Jaber Bin Hayyan
Hi again,
ok so this is cool,
in the 12th grade Saudi Chemistry book I found the method Jaber Bin Hayyan was following in all his experiments and they are as follows:
1- Decide the purpose of the experiment and strictly follow the rules of the procedures.
2- AVOID WHAT’S IMPOSSIBLE AND WITH NO DIRECT BENEFIT.
3- Choose the right time for the experiment. (I couldn’t figure what he meant by this :s)
4- Be patient, don’t get frustrated, keep trying and be secretive about what you are doing! (any ideas why?)
5- Don’t be fooled by appearance as you may be misguided.
@ #2 This is cool because I remember how we were talking about turning different metals into Gold and how it is absurd to even think about it. This guy wrote about “stuff” that are impossible to do.
Finally, he discovered the first glowing dye and used it to decorate his books instead of Gold. In addition, he discovered how to produce a certain type of paper that does NOT burn when put on flame! Consequently, Imam Ja’far Al-Sadiq asked him to write his book “Al-DDaym” on this paper. This guy basically did, what people would have though at his time, magic.
Mohamad