Conclusions

During the 18th century an increasing body of chemical facts was expressed in quantitative form. Economic pressures in mineralogy and the general influence of experimental physics inspired the development of new mineralogical systems, in which quantitative descriptions of the units to be classified were an essential feature, and forced a change in the use of the balance for analytic as well as synthetic quantification, which eventuated in the theory of definite proportions.

Experimental physics did not influence chemistry by the direct application of basic physical concepts of affinity or the atom or by the direct use of mathematics. Rather, it encouraged the use of instruments yielding quantitative data: balance, thermometer, and calorimeter. On the epistemological level, it brought an instrumentalist view of theories and so contributed fundamentally to the reinterpretation of known facts that lay at the heart of the chemical

revolution. Instrumentalism was at work, for example, in the phlogistic debates and in the attempts to define an element. Quantification in chemistry did not result in generalized laws until it was augmented by the atomic theory; even then the theory bore the mark of chemistry as a whole—the task of describing the unique. Finally the rhetoric of number played an important role in propagating Lavoisian chemistry.

The change can be summarized in the sorts of questions that were put to the balance. In the beginning of the 18th century, the main question was "How much is needed to produce this substance?"—a question of synthetic quantification. Later in the century, the question shifted to one of analytic quantification: "How many parts of different constituents make up this substance?" With the atomic theory, the question became "What is the atomic weight of this element?" The evolution of questions reflected the growing theoretical importance of the balance. No great increase in the accuracy of the balance prompted or accompanied this change. The exact measurements necessary for a quantitative physics were not necessary for a chemical revolution; what was required was increased awareness within chemistry of the significance of measurement.