The First Chemists
by A small extract from a book I have at home. Really interesting article.
I’ve already posted an article on ‘The first biologists’ a few days ago. This is another thing like that, with comparison of the birth of chemistry and how it evolved to modern chemistry. A really interesting article. Enjoy-
The First Chemists
The very first human species used materials to help them survive. They clothed themselves in animal skins to keep warm, arranged branches into shelters to keep dry and sharpened stones to make axes. They used physical processes such as cutting to help them. The first people to use a chemical reaction to help them were the people who used fire. It is known that people about seven- eight hundred thousand years ago in Frnace had used fire. A hearth – a place where fire is made regularly – has been found and dated to that time.
As with every chemical reaction, fire making needed some preperation. Wood had to be dried. Some wood had to be made into small dry shavings to act as tinder. Two other pieces of wood had to be selected to rub together to produce heat. Once enough heat was generated next to the tinder, it burst into flame as the carbon in the wood combined with the oxygen in the air in a chemical reaction.
The heat energy from the fire was used to bring about other chemical reactions. Probably the first chemical reactions to be brought about by fire were those involved in the cooking of food. About seven thousand years ago people in Turkey used fire to bring about chemical reactions which turned clay into pottery. Four thousand years ago the Egyptians used fire to release copper from its ore. Five hundred years later, the Hittites in Turkey discovered that iron could be released from its ore by heating the ore with charcoal.
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