From assaying to analytical chemistry, how an art became a science [antikvár]

By F. szabadvary Department of General and Analytical Chemistry, Technical University, Budapest Received April 5, 1977 It is well known that some methods of analytical chemistry are very ancient. This is true above all for methods serving to detect counterfeits. Oldest of all are obviously techniques to check the genuinness of gold and coins, that is, assaying. The chemical or rather metallurgical method of cupellation was known already in the Antiquity, and one of the most ancient laws of phys- ics was discovered by Archimedes when he checked the gold content of a crown. An organization for gold and coin control existed already in Babylon. From the Middle Ages, detailed standard specifications describing how to carry out the tests have survived. It was termed "Ars probandi", and the term "art" was retained to the end of the 18th century: art of assaying, Probierkunst in German. I first found the expression "chemical analysis" as subtitle in Robert Boyle's works, e.g.: The chymical analysis of seed pearls. However, the expression was rarely used even in the following century. Torbern Bergman who was the first to compile analytical methods only used it in the titles of two of his books: De analysi aquarum and De analysi ferri, in the second half of the 18th century. The word "analysis" spread first in investigations of water, presumably to differentiate them from ore analyses which at that time were mainly carried out using metallurgical methods. The title of Kirwan's book in 1799 was Essay on the Analysis of Mineral Waters. It appears that Lam- padius' textbook issued in Freiberg in 1801 was the first to carry the title Handbuch der chemischen Analyse in a universal sense. Only from this time on did assaying turn into analysis in the literature. However, this did not involve a change in contents, only in the term. Analysis continued to imply prescription-like descriptions of methods approved in practice. The methods had actually been developed in the 18th century, not owing to industrial or quality control requirements as one should be inclined to think, but out of scientific reasons. Man wanted to get acquainted with Nature, he was curious to find out what mineral waters contained, what were the components of ores and rocks, and for these purposes he invented qualitative detection and quanti- tative gravimetric methods. * Invited lecture, delivered at the Centenary of the Royal Institute of Chemistry London, March 30, 1977