic pile.

Thus, Volta is considered to be the founder of the discipline of electrochemistry. A Galvanic cell (or voltaic cell) is an electrochemical cell that derives electrical energy from spontaneous redox reaction taking place within the cell. It generally consists of two different metals connected by a salt bridge, or individual half-cells separated by a porous membrane.

1794-Lavoisier was executed in French revolution.

1803-The law of multiple proportion by Dalton.
The law of multiple proportions is one of the basic laws of stoichiometry used to establish the atomic theory.
1803-Dalton's atomic theory.

In 1803, an English meteorologist began to speculate on the phenomenon of water vapor. John Dalton (1766-1844) was aware that water vapor is part of the atmosphere, but experiments showed that water vapor would not form in certain other gases. He speculated that this had something to do with the number of particles present in those gases. Perhaps there was no room in those gases for particles of water vapor to penetrate. There were either more particles in the “heavier” gases or those particles were larger. Using his own data and the Law of Definite Proportions, he determined the relative masses of particles for six of the known elements: hydrogen (the lightest and assigned a mass of 1), oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur and phosphorous. Dalton explained his findings by stating the principles of the first atomic theory of matter.

1. Elements are composed of extremely small particles called atoms.
2. Atoms of the same element are identical in size, mass and other properties. Atoms of different elements have different properties.
3. Atoms cannot be created, subdivided or destroyed.
4. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole number ratios to form chemical compounds.
5. In chemical reactions atoms are combined, separated or rearranged to form new compounds

        Dalton  proposed a modern atomic theory in 1803 which stated that all matter was composed of small indivisible particles termed atoms, atoms of a given element possess unique characteristics and weight, and three types of atoms exist: simple (elements), compound (simple molecules), and complex (complex molecules).

1804-French chemist Joseph Proust proposed the law of definite proportions, which states that elements always combine in small, whole number ratios to form compounds, based on several experiments conducted between 1797 and 1804.

In chemistry, the law of definite proportion, sometimes called Proust's law or the law of definite composition, or law of constant composition states that a given chemical compound always contains its component elements in fixed ratio (by mass) and does not depend on its source and method of preparation.

1808- Law of combining volumes by Gay-Lussac.
        Gay-Lussac announced what was probably his single greatest achievement: from his own and others' experiments he deduced that gases at constant temperature and pressure combine in simple numerical proportions by volume, and the resulting product or products—if gases—also bear a simple proportion by volume to the volumes of the reactants. In other words, gases under equal conditions of temperature and pressure react with one another in volume ratios of small whole numbers. This conclusion subsequently became known as "Gay-Lussac's law" or the "Law of Combining Volumes".

1811-Avogadro's law which states that equal volumes of different gases at the same temperature and pressure must contain the same number of particles.
        Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856), hypothesized that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules, from which it followed that relative molecular weights of any two gases are the same as the ratio of the densities of the two gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure

1812-using Volta's battery, Humphry Davy isolated new elements like,potassium,Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium, Barium, and Boron.
        He went on to electrolyze molten salts and discovered several new metals, including sodium and potassium, highly reactive elements known as the alkali metals. During the first half of 1808, Davy conducted a series of further electrolysis experiments on alkaline earths including lime, magnesia, strontites and barytes. On 30 June 1808 Davy reported to the Royal Society that he had successfully isolated four new metals which he named barium, calcium, strontium and magnesium. The observations gathered from these experiments also led to Davy isolating boron in 1809
1817-Jacob Berzelius was a Swedish Chemist.
Berzelius, [disciple of Dalton], named the elements and used symbols to represent elements in a chemical formula. He also calculated atomic weights of different elements.

Berzelius began his career as a physician but his researches in physical chemistry were of lasting significance in the development of the subject. He is especially noted for his determination of atomic weights; his experiments led to a more complete depiction of the principles of stoichiometry, or the field of chemical combining proportions. In 1803 Berzelius demonstrated the power of an electrochemical cell to decompose chemicals into pairs of electrically opposite constituents.

Berzelius's work with atomic weights and his theory of electrochemical dualism led to his development of a modern system of chemical formula notation that could portray the composition of any compound both qualitatively (by showing its electrochemically opposing ingredients) and quantitatively (by showing the proportions in which the ingredients were united). His system abbreviated the Latin names of the elements with one or two letters and applied subscripts to designate the number of atoms of each element present in both the acidic and basic ingredients

1834-Michael Faraday
Faraday discovered that when electricity is passed through ionic solutions, the amount of chemical change produced was proportional to the quantity of electricity passed through it.

Electrochemistry, branch of chemistry concerned with the relation between electricity and chemical change. Many spontaneously occurring chemical reactions liberate electrical energy, and some of these reactions are used in batteries and fuel cells to produce electric power. Conversely, electric current can be utilized to bring about many chemical reactions that do not occur spontaneously. In the process called electrolysis, electrical energy is converted directly into chemical energy, which is stored in the products of the reaction. This process is applied in refining metals, in electroplating, and in producing hydrogen and oxygen from water.

