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SR Vol.48 [2011] >
SR Vol.48(04) [April 2011] >
| Title: | Discovery of Oxygen: Birth of Modern Chemistry |
| Authors: | Venkateswaran, TV |
| Issue Date: | Apr-2011 |
| Publisher: | NISCAIR-CSIR, India |
| Abstract: | IN 1772, the British chemist and dissenting
preacher Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), stood in front of the Royal Society and
reported on his latest discovery: “This air is of exalted nature…A candle
burned in this air with an amazing strength of flame; and a bit of red hot wood
crackled and burned with a prodigious rapidity. But to complete the proof of
the superior quality of this air, I introduced a mouse into it; and in a
quantity in which, had it been common air, it would have died in about a
quarter of an hour, it lived a whole hour, and was taken out quite vigorous.”
Back then Priestley was not aware what a revolution he was to cause. |
| Page(s): | 34-39 |
| CC License: |  CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India |
| ISSN: | 0036-8512 |
| Source: | SR Vol.48(04) [April 2011]
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