Recent advances in the phlogiston theory: Mining the really old literature

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Recent advances in the phlogiston theory Mining
the really old literature

• Bartow Culp
• Purdue University

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Criteria

• Pre- and early 19th century books, journals, and
  images
• Available online
• Free (mostly)

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De rerum natura Titus Lucretius Carus (94 B.C.
49 B.C.)

• An Epicurean philosopher who explained the world
  in terms of indivisible atoms
• Fully translated text available (and searchable)
  at Project Gutenberg www.gutenberg.org
• Also available at the Archimedes Project Website
  (vide infra)

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• Section titles such as Character of the atoms
  and Atomic motions

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Some Lucretian quotes

• This ultimate stock we have devised to name
  Procreant atoms, matter, seeds of things, Or
  primal bodies, as primal to the world.
• Nothing exists per se except atoms and the void
  
• Bodies, again, are partly primal germs of
  things, and partly Unions deriving from the
  primal germs.
• those elements from which alone all things
  created are, And how accomplished by no tool of
  the Gods.

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De re metallicaGeorgius Agricola
(1494-1555)Source The Archimedes Project
lthttp//archimedes2.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/gt
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Achimedes Project page from De rerum natura, with
lexicon entry
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Alchemy sourceslthttp//www.levity.com/alchemy/in
dex.htmlgt
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Alchemy WebsiteExample of transcribed text

• Mary the Prophetess
• Transcribed from the British Library MS. Sloane
  3641 folios 1-8. The original text was printed in
  a number of compendia in Latin and German, the
  Auriferae artis 1572, Alchymia vera 1604,
  Arnaldus de Villa Nova Opus Aureum 1604, Lumen
  chymicum novum 1624 and in the sixth volume of
  the Theatrum chemicum 1659.
• The practise of Mary the Prophetess in the
  Alchymicall Art.
• Aros the Philosopher had a meeting with Mary
  the Prophetess the Sister of Moyses, and
  approaching to her, he paid her respect and said
  unto her. O Prophetess, I have truly heard many
  say of you that you whiten the Stone in one
  day.And Mary said, Yea, Aros, even in a part of
  one day.

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Alchemy WebsiteExample of transcribed text

• Everburning Lights ascribed to Trithemius
• Hearuppon followeth the process practica
• Take 4 unces of sulphur, so much of calcyned
  alume, bruise them together, put it into an
  earthen sublimatorie, place it into a coale fier,
  well lited, let the sulphur ascend through the
  Alume, and in 8 houres is it prepared

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Robert Boyle (1627-1691)

• The Sceptical Chymist, available from
• Project Gutenberg (transcribed)
• Archimedes Project (facsimile)
• Annotated version by John Davidson
  lthttp//www.chem.gla.ac.uk/staff/alanc/annotations
  .pdfgt
• Miscellaneous papers, from The Robert Boyle
  Project, Birkbeck College, University of London
  (facsimile, indexed)
• Workdiaries, from the AHRC Centre for Editing
  Lives and Letters (facsimile, indexed)

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Robert Boyle on barnaclesSource The Robert
Boyle Project lthttp//www.bbk.ac.uk/Boyle/gt
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Boyles workdiary No. 19, entries 12-13Source
AHRC Centre ltwww.livesandletters.ac.uk/gt
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Bibliothêque Nationale de Frances Gallica
Websitelthttp//gallica.bnf.fr/gt
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Gallica search possibilities (en français, bien
sûr)
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B.I.U.M. A very frustrating Website, but..
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B.I.U.M. exampleLibavius Alchymialthttp//www.b
ium.univ-paris5.fr/histmed/medica.htmgt
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Other old book sitesThe ECHO Websitelthttp//ech
o.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/homegt
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Other old book sitesThe ECHO Websitelthttp//ech
o.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/homegt
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Other old book sites The Athena
Websitehttp//un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/
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A treasure from the 18th Century Zedlers Lexikon
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Subscription-only sources for old books

• EEBO (Early English Books Online)
• Over 70 titles
• Covers the period 1473-1700
• Facsimiles - text not searchable
• ECCO- (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)
• Several hundred works in alchemy and chemistry
• Text searchable

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EEBO Nicolas Lemerys chymistry textbook
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EEBO
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John Wilsons Cabinet,from EEBO
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ECCO Macquers Dictionary (1771)
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Lavoisiers Elements, 4th ed.(1799) From ECCO
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ECCO full-text searching
Search on orpiment
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Old journals

• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
  of London
• Transcription available from JSTOR (1665-1886)
  fee-based resource
• advanced search capabilities
• Available for free from
• Gallica (1666-1886) indexes of individual
  volumes are keyword searchable
• ILEJ (1757-1777) author, title and subject
  searchable

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Other old journal sources

• Gallica Annales de Chimie, etc.
• GDZ (University of Göttingen Digitization Center
  http//gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/en/index.html)
• Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences
  (Paris), 1692-1734 (translated into German)
• Transactions of the Royal Society of Sciences
  (Edinburgh), 1789 (translated into German)
• 14 others, similarly obscure
• BBAW (Berlin-Brandenberg Akademie der
  Wissenschaften http//bibliothek.bbaw.de/)
• Proceedings of the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
  1700-1900

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and a sort-of journal

• Justus Liebigs Chemische Briefe, (1844-1858)
• ltwww.liebig-museum.degt
• English version available at ltwww.ul.ie/childsp/
  liebig/gt

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Old journals search aids

• Gallica
• The Reuss Repertorium (link via The Scholarly
  Societies Project
• http//www.scholarly-societies.org/history/reuss.h
  tml
• Covers 17th 18th century journals from
  scholarly societies only

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Catalogue of scientific papersfrom Gallica
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Reuss Repertorium (1801-1827)(limited to
publications by scholarly societies)
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Sources for specific papers

• Classic Chemistry site maintained by Carmen
  Giunta at Le Moyne College http//web.lemoyne.edu/
  giunta/index.html
• ChemTeam a high school chemistry site (!)
  maintained by John Park http//dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.
  us/webdocs/Chem-History/Classic-Papers-Menu.html

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A Davy paper from the ChemTeam Website
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What ought to be there

• Chemisches Zentralblatt
• Berzelius Jahresberichte
• Nicolsons Journal
• Late breaking news!
• FIZ Chemie Berlin to publish e-CZ

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Some image sources

• Chemical Heritage Foundation lthttp//www.chemherit
  age.org/library/lib-neville.htmlgt
• Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image
  (SCETI) lthttp//dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/coll
  ections.cfmgt
• University of Illinois Exhibit From Alchemy to
  Chemistry http//www.scs.uiuc.edu/mainzv/exhibit
  /

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Image from the Chemical Heritage Foundation
collectionAn account of the first aërial voyage
in England
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(No Transcript)
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Distillation vesselsFrom Alchemical Compendium
of Recipes and Drawings, c. 1467 by Georg
Hayniger (SCETI)
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Title Page from Hieronymus Brunschwig (1450-c.
1512) Liber de arte distillandi (UIUC exhibit)
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Chemical utensils from Alchymia, (1606) by
Andreas Libavius (The Alchemy Website)
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(No Transcript)
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Acknowledgement Many thanks to Carmen Giunta of
LeMoyne College for his help and for his
surpassingly excellent website, Classic
Chemistry lthttp//web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/index
.htmlgt