The Birth of Oxygen: Untangling the Web
نویسنده
چکیده
Alan J. Rocke Department of History Case Western Reserve University Cleveland OH 44106 Presented at the Oxygen Symposium Madison, WI, 29 March 2003 Not for further distribution by any means without permission in writing from the author It has been said that Isaac Newton was the most fortunate of all mortals, for there was but one universe, and so there could be but one discoverer of its laws. With respect to the science of chemistry, the same might be said for the discoverer of oxygen. Like the planets to the sun, chemistry revolves around oxygen, which is by far the most abundant element, both in the earth’s crust and in the human body. Moreover, once the nature of oxygen and oxidation was understood, it was no longer possible to maintain the ancient and unfruitful idea that earth and water were elements, for these were subsequently known to be oxides of simpler substances. A new concept of how “elements” should be understood led, in turn, to the rapid emergence of a theory of chemical atoms. Thus, within a generation after the discovery of oxygen, and as a direct result of that event, chemistry had emerged in the outlines of the science we know today. But who actually discovered oxygen? This apparently simple question is at the heart of the play of the same name, and, as the play suggests, it is a surprisingly tricky question to answer. Without question, the first person to publish a description of the preparation of what we now know as oxygen was the English Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley. In 1770, when he started to become active in chemical research, Priestley was preaching at Mill Hill Chapel, a large congregation in Leeds. In April 1773 he was hired as librarian and literary companion to a wealthy aristocrat, Lord Shelburne, and took up residence at his estate in Calne, near Bowood, Wiltshire. It was here that
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