Origin and Development of Knowledge on Inorganic Materials (Historical Overview)

摘要

The evolution of knowledge and inventions that contributed to the science of materials has been studied. The development of materials science in the ancient world involved the accumulation of intuitive inventions and the development of crafts. The antiquity established natural philosophy ideas about the nature of matter and divided all existent things into organic and inorganic worlds (Democritus, Epicurus, Aristotle). In the early Middle Ages, alchemy was widespread, with an idea of transmuting elements into gold. Although alchemical ideas were erroneous, they brought some benefits, contributing to the development of scientific experiment. The New Times marked the rapid development of fundamental sciences that promoted theoretical and practical materials science. This paper presents a chronology of the most important inventions and scientific concepts in a tabular form.