The Discovery of the Periodic Table - the Chemical Revolution from Lavoisier to Mendeleev

This paper was written to investigate the order of discoveries made in chemistry leading up to the discovery of the periodic table. New experimental techniques, such as the pneumatic trough, voltaic pile, spectroscopy, and potassium analysis led to the discovery of many new elements and their properties which enabled the discovery of the periodic table. The discoveries led to the demise of the classical theory of the elements, to the end of the phlogiston theory and to the creation of the modern ideas of the elements and of the atomic theory. The paper shows the discoveries were made in a necessary and inevitable order with new experimental techniques leading to the discovery of new elements which eventually led to the discovery of the periodic table.

Acids and Rust: A New Perspective on the Chemical Revolution

This paper uses scientific perspectivism as a lens for understanding acid experiments from the Chemical Revolution. I argue that this account has several advantages over several recent interpretations of this period, interpretations that do not neatly capture some of the historical experiments on acids. The perspectival view is distinctive in that it avoids discontinuity, allows for the rational resolution of disagreement, and is sensitive to the historical epistemic context.

Experiment and Quantification of Weight: Late-Renaissance and Early Modern Medical, Mineralogical and Chemical Discussions on the Weights of Metals

This paper explores how a set of observations on the weight of lead were interpreted and assessed between the 1540s and the 1630s across three different interconnecting disciplines: medicine, mineralogy and chemistry. The epistemic import of these discussions will be demonstrated by showing: 1) the changing role and articulation of experience and quantification in the investigation of metals; and 2) the notions associated with weight in different disciplinary frameworks. In medicine and mineralogy, weight was not considered as a specific subject of inquiry in itself, but as a “sign” indicating other relevant properties of metals. In contrast, the chemistry tradition was increasingly concerned with the specific investigation of weight as a property of matter, as seen in the debates that took place in the “chemical revolution.” In addition, this study will reveal the versatility, polysemy, and parallel purposes of the recourse to experiential knowledge in different contexts, where the same “facts” operate within different disciplines.

The Changing Relation between Atomicity and Elementarity

Early modern efforts to reconceptualize atomicity as a chymical notion fell by the wayside during the chemical revolution, as Antoine Lavoisier’s desire to transform chemistry into a strictly empirical and quantitative science led him to reject all metaphysical speculation about the fundamental nature of matter. Instead, Lavoisier focused on identifying elementary substances, which he defined operationally as the final products of chemical analysis. Our current understanding of the relation between atoms and elements, however, owes a great deal to the work of nineteenth-century chemist John Dalton. Dalton’s chemical atomic theory reconciled the concepts of “atomicity” and “elementarity” and rendered both as empirical and chemical notions, amenable to measurement and quantitative analysis. One of the central goals of Dalton’s theory was understanding how relative weights of chemical atoms determine the properties of elements and how the chemical atoms of different elements combine to form compound substances. Thus, Dalton’s theory provided a way of studying and measuring the properties of atoms and elements in a way that allowed chemists to finally understand the chemical relations between them.