What is Alchemy? What is philosopher’s stone?Did anything useful come out of this study?

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Alchemy was the attempt to transmute, or change, one substance into another. Alchemist called the agent of transformation the “philosopher’s stone,” a mysterious chemical preparation that they believed could alter the nature of substances. Alchemists toiled mightily to concoct this miraculous material,  using substances such as powder ground from stones and various acids. They believed that when brought into contact with the philosopher’s stone, base metals, especially lead, could be transformed into gold. They also believed the philosopher’s stone would help them create an elixir that would provide  eternal youth and a cure for all human diseases.

Even though the methods were crude and superstitious, the alchemists work still lead to the development of Chemistry. They tested the properties of nearly every substance they could get their hands on. They did not use today’s accepted scientific methods, but they did set up laboratories in which they studied some simple chemical processes such as crystallization and distillation. Experiments of a sort were planned and carried out, and detailed records of the results were often kept. Alchemists discovered Arsenic, bismuth, zinc, phosphorus and antimony.

Sir Isaac Newton is said to have spent a considerable amount of time studying alchemy books. He kept notebooks in which he hand copied the writings of leading alchemists stretching back over a thousand years. He believed that many of the alchemists had written a sort of code and he enjoyed solving their puzzles. He also believed that they contained genuine wisdom that provided the key to understanding the universe.