how were the first atomic elements isolated and how did we know they could not be broken down further?
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Although in 1661 Boyle proposed that some materials should be sort of base materials that cannot be further reduced, scientists didn’t always know which ones were such. Many elements were discovered at this time as “new substance”, so basically they knew they found a new thing but didn’t know whether this is an element.
How the materials were investigated at these times was like:
– reaction with acids and bases
– reaction with some known solutions, such as salt solutions (for precipitation)
– burning
– heating to high temperatures for decomposing.
Hydrogen was discovered as metals reacting with acids and the new kind of gas was then burned and turns out to burn into water.
Until 1789 when Lavoisier listed 33 materials as certainly elements, there was not a full list of things that were considered as elements. Out of the 33, some were not elements (he listed barium sulfate for example under the name baryte).
So as you see, what element is, wasn’t really clear at the time of their discovery, and scientists organized them much later.
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