Priestley, Joseph (1733-1804), an English clergyman and chemist, shares the credit for the discovery of oxygen with Carl Wilhelm Scheele of Sweden. Priestley called the gas “dephlogisticated air.” French chemist Antoine Lavoisier named it oxygen.
Priestley was born on March 13, 1733, near Leeds, and studied for the ministry. After preaching in Suffolk and Cheshire, he taught at the dissenting (nonconformist) academy in Warrington. Ordained in 1762, he became a dissenting minister in Leeds and Birmingham.
At Warrington, with the aid of Benjamin Franklin and others, Priestley wrote his first scientific work, describing his experiments with electricity. Priestley turned to chemistry in the late 1760’s. He discovered oxygen in 1774 and published an account of his discovery in 1775. Priestley also isolated and identified nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and sulfur dioxide.
Priestley’s sympathies for the cause of the French Revolution made him unpopular in England. In 1791, an angry mob burned his home and chapel in Birmingham. Priestley left England and moved to the United States in 1794. He settled permanently in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He died on Feb. 6, 1804.
See also Nitrous oxide ; Oxygen ; Scheele, Carl Wilhelm .