Faraday's law stating that “the amount of any substance deposited or liberated during electrolysis is proportional to the quantity of electric charge passed and to the equivalent weight of the substance.”

Faraday's First Law of Electrolysis. The mass of the substance (m) deposited or liberated at any electrode is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity or charge (Q) passed. ... Faraday further observed that 1 Faraday (96,485C) of charge liberates 1 gram equivalent of the substance at the electrodes.
 
Faraday’s First Law of Electrolysis states that the chemical deposition due to the flow of current through an electrolyte is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity (coulombs) passed through it.

Faraday’s second law of electrolysis states that, when the same quantity of electricity is passed through several electrolytes, the mass of the substances deposited are proportional to their respective chemical equivalent or equivalent weight.

Chemical Equivalent or Equivalent Weight

The chemical equivalent or equivalent weight of a substance can be determined by Faraday’s laws of electrolysis, and it is defined as the weight of that subtenancy which will combine with or displace the unit weight of hydrogen.

The chemical equivalent of hydrogen is, thus, unity. Since valency of a substance is equal to the number of hydrogen atoms, which it can replace or with which it can combine, the chemical equivalent of a substance, therefore may be defined as the ratio of its atomic weight to its valency.

1841-chemical society was founded in England.
1845-the Royal college of chemistry was founded.
1851-The Royal School of Mines was established in London

1852-concept of valency by Edward Frankland.

Research beginning about 1850 led him to the idea that an atom of an element can combine only with a certain limited number of atoms of other elements. He thus established a theory of valency (1852), which became the basis of modern structural chemistry.

In 1866 he published an influential textbook, Lecture Notes, in which he adopted Crum Brown’s graphic (structural) formulas and argued (against Kekulé) that elements could exhibit more than one valence below a fixed upper maximum.

From 1863 to 1870 he and Baldwin Duppa exploited zinc ethyl and other organic reagents, including ethyl acetate, in the synthesis of ethers, dicarboxylic acids, unsaturated monocarboxylic acids, and hydroxy acids. This meticulous work revealed clearly the structure and relationship of these compounds, and of course its methodology had great bearing on the growth of the chemical industry.

Reagents are "substances or compounds that are added to a system in order to bring about a chemical reaction or are added to see if a reaction occurs.

1860-world's first chemical conference held in Europe [Karlsruhe Congress] by Kekule. 140 delegates participated in it. The young Siberian Mendeleyev was also present in the meet.

An important long-term result of the Karlsruhe Congress was the adoption of the now-familiar atomic weights. Prior to the Karlsruhe meeting, and going back to Dalton's work in 1803, several systems of atomic weights were in use. In one case, a value of 1 was adopted as the weight of hydrogen (the base unit), with 6 for carbon and 8 for oxygen. As long as there were uncertainties over atomic weights then the compositions of many compounds remained in doubt. Following the Karlsruhe meeting, values of about 1 for hydrogen, 12 for carbon, 16 for oxygen, and so forth were adopted. This was based on a recognition that certain elements, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, were composed of diatomic molecules and not individual atoms.

Rocke says. “If you believed Avogadro’s theory, then you could get the correct molecular formula for molecules, as well as the correct atomic weights, which was the groundwork required to construct the periodic table,“ he says.

When the 1860 conference began, chemistry was in a total state of disarray.

Participants broke into groups to discuss contentious issues, such as stoichiometry or representation of molecular formulas, and then they would return to the plenary hall to share their deliberations, Podlech says. However, sometimes a group’s consensus was undermined by the presenter’s personal opinions

In fact, the conference was mostly dominated by voices from the old guard—so much so that the organizers began to fear their efforts were in vain and that the conference was going to be a complete failure. But just before the meeting’s close, a relatively unknown Italian chemist named Stanislao Cannizzaro gave a long, impassioned, and eloquent lecture that argued for Avogadro’s perspective on molecules. After Cannizzaro’s lecture, one of his friends handed out a paper that effectively reiterated his speech and that several important delegates read on their trips home.

“It was as though the scales fell from my eyes; doubt vanished, and it was replaced by a feeling of peaceful certainty,“ wrote Meyer, who would later go on to construct a correct periodic table around the same time as Mendeleev put his together. Mendeleev wrote that the meeting “produced such a remarkable effect on the history of our science that I consider it a duty ... to describe all the sessions ... and the results.“

But Cannizzaro’s plea needed some time to sink in, and it took about a decade before scientists hashed out the correct molecular weights that enabled the periodic table to emerge. “On that last day in Karlsruhe, there were no cheers, no sudden enlightenment, no ovation,” Rocke notes. “The assembled chemists simply quietly filed out of the hall and went home.

The Karlsruhe meeting was the first international meeting of chemists and that it led to the eventual founding of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Later, German chemist Lothar Meyer, and the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, who had both been in attendance at Karlsruhe, constructed element arrangements using the Cannizzaro numbers - on tables: with the elements arranged in rows and columns - for schoolbooks.

1869-Mendeleyev constructed the periodic table of elements, based on increasing         atomic weights of elements.
1898-discovery of Nobel gases by William Ramsay.