Old-fashion Chemistry

[Mercedes Benzene]

I have always been a fan of alchemists and the work of early "chemists".
I wanted to create this thread as a way for people to post archaic names for substances, recipes, procedures, theories, etc, all relating to alchemy and early chemical work.

In the past, I've seen numerous intriguing passages from century-old texts describing processes for extracting peculiar substances (now with modern names and identities of course). It is very interesting to see how these forefathers of modern chemistry interpreted their "mysterious" findings in a barely legible language to today's reader.

Feel free to post anything you wish relating to his interesting topic (interesting to me at least)

[UncleAl]

Alchemy is religion. Religions' howling costumes and intoned mumbo-jumbos divert attention from its intrinsic hollowness. Religion is all about selling a package of zero content.

Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with four very short equations. Einstein specified the entirety of gravitation with ten short equations. Whole forests have been slaughtered to print bibles, and their interpretations in kind would fill a skyscraper to bursting. For all that, religions proliferate rather than condense to one correct creed.

Prostestants and Catholics, essentially indistinguishable, kill each other with sustained enthusiasm. Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds - all self-professed peace-loving Muslims - kill each other with sustained enthusiasm. Hindus and Muslims dripping god out their asses kill each other with sustained enthusiasm.

They are lying to you. They do not have method, they do not have knowledge, and they do not have truth. Singly, jointly, and severally, they have nothing but bunko and sales territory disputes.

[Mercedes Benzene]

I'm not claiming alchemy as a religion. That would be straight-up blasphemous to my own beliefs. I'm also not suggesting that alchemy is based fully on fact. But it IS a part of our past, and you certainly wouldn't have the life you do today if it were not for alchemy...
Stop being soo uptight, and definitely stop being so flipping supercilious!!!

[Eclogite]

Originally Posted by Mercedes Benzene

Stop being soo uptight, and definitely stop being so flipping supercilious!!!

Way to go boy! Of course alchemy is not a religion. Rather, it represents the confused efforts of thinkers (I shall not call them philosophers or scientists) to better understand the character of the world. As is often the case, the conjectures of those who chose a wrong path, or a different methodology, look quite humourous, misguided, or downright superstitious to those in the present, who are gifted with the truth.
As you observe, without alchemy, we would not have chemistry, nor biochemistry, nor gene mapping, nor materials science, nor a host of other concepts and techniques, on which our present civilisation is based.
The alchemists of old should be lauded as pioneers, not castigated as blind charlatans. I look forward to the development of this thread along the lines of your intention, not the disruptive, inaccurate perspective of Uncle Al.

[HydrogenBond]

Comparing alchemy to modern times is like comparing modern times to hundreds of years into the future. Many people posting in futuristic science forums, will probably consider our time one of pre-science and speculation, sinced the state of art will be much different.

Alchemy was a stepping stone that was not allowed to deviate too far away from religion, or it would have been blasphemy and would have precipitated a reaction by the conservative religious right. Many of the alchemist were priest and doctors and knew the personal consequences of their studies. On the other hand, they were pioneering some of the early investigative techniques of science. They were also designing some of the equipment that would be used in modern chemistry, such as distillation and condensation. The religious leaders saw benefit in this.

If you look at using plants from the Amazon jungle for possible medicines, the Alchemists would be right at home and highly employable. They were good at extracting essenses from plants and invented the try and see what happens technique. They also had practical engineering skills and could create some of the new equipment needed to run experiments. Most modern scientists don't create equipment but buy it off the shelf. The alchemist would also try new medicine on themselves first.

[Qfwfq]

Quite right boys, did you know that Uncle Al is essentially an organic chemist?
He's one of them that would be pretty well unemployed if it hadn't been for all those centuries of empirical discovery!!! Without which nobody would ever have gleaned which substances are the elements and guys like Lavoisier and Mendeleev couldn't have turned little baby alchemy into the adolescent which then grew up into the science of chemistry. Now, of course, it's an old age pensioner: it can all be worked out in terms of quantum physics, no longer a science but a topic of technology and engineering.

And, of course it was tied up to religion in medievel times, just like all the other branches of philosophy!

Originally Posted by HydrogenBond

If you look at using plants from the Amazon jungle for possible medicines, the Alchemists would be right at home and highly employable. They were good at extracting essenses from plants and invented the try and see what happens technique. They also had practical engineering skills and could create some of the new equipment needed to run experiments. Most modern scientists don't create equipment but buy it off the shelf. The alchemist would also try new medicine on themselves first.

Here, I agree and disagree. Apothecary, which was only a part of alchemy, has never died. It is one of the main pillars in good pharmacy faculties, such as the one where many friends of mine graduated, some with a degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology which gives good prospects for research posts in companies such as GlaxoSmithKlein, Fidia etc...

[HydrogenBond]

Another angle to alchemy was mystical phychology. The psychologist Carl Jung (Freud's star pupil), had a parting of the ways with Freud when he pushed forward his own ideas of the collective unconscious. This went beyond the baby equals blank slate for personal and social programming. Jung believed and worked hard to prove that collective human propensity was already preprogrammed into the brain. In modern lingo, the baby begins life with personality software associated with human genetics. Such software, is what makes dogs behave like dogs and human's behave like humans, independant of external programming.

Jung used a lot of Alchemist symbolism to prove his thesis since much of the symbolism was unknowingly addressing different aspects of the software. It turned out that the alchemists unknowly knew much about the human psyche. The Alchemists went beyond the ego/cultural into the realm of genetic propensites that are common to all humans. They projected this into spirits, i.e., things that are already here. They did not know about DNA and collective personality software but they were able to map the software with surprising detail. The problem with using their projection data is knowing how to translate collective human symbolism into something rational. If alchemist talked about the shadow of the sun, their were describing the darkside of human nature.