The Story of Chemistry

‘The importance of the end in view prompted me to undertake all this work, which seemed to me destined to bring about a revolution in physics and chemistry.’

Antoine Lavoisier, 1773


Great advances in human history have often rested on and prompted progress in chemistry. The exploitation of fire, the development of pigments, and the discovery that metals could be smelted and worked laid the foundations of civilization.  The search for better tools and weapons drove metallurgy, and the need for medicines and perfumes lay behind the first laboratories.


This book traces a story of exploration and discovery, from the earliest applications of chemistry by our ancient forebears. For more than 1,000 years, alchemists pursued the transformation of matter until the advent of modern chemistry in the 17th century set us on the path to the complex science of today.


Topics include:

• prechemistry since prehistory 

• alchemy and the transmutation of metals

• the rise of the scientific method

• identifying the chemical elements

• understanding gases

• the nature of the atom

• organic chemistry

• chemical analysis