Priestley had discovered what he called “diphlogisticated air” and which was later named by Antoine Lavoisier as oxygen. (Image: Shutterstock)
Exactly 247 years ago, on August 1, 1774, a man in his 40s was ready in his laboratory to continue a series of experiments to understand the nature of the wind. But today’s experiment was special in such a way that the curious rebel did not even know. Through today’s experiment, nature was going to reveal one of its fundamental truths to a man named Joseph Priestley.
During previous experiments, Joseph Priestley was looking for different ‘airs’ and trying to observe their properties. In one experiment, he observed that when a burning candle was placed in a jar, it was blown out. Due to lack of air in such a jar, even a mouse would die. However, placing a green plant in the same jar and exposing it to sunlight will cause the air to return, which will burn the flame and allow the mouse to breathe.
On August 1, Priestley took a lump of a reddish solid, which was mercury oxide, and placed it inside an inverted container, which was held in a pool of mercury. He then took a ‘burning lens’ and focused sunlight on the red lump, hoping that the substance would burn and collect the air that was created.
The ‘air’ produced, he wrote, was “five or six times as good as ordinary air,” and it allowed the rat to breathe and the candle to burn four times longer than before. Priestley had discovered what he called “diphlogisticated air” and which was later named by Antoine Lavoisier as oxygen.
This discovery proved to be an important clue for Lavoisier to develop his revolutionary theory of chemical reactions.
In England in 1933, the priest had to leave the country because of his strong and unorthodox views on religion and politics. On February 6, 1804, after making some changes to one of his manuscripts to one of his sons and an assistant, he said, “That’s right. I’m done now,” and died painlessly within minutes.
Priestley’s discovery broke the notion that air was an indestructible element and paved the way for modern chemistry.
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