(1733-1804), British chemist, considered one of the founders of the modern chemistry for his contributions to the field of experimentation, who isolated and described several gases (oxygen the among others).
born March 13, 1733 at Fieldhead (Yorkshire), son of a Calvinist minister. Their training was oriented to be a minister of the Church of the dissidents including several churches separated from the Church of England. He studied at Daventry Academy, he became interested in physics. His first ministry was in Needham Market (Suffolk) in 1755, and was minister of the Church in Nantwich (Cheshire) from 1758 to 1761. He later became a tutor at Warrington Academy in Lancashire, where he distinguished by their planning workshops for students entering industry and commerce. He also wrote a text, Rudiments of English Grammar (1761), which differed from all former approaches and conventional. He was ordained in 1762.
Priestley was encouraged to conduct experiments on the new science of electricity by the statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin , whom he met in London in 1766. Priestley wrote the following year history of electricity. He also discovered that charcoal is a conductor of electricity. In 1767 he was minister of the Church in Leeds (Yorkshire), where he developed his interest in research on gases. For his innovative experimental work was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1772, the same year that William Petty Fitzmaurice, second Earl of Shelburne, he was employed as librarian and literary companion.
During the experiments conducted in 1774 Priestley discovered oxygen and described its role in combustion and the breathing. Defender of the theory of phlogiston , Priestley called the new gas 'dephlogisticated air' and was not fully aware of the importance of his discovery would have on the future. ( Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele could have discovered oxygen before Priestley, but did not disclose their work in time to be credited as its discoverer). Priestley also isolated and described the properties of many other gases such as ammonia , nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide . During his career, opposed to the revolutionary theories of the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier , who gave his name to oxygen and correctly described its role combustion.
In 1780 Priestley left his job with Petty because of religious differences. Was a minister in Birmingham (West Midlands today, then in Warwickshire). At that time he was in favor of unitary thinking and was considered a radical religious (see Unitarianism ). His book History of the corruptions of Christianity (1782), was officially burned in 1785. Due to its declared support for the French Revolution , mobs burned her home and belongings in 1791. She moved to London and in 1794 emigrated to America, where he continued writing for the rest of his life. Priestley died in Northumberland, on 6 February 1804. His writings on theology and other topics (25 volumes, 1817-1832), Memoirs and Correspondence (2 volumes, 1831-1832) collected after his death, covering a wide range of topics on science, politics and religion.
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