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Inadvertent alchemists
Alchemists were doomed from the start in their impossible pursuit to transform base metals into gold. Luckily, they left their mark in the realms of lighting, explosives, beauty products, kitchenware and distilled spirits.
Mary the Jewess or Miriam the Prophetess
What little we do know about Mary comes second-hand from the works of the Gnostic Christian writer Zosimos of Panopolis, but she is considered by many to be the first true alchemist of the Western world. Mary, who probably lived in ancient Egypt between the first and third centuries A.D., is believed to have invented several chemical instruments and to have been the first to identify hydrochloric acid and prepare caput mortuum, a dark-purple pigment. This would undoubtedly make her a chemistry rock star, but the unfortunate fact that none of her original work survives means that it’s debatable whether she even existed. Assuming that she did, Mary is credited with the invention of the bain-marie. This double boiler is used extensively in labs for gently heating chemicals and in kitchens for the critical task of melting chocolate. Another of her contributions was a type of alembic, a device used to purify liquids by distillation. This apparatus is as ubiquitous in the contemporary chem lab as it is in a moonshine den: it’s still used around the world to produce whisky and brandy.
