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Melhem 1

Omar Melhem
Mrs. McMennamy
Academy Capstone-1
24 August 2017
Scholarly Source 2
Citation: Partington, J. R. (1937). A short history of chemistry. New York: Dover.
Source Validation: This book was written by a 20th century chemistry professor known for his
many publications.
How did you find this: After doing some research online, I thought this book would be helpful,
and looked up the nearest library that had it available.
Intended audience: This book is very in-depth and informative, delving into very advanced
concepts of chemistry. Therefore, the intended audience is made up of fellow scientists doing
research, probably members of the Chemical Society of London in 1937, and beyond.
Arguments/topics: While scholarly source one was useful for my first two subtopics, the
beginning of this book elaborated on my third subtopic: society under the influence of chemistry.
Ancient Egypt was a prime topic that was not mentioned nearly as much in other books that I
read. The book went into detail about metallurgy in Egypt, and the discovery and application of
copper, gold, silver, tin, zinc, bronze, iron, lead, antimony, and more. Glass, ceramics, and
fabrics were also mentioned, as well as the history behind them. An important innovation that is
also overlooked was the harvest and use of colored dyes (which source one also has a brief
section on). This book also went into great depth about Aristotles elements: the famous water,
fire, air, and earth that supposedly made up the universe. The book also notes of some early ideas
behind chemical processes, such as distillation, and the difference between a reversible physical
process and an irreversible chemical process.
Summaries:
1) Aristotle differentiated mixtures and solutions and described the irreversibility of a
chemical change due to its change on properties. Aristotle was also aware of a basic form
of distillation where he noted that water vapor collected from sea water was purified.
2) Indigo was produced from the indigo plant by the Egyptians. Purple of Tyre was first
extracted by the Phoenicians from marine mollusks. Early dyeing techniques consisted of
the use of mordants, [which comes from the French mordre, to bite], which were special
compounds that aid in fixing the dye to the fabric.
3) The Egyptians and Mesopotamian inhabitants began to perfect the arts of glazed pottery
and glass early on. The wheel was used to mold potting clay, which was then baked in
closed furnaces rather than open fires. Glazes containing copper compounds were used
early on in Ancient Egypt, which gave opaque blue to green glazes. Blue glass was
sometimes colored with cobalt as well. A nearly clear, colorless glass was developed
early on as well.
4) The theory of the four elements was accepted up until about the 1700s, and the fifth
element, ether, was accepted as a medium for the transmission of light as recently as the
late 1800s.

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