The Discovery of New Elements

The Timeline Assignment
Arsenic to Phosphorous
Chem Soc Timeline
Arsenic
To
Phosphorous
Arsenic, a steel grey, brittle, crystalline metalloid, was discovered in
1250 A.D. by Albertus Magnus. Some foods such as prawns contain a
surprising amount of the element.
Bismuth discovered by an unknown alchemist. The image shows an
interpretation of the alchemical symbol for the element and
alchemical apparatus.
Zinc was known in India and China before 1500 and to the Greeks
and Romans before 20 BC as the copper alloy brass. The image
shows an interpretation of the alchemical symbol for the element
Copernicus proposes that the universe is finite and celestial bodies
travel in circular orbits. These celestial motions do not all have a
common centre and the centre of the earth is the centre of gravity
and lunar orbit not, as previously believed, the universe. He also
stated that the apparent motion of the sun is due to the motion of the
earth and other planets around the sun in a yearly orbit.
The compound microscope was invented by Zacharias Janssen
A compound microscope can be formed from two convex lenses. One
lens, the object lens, is positioned close to the object to be viewed and
produces an inverted, magnified image. This image is called a real
image because the light rays pass through the place where the image
lies. The second lens, called the eyepiece or ocular lens, acts as a
magnifying glass for this real image, making the light rays spread
more, so that they appear to come from a large inverted image
beyond the object lens. This image is called a virtual image.
Galileo Galilei builds a crude thermometer using the contraction of
air to draw water up a tube. Galileo devised a piece of apparatus he
named the thermoscope to measure hot and cold. The device
consisted of a glass bottle about the size of an egg, with a long glass
neck. This bottle was heated with the hands and then immersed
partially in a vessel containing a liquid. When the hands were
removed from the bottle, the liquid rose to a certain height in the
neck, remaining above the level of the liquid in the vessel. A similar
instrument was devised by Santorio in Venice in 1612 and when
Galileo was informed of the similar instrument he protested and
seems to have suspected that someone wanted to rob him of the glory
of the discovery.
Andreas Libavius publishes the first chemistry text book.
Otto von Guericke builds the first vacuum pump and created
vacuums in various containers. He demonstrated experimentally the
capacity of the atmosphere to do work and decisively refuted the
long-held notion that it was impossible for a vacuum to exist.
Using hollow copper spheres, known as Magdeburg hemispheres and
an air pump of his own construction, Guericke demonstrated that a
partial vacuum could be created by pumping the air out of the
sphere. He also proved that the air remaining in the sphere (at a
pressure below that of the atmosphere) was distributed evenly
throughout the vessel.
On 8 May 1654, Guericke carried out his famous demonstration in
front of the Reichstag that several teams of horses (16 horses in all)
could not pull apart two joined hemispheres when the air within had
been evacuated. By showing the muffling of a bell he proved that
sound could not travel in a vacuum and proved that combustion
could not be supported in a vacuum by showing the extinguishing of
a candle. Using a piston in a cylinder, he also showed that when a
vacuum was created on one side of the piston, the atmosphere would
Robert Boyle published the second edition of New Experiments
Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects, in
which he stated explicitly that for gas at constant temperature,
pressure and volume vary inversely. This is known as Boyle's Law in
the UK and US, but Marriotte's Law in Europe, after Edmé
Marriotte who noted that the temperature must remain constant.
Although the law is true only for ideal gases, it approximately holds
for real gases at high temperatures and very low pressures.
Sir Isaac Newton begins his so called annus mirabilis (miraculous
year) during which he developed his most famous theories including
that of gravity, the nature of light and calculus
Phosphorus was discovered in 1669 by H. Brandt in Hamburg,
Germany. The name is derived from the Greek ‘phosphoros’,
meaning bringer of light, because it glows in the dark.