What are the origins of chemistry?
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Matthew A. answered • 03/15/19
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Chemistry has been used since the humans have walked the earth, typically in the forms of metallurgy and creation of alloys, etc. The study of it though in a way that may be slightly more familiar dates back to around 380 BC with Democritus of Ancient Greece that matter is composed of tiny indivisible and indestructible particles called "atomos" or as we would call them today, atoms. This idea was not unique simply to the Greeks however as other philosophers like Kanada in India.
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Sam G.
The history of chemistry represents a time span from ancient history to the present. By 1000 BC, civilizations used technologies that would eventually form the basis of the various branches of chemistry. Examples include extracting metals from ores, making pottery and glazes, fermenting beer and wine, extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume, rendering fat into soap, making glass, and making alloys like bronze. The protoscience of chemistry, alchemy, was unsuccessful in explaining the nature of matter and its transformations. However, by performing experiments and recording the results, alchemists set the stage for modern chemistry. The distinction began to emerge when a clear differentiation was made between chemistry and alchemy by Robert Boyle in his work The Sceptical Chymist (1661). While both alchemy and chemistry are concerned with matter and its transformations, chemists are seen as applying scientific method to their work. Chemistry is considered to have become an established science with the work of Antoine Lavoisier, who developed a law of conservation of mass that demanded careful measurement and quantitative observations of chemical phenomena. The history of chemistry is intertwined with the history of thermodynamics, especially through the work of Willard Gibbs.[1]03/19/19