Does anyone here know of any good books on this subject?
I want to start with the most ancient technologies/experiments. The most primitive technology/experiment I've been able to identify so far has been the open bon-fire which was used to make charcoal(carbon) and bake clay into 'earthenware' products
The next step up from that was the kiln, which was also used to manufacture charcoal, larger quantities I presume. Also, the higher temperatures produced by the kiln allowed man to bake clay material into water proof pottery - known as 'stoneware'. Improved version of the Kiln yielded to the discovery and manufacturing of porcelain as well as glass.
Still, even more advanced versions of the kiln gave man access to metals like copper, silver, gold and iron.
In regards to the particular era I just covered, am I missing any technologies/experiments here?
More importantly, what technologies/experiments followed?
The only thing I can think of is the experiments of Lavoisier - he used a sealed Glass jar. Inside the jar was a metal which he allowed to rust. This increased the weight of the piece of metal inside the jar, but the total weight of the sealed jar was unchanged. Thus he concluded that the metal gained mass by taking something invisible in the air.
What I'm primarily interested in here is learning about the technology/experiments used to isolate substances like nitrogen and hydrogen gas. I was hoping one of you could lead me in the right direction.