scientific trend to be focused on the main-stream problematics. Rather, he was
guided by his sincere scientific curiosity. In spite to that, the laws of the irradiation
of black body were among the cornerstones of the paradigmatic change of the entire
physical concept. The quite narrow specialized study has opened the ways to new
universal principles. New science is hidden in details!
What is the secret of Planck’s method? Max Planck has found the new experimental model system, the collection of in this time neglected appearances, whose
nature is such that they can unveil new lawfulness of the universal importance.
Many, although not all, the “accidental discoveries” could be classified in this
category.
The transition from the occult alchemy, in which the irreproducible experiments
have prevailed, to the systematical rigorous science was also a consequence of
focusing of chemists to a specific chemical phenomenon—the combustion. As an
experimental model system, combustion possesses particular characteristics, which
enabled creation of universal laws, and, consequently, the appearance of the first
chemical scientific concept.
Georg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734), professor of medicine on the German university Halle has represented the first rational chemical theory starting from the
systematic studies of the combustion reaction [1, 2]. The combustion of metal
yields a substance that has been known from the time of alchemy as calx (today we
know that it is a metal oxide). Stahl has proposed a concept by which during the
combustion the metal releases a subtle substance called phlogiston (ukocirsόm,
combustion, ukόn, flame) [3]. For instance, metal is by combustion transformed to
calx and phlogiston:
METAL ! CALX þ PHLOGISTON
Since every theory must be internally coherent and not contradictory, this
phlogiston theory has to answer the question about the fate of phlogiston after
combustion, and whether it is possible to add phlogiston back to calx, and to
recover the original metal. By Stahl, there are substances, for instance coal, which
are rich of phlogiston. If this is true, then heating the mixture of calx and coal
should yield metal. This fact is known already from alchemical practice. In this way
phlogiston theory becomes universal; it proposes the existence of an elusive stuff
that could be exchanged between substances.
METAL ! CALX þ PHLOGISTON
CALX þ PHLOGISTON from coal
ð
Þ!METAL
It is important to mention that Stahl allows the possibility of the existence of a
stuff that is unobservable by our natural senses. Thus, phlogiston is a sort of a
conceptual substance. So, but what were atoms in antiquity but the conceptual
particles! As a rule, any microstructure was conceptual before its rational perception.
Phlogiston theory has been the first chemical theory, which appeared from of the
investigations of the specific chemical process, but it became universal because it
56
6 Conceptualization of Science and Experimental Model Systems
guided by his sincere scientific curiosity. In spite to that, the laws of the irradiation
of black body were among the cornerstones of the paradigmatic change of the entire
physical concept. The quite narrow specialized study has opened the ways to new
universal principles. New science is hidden in details!
What is the secret of Planck’s method? Max Planck has found the new experimental model system, the collection of in this time neglected appearances, whose
nature is such that they can unveil new lawfulness of the universal importance.
Many, although not all, the “accidental discoveries” could be classified in this
category.
The transition from the occult alchemy, in which the irreproducible experiments
have prevailed, to the systematical rigorous science was also a consequence of
focusing of chemists to a specific chemical phenomenon—the combustion. As an
experimental model system, combustion possesses particular characteristics, which
enabled creation of universal laws, and, consequently, the appearance of the first
chemical scientific concept.
Georg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734), professor of medicine on the German university Halle has represented the first rational chemical theory starting from the
systematic studies of the combustion reaction [1, 2]. The combustion of metal
yields a substance that has been known from the time of alchemy as calx (today we
know that it is a metal oxide). Stahl has proposed a concept by which during the
combustion the metal releases a subtle substance called phlogiston (ukocirsόm,
combustion, ukόn, flame) [3]. For instance, metal is by combustion transformed to
calx and phlogiston:
METAL ! CALX þ PHLOGISTON
Since every theory must be internally coherent and not contradictory, this
phlogiston theory has to answer the question about the fate of phlogiston after
combustion, and whether it is possible to add phlogiston back to calx, and to
recover the original metal. By Stahl, there are substances, for instance coal, which
are rich of phlogiston. If this is true, then heating the mixture of calx and coal
should yield metal. This fact is known already from alchemical practice. In this way
phlogiston theory becomes universal; it proposes the existence of an elusive stuff
that could be exchanged between substances.
METAL ! CALX þ PHLOGISTON
CALX þ PHLOGISTON from coal
ð
Þ!METAL
It is important to mention that Stahl allows the possibility of the existence of a
stuff that is unobservable by our natural senses. Thus, phlogiston is a sort of a
conceptual substance. So, but what were atoms in antiquity but the conceptual
particles! As a rule, any microstructure was conceptual before its rational perception.
Phlogiston theory has been the first chemical theory, which appeared from of the
investigations of the specific chemical process, but it became universal because it
56
6 Conceptualization of Science and Experimental Model Systems