Chemistry: A Volatile History
A three-part series on the history of chemistry.
Jim Al-Khalili hosted a 2010 BBC documentary series exploring chemistry’s past, titled Chemistry: A Volatile History. It earned a nomination in the Specialist Factual category at that year’s British Academy Television Awards.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- History of science
- Presenter
- Jim Al-Khalili
- Starring
- Andrea Sella
- Composer
- Ty Unwin
- Language
- English
- Series
- 1
- Episodes
- 3
- Executive producers
- Sacha Baveystock
Facts from the source article.
Episode 1: Discovering the Elements
For most of history, the concept of an element was unclear. The Ancient Greeks, lacking means to break substances apart, proposed Earth, Fire, Water and Air as fundamental. In the 16th century, alchemists sought to turn lead into gold. The Swiss alchemist and surgeon Paracelsus challenged the Greek model.
In 1526, when the printer Frobenius faced amputation, Paracelsus cured him using alchemical methods, gaining influence for his idea that the world consisted of three elements: salt, sulphur and mercury. Paracelsus angered the establishment by burning medical texts and fled to Germany. The search for gold led to the first new element. In 1669, Hennig Brand, hoping to extract gold from urine, boiled it for days.
He obtained a substance that burned brightly but left its container cold, which he named icy noctiluca. In 1677, it was demonstrated before the Royal Society. Robert Boyle experimented with it, mixing sulphur and phosphorus powders to create a fierce burn, leading to the match. Phosphorus, as it is now known, appears in match heads, toothpaste, and Second World War bombs that destroyed Hamburg, where Brand had discovered it.
Episode 2: The Order of the Elements
By the early 19th century, only 55 of the 92 naturally occurring elements had been identified, and scientists did not know if more existed. John Dalton proposed that each element consists of unique atoms with a characteristic weight, and he drew up a list of elements ordered by atomic weight. Few scientists accepted the idea of differing atomic weights. Jöns Jacob Berzelius, a Swedish scientist who believed in atomic weights, set out to measure the weight of every known element, despite having no proof of atoms.
He had to manufacture much of his own glassware. In 1824, while working with glass, he discovered silicon. Berzelius had already found thorium, cerium and selenium. Over ten years, he measured more than two thousand compounds, obtaining atomic weights for 45 elements; his value for chlorine was within 0.2% of the modern figure.
By the time his results appeared, other scientists were also measuring atomic weights, producing conflicting values, and researchers searched for patterns among the elements.
Episode 3: The Power of the Elements
All compounds on Earth arise from just 92 elements. Stainless steel combines iron with chromium, carbon and nickel; glass is made from silicon and oxygen. Many early chemical discoveries were accidental. In 18th-century Prussia, Heinrich Diesbach attempted to make a red paint by heating potash contaminated with blood.
The heated blood proteins combined with iron, and the carbonate reacted with haemoglobin. After heating the ash, filtering, and adding iron sulphate, he obtained ferric ferrocyanide. Adding hydrochloric acid produced Prussian blue. The German chemist Justus von Liebig, fascinated by explosives, studied silver fulminate.
In 1825, Friedrich Wöhler described silver cyanate, made from equal parts silver, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, as stable. Von Liebig objected, since those same proportions produced the explosive silver fulminate. Wöhler challenged him to make silver cyanate; the same elements combined differently yielded two distinct compounds. They had discovered isomerism, explaining how 92 elements can form a vast array of compounds. Chemists then focused on understanding atomic arrangement within compounds, beginning with carbon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who stars in Chemistry: A Volatile History?
Chemistry: A Volatile History stars Andrea Sella.
Which network aired Chemistry: A Volatile History?
Chemistry: A Volatile History aired on BBC Four.
When did Chemistry: A Volatile History first air?
Chemistry: A Volatile History first aired on 21 January 2010.
More in BBC Television Documentaries About History
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced