History of Science and Technology
Fact Sheet
Chemistry, 1687-1787
During the course of the eighteenth century chemistry underwent a series of significant changes that turned it into a modern science. The development of basic experimental devices and techniques in the study of gases produced a wide range of new phenomen
a that forced a re-evaluation of chemical theory. Although dominated by the phlogiston theory for much of the century, by the end of the period Lavoisier had placed chemistry on its modern theoretical foundation. The discovery of practical chemical proc
esses simultaneously led to the beginnings of the modern chemical industry.
Important ideas:
alchemy
iatrochemistry
pneumatic trough
phlogiston
combustion
calcination
calx
air
element
compound
Important persons:
Nicholas Lemery (1645-1715) France
Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) Germany
Stephen Hales (1677-1761) England
Johann Juncker (1679-1759) Germany
Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738) Netherlands
Guillaume-Francois Rouelle (1703-1770) France
Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (1709-1782) Germany
Pierre-Joseph Macquer (1718-1784) France
Gabriel Venel (1723-1775) France
Joseph Black (1728-1799) Scotland
Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) England
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) England
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) Sweden
Nicolas Leblanc (1742-1806) France
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) France
Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819) Scotland
Important events and publications:
1703 Stahl, Specimen beccerianum, develops the phlogiston theory of combustion
1723 Stahl, Foundations of chemistry
1727 Hales, Vegetable Staticks, describes "fixed air" and the pneumatic trough
1730 Juncker, Conspectus of theoretical and practical chemistry
1732 Boerhaave, Elements of Chemistry
1742 Rouelle begins lecturing on chemistry at the Jardin du Roi
1754 Black discovers "fixed air"
1756 A new edition of Lemery's 'Cours de chimie' supports the phlogiston theory
1756 J.F. Demachy translates Juncker's Elements of chemistry according to the principles of Becher and Stahl
1766 Cavendish discovers "inflammable air"
1766 Macquer, Dictionaire de chymie
1772 Rutherford discovers "phlogisticated air"
1772 Priestley, Observations upon Different Kinds of Air
1772 Lavoisier begins his investigations on combustion
1774 Pierre Bayen publishes his study of mercurius calcinatus per se
1774 Priestley discovers "dephlogisticated air"
1775 Lavoisier's first memoire on calcination
1777 Scheele, Chemical treatise on air and fire, shows that air is a mixture of gases
1778 Lavoisier's revised memoire on calcination
1781 Cavendish determines the composition of the atmosphere
1781 Priestley produces water from the combustion of "inflammable air"
1783 Lavoisier, Reflections on phlogiston
1783 Leblanc invents the "Leblanc process"
1787 Lavoisier, Methode d'une nomenclature chimique
1789 Lavoisier, Traite elementaire de chimie
1791 Priestley's house and laboratory are burned by a mob in Birmingham
1794 Lavoisier is executed in Paris