Chemistry

Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim

1526

Adopted the nom de plume Paracelsus.
He was an alchemist, physician, and surgeon.
He proposed a groundbreaking new idea, suggesting that the world was actually made of three elements - salt, sulfur, and mercury.
Saw these as the core ingredients to make metals and medicines.

Robert Boyle

1661

Wrote The Sceptical Chemist.
One of the founders of the Royal Society.
Opened up the scientific method for everyone to see.

Johann Becher

1667

Proposed that the destructive power of fire was caused by an ethereal entity named phlogiston.
It consumed the scientific community.

Henry Cavendish

1667

He made a vital contribution to the discovery of the elements.
He didn't realize it but he'd isolated a new element, hydrogen.
He wasn't credited with the discovery of hydrogen during his lifetime.

Hennig Brand

1669

He was searching for a way of extracting gold from the body when he hit upon what seemed like a bright idea, a gold-colored liquid in plentiful supply - urine.
He distilled the urine down to a paste and then heated it at a phenomenal temperature for several days, creating a fiery substance - phosphorous.
Brand called his discovery "Icy Nocta Luca."

Joseph Priestley

1750

He was fascinated by fixed air and mixed it with water, and so invented the first fizzy drink.
He became the first professional, salaried chemist.
He put mercuric oxide in a test tube to collect any gas it might give off when he heated it, heated up the powder, and found oxygen.
He concluded that his air must be without phlogiston and called it dephlogisticated air.

Humphry Davy

1807

Harnessed electricity to rip apart a caustic chemical called potash. Discovered violent potassium.