Monday, September 9, 2019

History of Chemistry


The interplay between Chemistry, Physics and Medicine and their dependency on the development of modern tools and devices are obvious.

In 7000 BC, the Chinese developed wine fermentation.
In 5400 BC, beer fermentation developed in Iran.
In 700 AD, early Persians isolated hydrochloric acidnitric acidcitric acidacetic acidtartaric acid, and aqua regia.
In 1250 AD, Italian chemist Aldorotti developed fractional distillation.
In 1267 AD, Roger Bacon experiments with gun powder
In 1310 AD, A Spanish chemist concluded that all metals were composed of various proportions of sulfur and mercury. He is one of the first to describe nitric acidaqua regia, and aqua fortis.
In 1605, Sir Francis Bacon describes the scientific method.
In 1662, Robert Boyle describes gas pressure and volume.
In 1735, Georg Brandt extracts Cobalt from Copper.
In 1754, Joseph Black isolates Carbon Dioxide.
In 1766, Henry Cavendish isolates Hydrogen.
In 1773, Scheele and Priestly isolate Oxygen.
In 1787, Charles confirms heat expands gas.
In 1800, Volta builds the first chemical battery.
In 1805, Lussac discovers water is H2O.
In 1808, Berzelius introduces atomic weight.
In 1827, Prout isolates carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.
In 1848, Kelvin- molecular motion stops at zero degrees.
In 1849, Pasteur establishes microbiology and disease control.
In 1852, Beer establishes spectrophotometry.
In 1855, Silliman establishes petroleum cracking.
In 1856, Perkins establishes synthetic dye.
In 1859, Kirchhoff and Bunsen establish spectroscopy and discover caesium, rubidium, indium, thallium and helium.
In 1862, Parks develops synthetic polymers.
In 1869, Mendeleev updates periodic table with 66 elements and atomic weights.
In 1873, Hoff and Le Bel discover chemical bonding.
In 1883, Arrhenius develops ion theory to explain electrolytes.
In 1884, Fischer describes glucose and sugars.
In 1885, Goldstein discovers protons.
In 1893, Werner discovers cobalt structure.
In 1894, Water chlorination was proposed in Germany
In 1897, Thompson discovers electrons.
In 1898, Wien discovers positive ions can be deflected by magnetic fields.
In 1899, Curie isolates radium and polonium.
In 1900, Water chlorination began in the US.
In 1900, Rutherford discovers radioactivity from decaying atoms.
In 1903, Tsvet invents chromatography.
In 1905, Haber and Bosch invent ammonia.
In 1905, Einstein explains motion to confirm atomic theory
In 1907, Baekeland invents plastic.
In 1909, Millikan confirms all electrons have the same mass and charge.
In 1909, Sorenson invents PH to measure acidity.
In 1911, Rutherford confirms the structure of atoms as nucleus and electrons.
In 1913, Bohr introduces quantum mechanics to atomic structures.
In 1923, Lewis introduces Thermodynamics.
In 1928, Fleming discovered Penicillin.
In 1929, Pauling introduces X-ray crystallography.
In 1932, Chadwick discovers the neutron.
In 1935, Carothers invents Nylon at Du Pont.
In 1937, Houdry develops large scale petroleum cracking needed for oil refining.
In 1945, Bloch and Purcell develop nuclear magnetic resonance.
In 1951, Pauling uses C-ray crystallography to analyze proteins.
In 1952, Walsh pioneers atomic absorption spectroscopy to identify materials in mixtures.
In 1953, Watson and Crick discover DNA.
In 1964, Ernst developed the MRI.

The most important discovery was Penicillin in 1928. It cured bacterial infections in wounds, inflammation and infectious diseases. It became available in 1945. The anti-biotics that have been developed ended deaths from infection and diseases like small pox, etc.

The next most important discovery was Water Chlorination in Germany in 1894 and its implementation in the US in 1900. This ended diseases like cholera etc.

Types of infection include bacterial, fungal, viral, protozoan, parasitic, and prion disease. These include: cholera diphtheria, dysentery, bubonic plague  pneumonia,  tuberculosis,  typhoid, typhus and wound infections.
Millions died every year from these infectious diseases without anti-biotics before 1945.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader


No comments: