Question

What is the contribution of the Alchemists to the science of chemistry?

Answer 1

Hint: Metalworking, refining, and the production of gunpowder, ceramics, glass, ceramics, ink, dyes, paints, cosmetics, extracts, and liquors were all aided by alchemy. Alchemists were the first to organize chemical elements into rudimentary periodic tables and to bring distillation to Western Europe.

Complete answer:
i) Alchemy was founded on the assumption that nature is divided into four essential elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Alchemy is a mysterious and secretive ancient practice.
ii) New discoveries, allowing elements to share or send electrons to other elements, and discovering new combinations of elements are some of alchemy's contributions to science chemistry.
iii) Since alchemy is a magical rather than a scientific discipline, I believe we would have to assume it was small or none.
iv) In the West, alchemy was a common but occult (hidden) science, so anyone who practiced it was likely to keep their apparent opposition to Christian teaching very private. They were also fiercely protecting any “knowledge” they had, as the first person to figure out how to turn base metal into gold would undoubtedly become the wealthiest, and thus most powerful, person on the planet.
v) Science, like Chemistry, advances as a result of people sharing their discoveries, helping others to advance. It is often based on a positivist, often reductionist, paradigm in which analytical reasoning is used to generate hypotheses that are then tested in experiments against fact.
vi) The field of alchemy contributed very little because they relied on different methods to reach understanding. It's worth noting that Rutherford and Soddy were the first to convert one element into another, earning them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. However, their breakthrough involved the conversion of nitrogen into oxygen, not lead into gold.
vii) The production of glassware for running chemical reactions. The analysis of metallurgy and the extraction of metals from ores is made easier thanks to alchemy. However, the cornerstone for chemistry's creation as a fundamental science was laid. Alchemists never managed to turn lead into gold.

Note: Alchemists comes from Hermes Trismegistus, also known as Thrice-Great Hermes, the founder of alchemy. The transmutation of elements was a guiding theory of alchemy for over 2,000 years before the actual mechanisms of transmutation were discovered.

Herbal medicine is a great modern-day example of alchemy. The physical practice of alchemy is known as laboratory alchemy. This form of Alchemy uses hermeticism's theories to obtain a deeper understanding of the physical and metaphysical world around us.