Joseph Priestley
Chemist, Inventor
1733 – 1804
Who was Joseph Priestley?
Joseph Priestley FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and Liberal political theorist who published over 150 works. He is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen, having isolated it in its gaseous state, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier also have a claim to the discovery.
During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs", the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air". However, Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become the chemical revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.
Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse Enlightenment rationalism with Christian theism. In his metaphysical texts, Priestley attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called "audacious and original".
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- Born
- Mar 24, 1733
Birstall - Also known as
- Joseph Priestly
- Siblings
- Spouses
- Mary Wilkinson
(1762 - )
- Mary Wilkinson
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Profession
- Education
- Daventry Academy
- Batley Grammar School
- Lived in
- West Yorkshire
- Died
- Feb 6, 1804
Pennsylvania
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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