22
Bergman’s and Scheele’s Theories
of Elements and Atoms
A chemistry student, who typically only comes into contact with the history of
chemistry through short text boxes in textbooks, may get the impression that the
concept of atoms was introduced in ancient Greece and then forgotten until Dalton
rediscovered the atom in the early nineteenth century. This is far from the truth, and
the idea of matter being composed of particles was widespread during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This chapter discusses Bergman’s and Scheele’s
views on the nature of matter.
22.1 Scheele’s Views on Elements
The main, if not only, direct source for information on Scheele’s ideas of elements
is the first two sections of his Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer
(Sect. 21.3) written in 1775. In the first section, he wrote that the main goal of
chemistry is to resolve bodies into their constituents, to study the properties of these
constituents and to attempt to recombine them in different ways [1]. In the second
section, he wrote that chemists had yet not agreed on the number of elements that
build up matter. Scheele admitted that this was a difficult problem and some,
Scheele wrote, claimed that there was no hope of investigating the elements. This
opinion did not impress Scheele, who did not accept such limits on chemical
research: “but far be it, that the noble science of Chemistry should be circumscribed
in so narrow limits” [2]. Others, Scheele continued, claimed that earth and phlogiston were the constituents of all matter, while most scientists appeared to only
accept the four Aristotelian elements (i.e. earth, water, air and fire). Here, Scheele
did not state his opinion, but several other statements give a fairly good idea. It is
highly unlikely that Scheele believed in the four Aristotelian elements, rather, he
seems to have believed that substances were composed of metal oxides (metallic
calces), alkalis, earths and acids, frequently in combination with phlogiston. In his
Chemische Abhandlung, he wrote that combustible substances were usually
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_22
301
Bergman’s and Scheele’s Theories
of Elements and Atoms
A chemistry student, who typically only comes into contact with the history of
chemistry through short text boxes in textbooks, may get the impression that the
concept of atoms was introduced in ancient Greece and then forgotten until Dalton
rediscovered the atom in the early nineteenth century. This is far from the truth, and
the idea of matter being composed of particles was widespread during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This chapter discusses Bergman’s and Scheele’s
views on the nature of matter.
22.1 Scheele’s Views on Elements
The main, if not only, direct source for information on Scheele’s ideas of elements
is the first two sections of his Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer
(Sect. 21.3) written in 1775. In the first section, he wrote that the main goal of
chemistry is to resolve bodies into their constituents, to study the properties of these
constituents and to attempt to recombine them in different ways [1]. In the second
section, he wrote that chemists had yet not agreed on the number of elements that
build up matter. Scheele admitted that this was a difficult problem and some,
Scheele wrote, claimed that there was no hope of investigating the elements. This
opinion did not impress Scheele, who did not accept such limits on chemical
research: “but far be it, that the noble science of Chemistry should be circumscribed
in so narrow limits” [2]. Others, Scheele continued, claimed that earth and phlogiston were the constituents of all matter, while most scientists appeared to only
accept the four Aristotelian elements (i.e. earth, water, air and fire). Here, Scheele
did not state his opinion, but several other statements give a fairly good idea. It is
highly unlikely that Scheele believed in the four Aristotelian elements, rather, he
seems to have believed that substances were composed of metal oxides (metallic
calces), alkalis, earths and acids, frequently in combination with phlogiston. In his
Chemische Abhandlung, he wrote that combustible substances were usually
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_22
301