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An early concept to explain chemical bonding, affinity described substances’ desire to bond with one another. Experiences from commercial chemical practices in the 17th century were thus brought together in a theoretical concept [5], at first explained in animistic or mechanistic terms, then from Isaac Newton onwards in terms of a substance-specific bonding “force.” Convinced of the lawful unity of nature, Newton had proposed in his  Principia mathematica scientiae naturalis (1687) that all natural phenomena should be attributable to forces of attraction and r…

Since Antiquity, organic and mineral manuring has been used to improve crop yield. In the 17th century, Paracelsism gave the initial stimulus to a chemical investigation of surface soil and plant constituents. But chemical fertilization, in the form suggested during the English Revolution by the reformist circle of Samuel Hartlib [6. 384–402] or by the chemist Johann Rudolf Glauber, remained ineffective, because key questions of plant nutrition remained unanswered. While some, following Johann Baptist van Helmont (1577-1644), saw the supposed…

1. Concept and research positionsThe term “natural philosophy” lacks a unanimous definition. In the first centuries of the early modern period, it was still largely synonymous with a general science of nature that was a central component of philosophy. As empirical knowledge came to be regarded as the prototype of reliable (philosophical) knowledge (Empiricism; see below, 3.), so the term natural philosophy even began to be used as a synonym for experimental physics – it was still so used at Scottis…

The concept of the Philosopher’s Stone (Latin  lapis philosophorum), current in literal and metaphorical senses since the beginning of the early modern period (e.g. Angelus Silesius in the 17th century), was central to alchemy. It concerned the possible existence of a particular substance capable of transforming base materials into precious ones, and metals ultimately into gold, by triggering their inherent tendency to perfection. Producing the Philosopher’s Stone, in what became known as the “great work” ( opus magnum), was discussed in countless practical guides …

Analysis and synthesis are the basic operations of chemistry (Chemical sciences), its modern nomenclature (Nomenclature, chemical), and its notation [3]. They imply that chemical materials consist of building blocks (atoms; see Elements), which join in various combinations and can in turn be separated from the resulting compounds (Chemical compound).The roots of this approach lie in the classical atomism of Democritus and Leucippus, which was unable to prevail over the qualitative theory of matter and the concept of transmutation, supporte…

1. Knowledge and theory1.1. IntroductionChemistry (the term may derive from the Egyptian kmt, the word for the black earth of Egypt, or from the Greek chēmeía or  chymeía, ‘art of alloying metals’) includes various procedures and bodies of knowledge concerning the manufacture, purification, and transformation of materials. Their origins lie in metallurgy, the making of dye and glass, the manufacture of medicines, and foodstuffs technology. It was synonymous at first with alchemy, and in the first centuries of the early …

1. ConceptCombustion today means the exothermic oxidation of a substance, generally in reaction with oxygen. Processes that are comparable in chemical terms are the rusting of iron and the metabolic physiology of respiration. It was not until the late 18th century that it came to be understood that these very different phenomena were attributable to the same process.Christoph Meinel2. Corpuscular explanationsAccording to the Aristotelian view, combustion was related to the element of fire. In the atomist tradition, it was associated with the postulated…

1. From vital chaos to the gas of chemists The concept that air is a weighable substance consisting of various gases gained acceptance only in the course of the 18th century. Until then it had been considered one of the four Aristotelian elements and was neither heavy nor light, as long as it remained in its natural place. In his  Ortus Medicinae (Amsterdam 1648; Ger. Aufgang der Artzney-Kunst, Sulzbach 1683), the Flemish Paracelsist Jan Baptista van Helmont conceived an alternative, vitalistic theory of matter (Vitalism), according to which all substances …

1. Scientific classification As used today, “salt” denotes a chemical compound made up of positively charged cations and negative anions. However, the theory of ionic bonding that defines the salt as a type was described only in 1915 by the German physicist Walther Kossel. Up to the 19th century, salts were identified primarily on the basis of their taste, solubility in water, and resistance to fire; on the basis of their resemblance to ordinary edible salt, they were grouped together as “salt-like substances.”While the specific differences between individual salts rem…

Experience teaches that objects and living creatures can be transformed – for example, a caterpillar can turn into a butterfly and nondescript ore into gleaming metal. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, extremely popular in the early modern period, rings the mythological and anthropological changes on this idea. In contrast to metamorphosis, in which only the form changes while identity is preserved,  transmutation in the technical chemical sense denotes a transformation that affects substance.The theoretical basis of transmutation was the Aristotelian theory of the four …

Along with the concept of the elements, the concept of compounds is one of the fundamental theoretical concepts of early modern chemistry. Earlier historiography sought to trace its origins back to classical atomism with its notion of temporally stable atomic constellations [2] and the theory of  minima naturalia of the high Middle Ages, the smallest qualitatively distinct particles of a substance [9]; these were brought together around 1620 in Isaac Beeckman’s concept of the  homogeneum physicum (“molecule”) [8. vol. 1] or in the 1670s in Robert Boyle’s notion…

