My halogen of the week is Chlorine. Chlorine's symbol is Cl and its atomic number is 17. Carl Wilhelm Scheele is credited for discovering chlorine in 1774, but according to Wikipedia, failed to establish it as an element. Instead, he thought it was an oxide. It wasn't classified as an element until Sir Humphry Davy did an experiment in 1810.
Alchemy: Science, Magic or Art?
I believe that alchemy is a little bit of all three. I feel that there is definitely an element of art involved since there has to be some sort of creativity in even coming up with the ideas that they did. I always thought of alchemy simply as the act of trying to turn crappy metal into gold, but after reading a little more about it, it seems like there was so much more to it. Wikipedia even says that alchemists even made contributions such as producing gunpowder, inks, dyes, etc. It also goes on to say that some early alchemists viewed alchemy as a spiritual discipline.
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