Page "Alchemy" Paragraph 5

It is a popular belief that alchemists made contributions to the " chemical " industries of the day — ore testing and refining, metalworking, production of gunpowder, ink, dyes, paints, cosmetics, leather tanning, ceramics, glass manufacture, preparation of extracts, liquors, and so on ( it seems that the preparation of aqua vitae, the " water of life ", was a fairly popular " experiment " among European alchemists ).

Alchemists contributed distillation to Western Europe.

The attempts of alchemists to arrange information on substances, so as to clarify and anticipate the products of their chemical reactions, resulted in early conceptions of chemical elements and the first rudimentary periodic tables.

They learned how to extract metals from ores, and how to compose many types of inorganic acids and bases.