THE IMPROVEMENT OF CHEMICAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF

MAN

The search for the origin and development of man has been a concerned topic
for the many. A lot were interested on how the first man was able to use his knowledge
to generate and make use of the objects surrounding him. Theres a saying that tells us
that Knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement. The
knowledge, particularly the chemical knowledge of man leads them to a much easier
way of living or to development. It was way before that man began with stones until he
arrived to the atomic or nuclear age when the unseen is seen. It may be said that past
is past but without it, we might be still stuck with carving stones. In this essay, the
improvement of the chemical knowledge of man that leads to their advancement will be
tackled in order for us to appreciate the importance of the past and look into the
relationship of history and chemistry.
It was roughly 2,500,000 years ago when man first used stones as tools. This
age is called as the Stone Age. This age is the period of stabilization after the changes
in the climate of the ice age. Humans that period created and used stones to gather
food, to hunt wild animals, and to collect fruits and berries. With the passage of time, the
stones became more refined that led to the further division of this age into three periods
namely the Paleolithic Age, the Mesolithic Age, and the Neolithic Age. The Paleolithic
Age or the Old Stone Age is when most humans were hunter-gatherers. During the
Mesolithic Age or the Middle Stone Age, on the other hand, they began experimenting
with agriculture and use microliths (small and geometric-shaped stone) to make arrows
and spears. Lastly, the New Stone Age or Neolithic Age is the age wherein agriculture
became the main lifestyle and the primary means of subsistence, and ground and
polished stone was widespread. Seeing stones everywhere, man used his basic
knowledge to create tools and sharp objects, however it can be seen that he didnt had
adequate knowledge about chemistry. In the following age, his knowledge developed
and discovered that stones and minerals have more employment.
The Bronze Age denotes the starting era when metals were first used.
Chalcolithic Age is another name for the beginning of this period when copper was used
in Anatolia that also showed the development in metallurgy and the casting of molten
metal in castings. After some years, man began smelting copper and tin from natural
ores and casting bronze. This age is more advanced than the previous one since this
time they have knowledge on creating alloys like bronze. This enabled them to have
more durable, longer-lived and harder objects like knives, axes and also pots and
artworks. Their chemical knowledge had improved that they knew and had the ability to
smelt any ore from the environment to create such prevalent bronze tools and weapons.

Iron Age, the third phase in the development of material culture, refers to the
civilization and culture of people using iron for weapons and implements. This period is
also characterized by the introduction of alphabetic characters and the use of curvilinear
and flowing designs for personal ornaments. During this time, the knowledge of iron
metallurgy and of iron objects was rapid and far-flung. Iron smelting, which is more
difficult than copper and tin smelting, requires more chemical knowledge than the
previous age. In fact, bronze can be cold-worked or melted in simple pottery kilns while
iron requires hot-working which entails blacksmiths or specially designed furnaces.
Steel was also used to make the best tools and weapons that were produced by mixing
carbon with iron. It is amazing that the people that period were able to develop new
ideas and techniques to create steel and to regulate the degree of temperature and the
amount of carbon to achieve the specified hardness. It is apparent that they have
mastered iron smelting very well because of their improving chemical knowledge that
began with the use of stones.
The revolution in the way an individual perceives the world occurred at the point
of the Scientific Revolution. Some looked into it as both the epistemological and
intellectual revolution. The former because it changed the thought process of man; and
the latter because theres a revolution in the human knowledge. In this period, the
scientists purpose was to define and explain more deeply man and the natural world.
There were the famous ones such as Nicolas Copernicus and his heliocentric theory,
Galileo Galilei and his study of the law of gravity and motion and his invention of the
telescope and microscope, Johannes Kepler and his laws of planetary motion, Jan
Baptist Van Helmont who invented the word gas, Isaac Newton who proposed the law
of universal gravitation and the Mechanical Universe and a way lot more. Many
significant events of discovery and advancement happened this period but primarily it is
about the changes in the thought and belief of man that expanded their knowledge in
the different branches of science like astronomy, biology, physics and chemistry that
earlier was only concerned with the rocks and metals they can use in surviving.
Finally, there is the Atomic or Nuclear Age. This age began with the bombing at
Hiroshima, Japan that was also the first extensive use of nuclear technology. Topping
all technological achievements, atomic/nuclear bombs also created social problems and
difficulties in bomb disposal for it caused broad destruction. These were also considered
as the epitome of advancement and modernity. The development of this type of
explosive required full knowledge about atoms and the nucleus since it is the core
explanation behind the massive energy released by the atomic/nuclear bomb. There
was also knowledge about radioactivity that causes a lot of destruction to the area. It
can be observed that their knowledge about chemistry, with all the atoms, nucleus and
all, very much increased compared to the previous age that didnt focused mostly on
matter and atoms.

Indeed, the age by age advancement of man also shows the advancement of
their chemistry knowledge. Starting from stones to atomic/nuclear bombs, their
knowledge developed from time to time learning new things about their surroundings
and the objects around them. Chemistry is truly along with history that is evident millions
of years before. Learning from the past, like the stones to bronze, bronze to iron, iron to
science and science to atomic/nuclear bombs, there might be a lot of things beyond
what is known now. The chemistry knowledge of man will expand and expand that it will
create new things that seem impossible. We really cant tell the future.