1. Alchemy history and alchemy stories

The basic question that people faced from ancient times on is: What is the nature of matter? How one views the nature of matter, in turn, gives rise to ideas of how it can be changed. The efforts of ancient alchemists, today, may seem silly. However, given their views of the nature of matter, they seemed quiet plausible. The advent of modern chemistry was consequently delayed until the atomic-molecular nature of matter became clear. The following site provides a timeline of alchemy and its leading to modern chemistry

https://www.ambrosevideo.com/resources/documents/Timeline%20for%20Core%20Chemistry.

You may have fun reading some ancient fanciful tails of exploits of achemists: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/transmut.html

Coming to real chemistry, the following site is a fun video presentation of real chemistry in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti_E2ZKZpC4