Comment by rurp
5 years ago
I don't agree. If you could ask a prime Newton if he'd be satisfied converting lead into gold in a cost prohibitive manner I would bet any amount of money his answer would be a quick "no". The goal of alchemy was to convert lead into gold in a way that made the discoverer rich, it's just not proper to say the second part explicitly, but I believe most people understand it that way.
> The goal of alchemy was to convert lead into gold in a way that made the discoverer rich
That definitely needs a citation. The Wikipedia page mentions no such motivation, and describes Alchemy as a proto-scientific endeavor aimed at understanding the natural world.