1. ConceptUntil well into the early modern era, theories of matter arose within more general theories of  substance. When considering the nature of the fundamental entities of reality, ancient philosophers raised questions concerning the immutable vehicle of shifting properties and changing substances and reflected on what (if anything) can be known about it. The conception of matter as the basic stuff underlying all things is reflected in the Greek word hyle (Latin materia): literally it means the wood of a tree, from which something can be fashioned; philosophical…

Fermentation (from the Latin  fermentum; “fermentation agent”, “leaven”) is one of the oldest biotechnological methods for conserving foodstuffs and manufacturing alcoholic beverages (e.g. Beer; Wine). Today, all technical transformations of a biological substrate using microorganisms or enzymes is called fermentation, but until the 19th century, the term denoted biological reactions in the absence of air, especially alcoholic fermentation. The theory of fermentation in this period was at the heart …

1. ConceptFollowing Justus Liebig’s dismissal of the natural philosophy of the German Romantics ( Romanticism) as the “pestilence [...] of the century” [1. 29], historians likewise long imputed to the chemistry of the years around 1800 a reputation for groundless speculation. With its poetological aspects recently rediscovered by scholars of German studies [5]; [3]; [7] and its unique characteristics reconstructed by historians of scholarship [4]; [8], however, it has come to be seen today as a characteristic mode of dealing with knowledge between em…

Dass Dinge und Wesen sich ineinander verwandeln können, so wie aus der Raupe ein Schmetterling oder aus dem unscheinbaren Erz glänzendes Metall wird, ist eine Tatsache der Erfahrung. Ovids Metamorphosen, die sich gerade in der Frühen Nz. höchster Beliebtheit erfreuten, variieren die Idee mythologisch und anthropologisch. Doch im Gegensatz zur Metamorphose, bei der sich nur die Gestalt wandelt, die Identität aber erhalten bleibt, bezeichnet T. im technisch-chemischen Sinn eine Veränderung, welche die Substanz betrifft. Theoretische Grundlage der T. war die aristotelische Leh…

1. Vom vitalen Chaos zum Gas der Chemiker Die Auffassung, dass Luft ein wägbarer Stoff ist und aus verschiedenen G. besteht, setzte sich erst im Laufe des 18. Jh.s durch. Bis dahin galt die Luft als eines der vier aristotelischen Elemente und war weder schwer noch leicht, solange sie sich an ihrem natürlichen Ort befand. In seinem Werk Ortus Medicinae (Amsterdam 1648; dt. Aufgang der Artzney-Kunst, Sulzbach 1683) entwarf der flämische Paracelsist Johann Baptista van Helmont eine alternative, vitalistische Materietheorie (Vitalismus). Dieser zufolge gehen alle Stoffe aus »W…

Neben dem Begriff der Elemente gehört der der V. zu den grundlegenden theoretischen Konzepten der nzl. Chemie. Die ältere Historiographie hat seine Ursprünge bis auf den antiken Atomismus und dessen Vorstellung von zeitlich stabilen Atomkonstellationen einerseits [2] und die hochma. Lehre von den minima naturalia, den kleinsten qualitativ bestimmten Substanzteilchen [9], andererseits zurückführen wollen, die um 1620 in Isaac Beeckmans Konzept des homogeneum physicum (»Molekül«) [8. Bd. 1] oder in den 1670er Jahren in Robert Boyles Vorstellung räumlich strukturierter …

Als frühes Konzept zur Erklärung der chemischen Bindung bezeichnete A. das Bestreben von Stoffen, sich miteinander zu verbinden. Erfahrungen aus der gewerblich-chemischen Praxis wurden im 17. Jh. damit unter einen theoretischen Begriff gefasst [5], der zunächst animistisch oder mechanistisch, seit Isaac Newton aber mit der Vorstellung einer substanzspezifischen Bindungs-»Kraft« erklärt wurde. Von der gesetzmäßigen Einheit der Natur überzeugt, hatte Newton in den Principia mathematica scientiae naturalis von 1687 vermutet, sämtliche Erscheinungen der Natur so…

Analyse und S. sind die Grundoperationen der Chemie (Chemische Wissenschaften), ihrer modernen Nomenklatur und ihrer Zeichensprache [3]. Sie implizieren die Vorstellung, dass chemische Stoffe aus Bausteinen (Atomen; vgl. Elemente) bestehen, welche sich in unterschiedlichen Kombinationen miteinander verbinden und aus der Verbindung auch wieder abtrennen lassen. Der Ursprung dieses Ansatzes liegt im antiken Atomismus von Demokrit und Leukipp, der sich aber unter dem Einfluss der aristotelischen Naturphilosophie gegen die qualitative Auffassung von Materie und das Kon…

Die F. (von lat. fermentum; »Gärungsmittel«, »Sauerteig«) ist eine der ältesten biotechnologischen Methoden zur Lebensmittelkonservierung und zur Herstellung alkoholischer Getränke (u. a. Bier; Wein). Heute nennt man jede technische Umsetzung von biologischem Substrat mit Hilfe von Mikroorganismen oder Enzymen (Fermenten) eine F.; bis ins 19. Jh. bezeichnete man damit biologische Reaktionen unter Ausschluss von Luft, speziell die alkoholische Gärung. Die Theorie der Gärung wurde damals zum Kernstück der Ausei…