What is alchemist

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The sentence contains offensive content. Cancel Submit. In March , the Chemical Heritage Foundation bought a 17th-century alchemy manuscript written by Newton. Buried in a private collection for decades, the manuscript detailed how to make "philosophic" mercury, thought to be a step toward making the philosopher's stone — a magical substance thought to have the ability to turn any metal into gold and give eternal life.

Curator of rare books at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, James Voelkel said the text was likely copied from an American chemist named George Starkey. The Latin text — whose title translates to "Preparation of the [Sophick] Mercury for the [Philosophers'] Stone by the Antimonial Stellate Regulus of Mars and Luna from the Manuscripts of the American Philosopher" — will be available online for those interested to peruse. It is clear why alchemy was doomed to fail: it was based on a misunderstanding of basic chemistry and physics.

Alchemists based their theories and experiments on the Aristotelian assumption that the world and everything in it are composed of four basic elements air, earth, fire and water , along with three that were called "essential" substances: salt, mercury and sulfur.

Today we know that the universe is made up of atoms and elements. Since lead and other metals are not composed of fire, air, earth, and water, it's not possible to adjust the percentages of those elements and turn them into gold. The word then passed from Latin to French before coming to English. Some other words derived from Arabic also retain the al- in English, such as algebra , algorithm , and alcohol ; in fact, the transformative liquid that was constantly being sought through experimentation by alchemists is another word with the Arabic al- prefix: elixir.

This power to transform things for the better, real or imagined, led to figurative meanings for alchemy and alchemist. The medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy that focused on the attempt to change less valuable metals into gold, to find a universal cure for disease, and to discover a means of prolonging life indefinitely is called alchemy.

It was practiced in much of the ancient world, from China and India to Greece. Alchemy migrated to Egypt and was later revived in 12th-century Europe through translations of Arabic texts into Latin.

Medieval European alchemists made some useful discoveries, including mineral acids and alcohol. The revival led to the development of pharmacology and to the rise of modern chemistry. The gold-making processes of alchemists were finally discredited, but not until the 19th century. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'alchemy. Send us feedback. Zosimos of Panopolis active around A. Berthelot, Les origines de l'alchemie, Paris, , pp.

Words related to alchemist charmer , clairvoyant , conjurer , diviner , enchanter , magician , medium , necromancer , occultist , seer , shaman , soothsayer , sorceress , thaumaturge , warlock , witch , fortune-teller.

How to use alchemist in a sentence Book after book, the famous alchemist Paulo Coelho has transmuted leaden cliches into publishing gold. The Everlasting Arms Joseph Hocking. Catherine de' Medici Honore de Balzac. Baron d'Holbach Max Pearson Cushing.