The Chemical Tree: A History of Chemistry

From alchemy to industry, a synthetic history of chemistry through the ages.
In this authoritative volume, a New York Times Notable Book of 1993, scientific researcher and historian William Brock recounts the astonishing rise of a sophisticated science. Tracing the roots of chemistry back to the alchemists' futile attempts to turn lead into gold, he follows the emergence of the modern study of chemistry through the works of Boyle, Lavoisier, and Dalton, and the twentieth-century breakthrou…