Left: directions for the preparation of corrosive water for etching, one of Goethe’s first chemical experiments. [4] Right: Wagner, the famed sorcerer’s former student, of Goethe’s Faust, who creates laboratory life, i.e. a homunculus, in a beaker, via fire and chemicals. |
“Chemistry is still my secret love.”
Right: Goethe’s notebooks of 4-7 Oct 1793, the reaction diagram in the upper right hand corner showing a double elective affinity (double displacement reaction), using Bergman reaction diagram notation, of experiments with Berlin-blue liquor. [8] |
“Goethe’s interest in chemistry continued until the time of his death in 1832.”— Eugene Blank (1942), “Alchemy and Chemistry in Literature” [1]