From Phlogiston to OxygenHappy Birthday Joseph Priestley, the chemist who discovered OXYGEN.  

From Phlogiston to OxygenHappy Birthday Joseph Priestley, the chemist who discovered OXYGEN.   Words enter language and sometimes words disappear-often as quickly as they appeared.  In the transition from the ancient ideas of the ‘four elements’ of earth, air, fire and water, to the modern Periodic table, scientists struggled to understand basic chemical reactions such as OXIDATION.  In 1730 the word phlogiston entered the scientific vocabulary, meaning a hypothetical inflammatory principle, formerly believed to exist in all combustible matter, and later extended to cover reactions such as oxidation.  The word came into English from Modern Latin around 1702, which came from the Ancient Greek word φλογιστον phlogiston (1610s in this sense), neuter of φλογιστος phlogistos meaning burnt up, inflammable, from φλογιζειν phlogizein, to set on fire, burn, which came from from φλοχ phlox (genitive phlogos) flame, blaze.  The theory was propounded by German chemist George Ernst Stahl in 1702, denied by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier by 1775, defended by English theologian and chemist Joseph Priestley but generally abandoned by 1800. When Lavoisier composed the word oxygen in 1777 (he coined the word in French, oxygen entered English in 1790), he was reacting to and rejecting the idea of phlogiston, composing his word from the Ancient Greek word oxys meaning sharp or acid and the -gene suffix used to indicate the origin orf ormation of something.  The word was meant to indicate‘acidifying principle’ because it was considered essential in the formation of acids, though this has since been shown not to be true. In fact, when Priestley isolated oxygen for the first time on August 1, 1774 he called it deplhogisticated air, but Lavoisier’s endeavors a year later meant the end of the phlogiston.Image of iron oxidation courtesy Dustin Jamison, used with permission under a Creative Commons 3.0 License.Oxygen has a fascinating history. Check out Joseph Priestley’s biography page on the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s website and an article about James Woodhouse from our magazine. -- source link

More pics about