WhatIf no Lavoisier,Dalton,Liebig - no plast chemistry?

[Bo Warming]

WhatIf no Lavoisier,Dalton,Liebig - no plast chemistry?
Medieval alchymists refined many useful prescriptions of chemical
synthesis: gunpowder, alkohol etc
Weight calculations was introduced and refined,
and simple relations between amounts used and produced was found.
Elementary substances as Oxygen and Hydrogen was found,
that could not be broken down into other substances.
That lead to the idea
that things are made up of molecules like water HOH.
Though modest (like Darwin and Pasteur)
Liebig attacked religious "vitalists"
who believed that a "spirit of life" must be present to produce cell
growth.
Such attacks got fame,
by giving the modern tecnology minded elite
the illusion that science had defeated religion.
But important was the use of artificial fertilizer.
This wonderful improvement of agriculture had been found out by
experience, even if the chemical formulas had not been in place.
(though the Birkeland Eyde production of artificial nitrate, was speeded
up some decades by the discovery of nitrogen in ammonia and salpeter )
German chemistry began with tar - a spinnoff from coal->coke+methanegas).
The breakthrough was mixing strong acids with tar and getting anilin-
color.
No theory helped the trial and error, significantly.
Large and important industries were created.
When Kekule found the regular hexagonal shape of the benzene molecule-
part, common in tar, it helped to speculate and make new substances ,
such as medicines never created earlier.
The wonders of plast etc came from simple trial and error and simple
model drawings of molecules.
If universities had never invested in this field of science, we had been
just as well off
(perhaps better, since taxpayed research is never as effective as the
privatized one).

Though DNA-chemistry looks impressive, it is unlikely
that more people have been cured of any disease,
than if this field of research had been starved by all governments.

When medicin works,
it is because of placebo effect, in most cases.
The "chemistry ritual" may add to this effect,
but theoretical chemistry is not essential.
(and DNA-fingerprinting is little better than protein tests like ABO).

The greatest wonder of chemistry is plast tecknology.
This is a result of engineering
- and help from our theoretical insight into molecular shapes and
interaction has perhaps not been essential.
Trial and error, steered by intuition, will probably always be, what
really matters.

Bo Warming. cand.scient.(M.Sc) Chemistry, gymnasielærer, Bjelkes Alle
46, DK-2200 Copenhagen.TELEPHONE (+45)35861000.
E-mail: bowa...@bigfoot.com. URL: http://www.glistrup.com.