History+of+Oxygen


 * __History of Oxygen__**


 * Date of Discovery:** 1774
 * Discoverer:** Joseph Priestly
 * Name Origin:** From the Greek words //oxus// (acid) and //gennan// (generate)
 * Uses:** supports life
 * Obtained From:** from liquid air

Joseph Priestly was an English amateur chemist in August of 1774. Priestly was the first one to produce/liberate oxygen. He stared by intensely heating 'mercurius calcinatus' (which is now called mercuric oxide) and he put int on top of liquid mercury which was in a closed container. Priestly came up with a theory that said that when u bunred these things, a new mysteriouse thing appeared. He didnt know what it was so he called it "phlogiston". he also noticed that when mercuric oxide was done burning, it had no phlogigton. So this theory made him belive that the air that we breath in had to have some phlogiston in it. Later on he called it "dephlogisticated air".



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