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Journal of the association of physicians of india • vol 63 • march, 2015
Anaesthesia and Critical Care - Oxygen Discovery
P Rangappa*
Stamps issued on Oxygen Discovery : Sweden -1942 Birth Bicentenary of CW Scheele; France -1943 Birth Bicentennary of Lavoisier; Maldives
- 2000 New Millennium, People and Events of Eighteenth Century (1750-1800)
C
a r l Wi l h e l m S c h e e l e ( D e c e m b e r 9 ,
1742 May 21, 1786) a German-Swedish
pharmaceutical chemist, born in Stralsund,
Western Pomerania, Germany (at the time
under Swedish rule), was the discoverer of
many chemical substances, most notably
discovering oxygen before Joseph Priestley &
chlorine before Humphry Davy.
*
Sr. Fellow, Intensive Care Unit,
Royal Adelaide Hospital, South
Australia - 5011
Instead of becoming a carpenter like
his father, Scheele decided to become a
pharmacist. Scheele's most famous discoveries
was oxygen produced as a by-product in a
number of experiments in which he heated
chemicals during 1771-1772. Scheele, though,
did not name or define oxygen; that job
would fall to Antoine Lavoisier, the second
to quantitatively isolate the gas (9 August
1774), who published a paper with the new
name in 1775. Scheele described the discovery
of oxygen & nitrogen (1772-1773), in his only
book, Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft
und dem Feuer (chemical treatise on Air & Fire)
in 1777, losing some fame to Joseph Priestley,
who independently discovered oxygen in 1774.
When Scheele discovered oxygen he called it
"fire air" because it supported combustion.
Scheele's investigation of air enabled him
to conclude that air was a mixture of "fire
air" &"foul air", in other words a mixture of
two gases. Scheele is argued to have been
the first to discover other chemical elements
such as barium, manganese, molybdenum,
& tungsten, as well as several chemical
compounds, including citric acid, glycerol,
hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen fluoride, &
hydrogen sulphide. Lactic acid was first found
& described in sour milk by Scheele in 1780.
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August
26, 1743 May 8, 1794), the father of modern
chemistry, was a French nobleman prominent
in the history of chemistry, finance, biology,
and economics. He stated the first version of
the law of conservation of mass, recognised
and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783),
disproved the phlogiston theory, introduced
the metric system, wrote the first extensive
list of elements, and helped to reform chemical
nomenclature. He was also an investor and
administrator of the "Fereme Generale" a
private tax collection company; chairman of the
board of the Discount Bank (later the Banque de
France); and a powerful member of a number
of other aristocratic administrative councils.
All of these political and economic activities
enabled him to fund his scientific research.
But because of his prominence in the prerevolutionary government in France, he was
beheaded at the height of French Revolution.
Discovery of Oxygen: In 1771 Joseph Priestley
discovered "dephlogistigated air" & in 1777
found that it sustained life in a mouse. In
1774 Priestley communicated with Lavoisier
who performed classic experiments with the
"dephlogisticated air" & observed the true
nature of oxidation. Lavoisier concluded that
air had two components: one (75%) was inert
while the other (25%, "dephlogisticated air")
was necessary for combustion & respiration.
In 1779, with Pierre Simon Laplace, he called
the latter "oxygene" from the Greek "acidproducer".