Alchemy tried in the fire Starkey, Boyle, and the fate of Helmontian chymistry - Newman, William Royall (University of Chicago Press, 2002)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-335) and index
Worlds apart -- Number, weight, measure, and experiment in chymistry; from the Medievals to Van Helmont -- Theory and practice; Starkey's laboratory methodology -- Scholasticism, metallurgy, and secrecy in the laboratory; the style and origin of Starkey's notebooks -- Starkey, Boyle, and chymistry in the Hartlib circle -- The legacy of Van Helmont's and Starkey's chymistry; Boyle, Homberg, and the chemical revolution
Winner of the 2005 Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. €. What actually took place in the private laboratory of a mid-seventeenth century alchemist? How did he direct his quest after the secrets of Nature? What instruments and theoretical principles did he employ?. Using, as their guide, the previously misunderstood interactions between Robert Boyle, widely known as "the father of chemistry," and George Starkey, an alchemist and the most prominent American scientific writer before Benjamin Franklin as their guide, Newman and Principe reveal the hitherto hidden labo