The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table

by Richard Morris

Book Overview

They started with four: earth, air, fire, and water. From these basics, they sought to understand the essential ingredients of the world. Those who could see further, those who understood that the four were just the beginning, were the last sorcerers -- and the world's first chemists.

What we now call chemistry began in the fiery cauldrons of mystics and sorcerers seeking not to make a better world through science, but rather to make themselves...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0309089050
• ISBN13: 9780309089050
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Chemists and their adventures....

I found the stories told on the book so interesting that I read it like a romance, for a few days, every spare time I had, I was reading this book... One will enjoy and learn at the same time. After reading it, you have a very strong impression that humanity has just started to make science. Not long ago, the knowledge available was so superficial that very few aspects of chemistry were reasonably explained. The author explains the science involved in very simple terms, it helps if the reader has some previous knowledge of chemistry or physics to fill in the blanks. The last part of the book requires additional reading to understand the evolution of scientific knowledge during the twentieth century. I recommend reading the Scientists by John Gribbin as a complementary book as nice to read as this one.

From Alchemy to Eternity: The Story of the Elements

Richard Morris has done a wonderful job of taking what should be a dry topic and making it very interesting. The Last Sorcerer details the discovery of the elements and the people behind these discoveries. Along the way we meet a number of brilliant eccentrics, would be charlatans and an interesting collection of scientists and non-scientists. The chapters are short and punchy. The book flows well. From the beginning we learn that while the ancient Egyptians had identified seven distinct elements, thanks to Aristotle, the field of Alchemy was born thus leading to the belief that all things were made up of four elements: air, water, earth and fire. From there it was quick jump to the belief that base metal (e.g., lead) could be transferred into gold. For centuries afterwards, alchemists struggled to reconcile this theory with their observations. But in that struggle chemistry was born. Perhaps the best chapter is the one about the work of the Russian scientist Mendeleev and his work to discover the periodic law. When my children were studying the periodic table, I read this chapter to them and it helped to better understand and bring to life the dry and seemingly unfathomable periodic table. But there are other great chapters about many scientists from Boyle to Rutherford. For those non-scientists who seek to expand their knowledge about the history of science and learn a little chemistry along the way, this is a great book. It is a bit old for children under 13 (and there is some language in the book) but you may find yourself reading a chapter or two to your children when they begin complaining about their chemistry class that day.

The tortuous path from superstition to mystery

In a world of leptons, quarks, muons, superstrings, 10 dimensions of space and an 11-dimensional theory called M theory -- it is hard to remember the electron was discovered just over a century ago. English physicist J.J. Thompson discovered the electron in 1897; since then, there has been an explosion of discoveries. For thousands of years, chemists thought of the world consisted of earth, air, fire and water. It was a theory offered by Empedocles, who lived about 2,500 years ago and was said to be able to control the winds and restore life to a woman who had been dead for 30 days. Once Aristotle endorsed the idea, chemists were stuck with it for nearly two and one-half millennia. Logically, if everything consists of four basic elements -- then, by properly mixing it would be possible to make gold and every other useful item. For example, when mercury ore was heated, a pool of liquid metal was formed. Transformations took place when substances were heated, dissolved, melted, filtered, and crystallized. The key was discovering the proper mixture of the four elements, then keep it secret. Mix tin and copper and the result was bronze, better than both tin and copper and looking a lot like gold. Wise men would have been foolish not to pursue such a promising start. However, it was a dead-end road, even though the ancients had endorsed it. Secrecy was the second crucial ingredient. Alchemists realized if everyone knew the secret of making gold, the social impact would be catastrophic. As a result, every alchemist literally began work based on zero knowledge of what works and what doesn't. Bad ideas were never rejected, good ideas were never shared. It took some real rebels, weirdos and geeks to upset more than two thousand years of error. One of the earliest was Paracelsus; the name he gave himself meant "greater than Celsus," a deservedly famous first century AD Roman physician. Paracelsus, according to one of his contemporaries, "lived like a pig and looked like a sheep drover. He found his greatest pleasure among the company of the most dissolute rabble, and spent most of his time drunk." This is the type of man who first questioned the wisdom of the ages. In an age when religious fundamentalism is becoming ever more terrible, Morris presents a fascinating story of how scientists went from absolute certainty about the world to tenuous uncertainty. It wasn't too long ago that scientists were looking ever deeper into the furthest reaches of the universe; within the past decade, they have discovered that 96 percent of the universe is invisible and for all intents and purposes unknown. Science is the process of uncertainty. It's a lonely, dangerous path of inquiry to follow. The English condemned the man who discovered oxygen as a dangerous radical; the French guillotined the leading scientist of his era, because he didn't fit in with the certainties of revolutionary France; the Russian who came up with the Periodic Tabl

A mellifluous read

Like a well written piece of classical music, the story of early chemistry bears telling and retelling. Each interpretation brings the emotions and the feeling of its author. The written music is the same, the pleasure of listening to it comes from who does the playing.Richard Morris would have made a great conductor. His interpretation of early chemistry is one of the most enjoyable I read. Read it together with Paul Strathern's "Mendeleyev's Dream" and Oliver Sacks' "Uncle Tungsten". You'll feel you have personally met Paracelsus, Lavoisier and Boyle.