Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652)

In the example illustrations it is quite interesting how a number of them are framed in pure nature, and a few of those are the only ones depicting any possible chemically toxic activity.

It does seem like the study of nature is supposed to yield philosophy for the most part, and that should guide the application of hazardous materials or processes.

There is one well-to-do gentleman with a precision balance and a treasure chest who has busy chemical workers producing presumably valuable products.

Somebody must have done some experimentation & discovery before they could have even initiated the R & D needed in order to have successfully gone into full production.

Without any more useful literature to guide them than this type of reference here, so you know the real scientific advances were not from things learned for the most part out of books.

And that might have taken centuries, or good portions thereof.

When one person finally surpassed all the milestones necessary, chances are they were the only one who fully foresaw and somewhat understood how that could be applied, and started their unique process of molecular rearangement turning less valuable materials into more valuable materials.

When that person is gone the process can continue without the full understanding ever reoccurring, and this ancient book seems to show some signs of that.

And then eventually to more reliably carry on the chemical operation into the future, a later generation finally documents it _as accurately as possible considering it's been going on since before anyone living was ever born we know not how_.

Many scientists with unique processes do not publish, whether they want to keep confidentiality or not. Besides, some will outperform in a non-academic environment, and I'm sure every gifted one today is still not even fully literate in their native tongue. Literacy was way less common among scientists and everybody else in previous generations too, so the documentation has been all over the place.

Just like many other chemical plants or operations.

You have to figure the fumes have always been capable of affecting people's thinking, and that could have an effect on philosophy though.

You can download it in PDF from https://archive.org/stream/theatrumchemicum00ashm?ref=ol

I was a bit surprised to see this link on HN because I own a copy of this book.

I'm not affiliated with this person or business but Ouroboros Press has a beautiful edition of this book (I own a copy): https://www.bookarts.org/store/p19/Theatrum_Chemicum_Britann...