Chemistry is a branch of science that has been around for a long time.

In fact, chemistry is known to

date back to as far as the prehistoric times. Due to the amount of time chemistry takes up on the
timeline, the science is split into four general chronological categories. The four categories are:
prehistoric times - beginning of the Christian era (black magic), beginning of the Christian era - end
of 17th century (alchemy), end of 17th century - mid 19th century (traditional chemistry) and mid
19th century - present (modern chemistry).

Known metals were recorded and listed in conjunction with

King Hammurabi's
1700 BC heavenly bodies.
reign over Babylon

Democritus proclaims the atom to be the simplest unit of matter.

Democritus of
430 BC All matter was composed of atoms.
ancient Greece

Aristotle declares the existence of only four elements: fire, air,

Aristotle of ancient water and earth. All matter is made up of these four elements
300 BC
Greece and matter had four properties: hot, cold, dry and wet.

Influenced greatly by Aristotle's ideas, alchemists attempted to

300 BC -
The Advent of the transmute cheap metals to gold. The substance used for this
300 AD
Alchemists conversion was called the Philosopher's Stone.

13th
Although Pope John XXII issued an edict against gold-making,
Century
the gold business continued. Despite the alchemists' efforts,
(1200's) - Failure of the Gold
transmutation of cheap metals to gold never happened within
15th Business
this time period.
Century
(1400's)
Alchemists not only wanted to convert metals to gold, but they
also wanted to find a chemical concoction that would enable
1520 Elixir of Life people to live longer and cure all ailments. This elixir of life
never happened either.

The disproving of Aristotle's four-elements theory and the

End of
publishing of the book, The Skeptical Chemist (by Robert
17th Death of Alchemy
Boyle), combined to destroy this early form of chemistry.
Century

1700's Johann J. Beecher believed in a substance called phlogiston.

When a substance is burned, phlogiston was supposedly added
Phlogiston Theory from the air to the flame of the burning object. In some
substances, a product is produced. For example, calx of
Coulomb's Law mercury plus phlogiston gives the product of mercury.

Charles Coulomb discovered that given two particles separated

by a certain distance, the force of attraction or repulsion is
 directly proportional to the product of the two charges and is
inversely proportional to the distance between the two charges.

Joseph Priestley heated calx of mercury, collected the colorless

gas and burned different substances in this colorless gas.
Priestley called the gas "dephlogisticated air", but it was
actually oxygen. It was Antoine Lavoisier who disproved the
Disproving of the Phlogiston Theory. He renamed the "dephlogisticated air"
1774-1794
Phlogiston Theory oxygen when he realized that the oxygen was the part of air that
combines with substances as they burn. Because of Lavoisier's
work, Lavoisier is now called the "Father of Modern
Chemistry".

John Dalton publishes his Atomic Theory which states that all
Dalton's Atomic
1803 matter is composed of atoms, which are small and indivisible.
Theory

Heinrich Geissler creates the first vacuum tube.

1854 Vacuum Tube

William Crookes made headway in modern atomic theory when

he used the vacuum tube made by Heinrich Geissler to discover
cathode rays. Crookes created a glass vacuum tube which had a
zinc sulfide coating on the inside of one end, a metal cathode
imbedded in the other end and a metal anode in the shape of a
cross in the middle of the tube. When electricity was run
1879 Cathode Rays
through the apparatus, an image of the cross appeared and the
zinc sulfide glowed. Crookes hypothesized that there must have
been rays coming from the cathode which caused the zinc
sulfide to fluoresce and the cross to create a shadow and these
rays were called cathode rays.

Eugene Goldstein discovered positive particles by using a tube

filled with hydrogen gas (this tube was similar to Thomson's
tube...see 1897). The positive particle had a charge equal and
1885 The Proton opposite to the electron. It also had a mass of 1.66E-24 grams
or one atomic mass unit. The positive particle was named the
proton.

Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally discovered x-rays while

researching the glow produced by cathode rays. Roentgen
performed his research on cathode rays within a dark room and
during his research, he noticed that a bottle of barium
1895 X-rays
platinocyanide was glowing on a shelf. He discovered that the
rays that were causing the fluorescence could also pass through
glass, cardboard and walls. The rays were called x-rays.

1896 Pitchblend Henri Becquerel was studying the fluorescence of pitchblend

 when he discovered a property of the pitchblend compound.
Pitchblend gave a fluorescent light with or without the aid of
sunlight.

J.J. Thomson placed the Crookes' tube within a magnetic field.

He found that the cathode rays were negatively charged and that
each charge had a mass ratio of 1.759E8 coulombs per gram.
He concluded that all atoms have this negative charge (through
more experiments) and he renamed the cathode rays electrons.
His model of the atom showed a sphere of positively charged
The Electron and Its material with negative electrons stuck in it. Thomson received
1897 Properties the 1906 Nobel Prize in physics.

Radioactive Elements Marie Curie discovered uranium and thorium within pitchblend.
She then continued to discover two previously unknown
elements: radium and polonium. These two new elements were
also found in pitchblend. She received two nobel prizes for her
discovery; one was in chemistry while the other was in physics.

Robert Millikan discovered the mass of an electron by

introducing charged oil droplets into an electrically charged
field. The charge of the electron was found to be 1.602E-19
1909 Mass of the Electron coulombs. Using Thomson's mass ration, Millikan found the
mass of one electron to be 9.11E-28 grams. Millikan received
the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.

Ernest Rutherford sent a radioactive source through a magnetic

field. Some of the radioactivity was deflected to the positive
plate; some of it was deflected to the negative plate; and the rest
went through the magnetic field without deflection. Thus, there
were three types of radioactivity: alpha particles (+), beta
particles (-) and gamma rays (neutral). By performing other
Three Types of experiments and using this information, Rutherford created an
1911
Radioactivity atomic model different from Thomson's. Rutherford believed
that the atom was mostly empty space. It contains an extremely
tiny, dense positively charged nucleus (full of protons) and the
nucleus is surrounded by electrons traveling at extremely high
speeds. The Thomson model was thrown out after the
introduction of the Rutherford model.

Henry Moseley attempts to use x-rays to determine the number

Protons within a of protons in the nucleus of each atom. He was unsuccessful
1914
Nucleus because the neutron had not been discovered yet.

1932 James Chadwick discovers the neutron.

The Neutron Enrico Fermi bombards elements with neutrons and produces
elements of the next highest atomic number. Nuclear fission
Neutron occurred when Fermi bombarded uranium with neutrons. He
Bombardment and
 Nuclear Fission received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics.

Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot-Curie discovered that

radioactive elements could be created artificially in the lab with
Artificial Radioactive
1934 the bombardment of alpha particles on certain elements. They
Elements
were given the 1935 Nobel Prize.

Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi both warned the United States
about Germany's extensive research on atomic fission reaction.
Below the football field at the University of Chicago, the
1940's Manhattan Project
United States developed the very first working nuclear fission
reactor. The Manhattan Project was in process.