THE BATTLE OF THE ALCHEMISTS^ 



By Karl T. Compton 

 President, Massachusetts Institute of Teclinoloyy 



[With 3 plates] 



Long, long ago, when gods mingled among men, the god Hermes 

 established the first laboratory on this earth and discovered many 

 new and interesting substances by subjecting various kinds and mix- 

 tures of earth and rocks to the influence of fire or water. Not being 

 blessed with the protection of the United States Patent Office, he 

 kept his discoveries secret by putting his products into jars, which 

 were carefully closed and sealed. Hence arose the term " hermet- 

 ically sealed ", and the chemistry and metallurgy which thus sprang 

 from the god Hermes was long known as the " hermetic art." 



According to another legend, a group of wicked angels were ex- 

 pelled from heaven and settled on the earth, taking unto themselves 

 human wives. To these wives the fallen angels disclosed the magic 

 secrets of science, and the wives recorded these secrets in a book 

 which was called " Chema " — the first handbook of chemistry. 

 Thereafter those who practiced this art were called " alchemists." 

 The ancient historian Tertullian tells of these fallen angels who thus 

 revealed to mankind the knowledge of gold and silver, precious 

 stones, and medicines. 



However these things may be, there is ample documentary evi- 

 dence from Egypt that alchemy was a flourishing science and art in 

 Alexandria before the third century, and it is probable that a famous 

 book whose destruction was ordered by Diocletian in about A.D. 290 

 was one containing receipts and formulas for producing alloys to 

 simulate gold and silver and for manufacturing artificial jewels. 



These early alchemists, like modern chemists, were guided by a 

 theory. Like our modern theories, theirs was imperfect, and like 

 ours it was an attempt to interpret and predict on the basis of a 

 generalization of experience. They started with Aristotle's concep- 

 tion of four fundamental elements — earth, water, air, fire. (These 



' The Seventh Steinmetz lecture, delivered before the Schenectady section of the 

 American Institute of Electrical EnRineers, Nov. 18, 1932. Reprinted by permlRSlon from 

 the Technology Review, vol. 35, no. 5, February 1933. 



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