phlogiston, chemistry found “the element flame”

How are diseases born? What is in the center of the earth? What is fire? Throughout history, man has tried to explain the world to himself. He was wrong often. Le Figaro It tells you about some of the trial and error that made science.

“You don’t have to They do not understand alchemy, one must not know its history, to have (…) such pretentious, ridiculous contempt for the age of alchemy »written in the middle of the nineteenth century German Justus von Liebig in his book letters in chemistry. Likewise, he continues, he is “out of ignorance” which we hate The second period of chemistry is called the phlogiston period.

However, this flammable (from a Greek word meaning “flammable”) seems inspired by the statements of ancient alchemists: it would be the “flame substance” present in all bodies, and escaped during combustion, according to a theory developed in 1697 by German physician and chemist Georg Ernst Stahl. Borrowed it from Mrs. Joachim Becker…