How Did Joseph Priestley Contribute To Chemistry

Science Research Paper Joseph Priestly, was one out of many of the famous fathers of chemistry. One day he had stumbled across photosynthesis, which is involved with the discovery of oxygen, he was one of the most colorful and influential scientists of the eighteenth Century. He was born in Birstal Fieldhead on March 13th 1733 and was the son of a cloth dresser. He was raised by his aunt because his mother died when he was 7. He spent most of his life as a preacher and teacher. For his work in science, he was well known for his views on theology and politics. In 1762 he married a women named Mary Wilkinson. She was the daughter of Issac Wilkinson and was related to John and William Wilkinson, they both were famous iron masters in the
eighteenth century. When Priestly was writing his books History and Present State of Electricity his interests in science began. While he was writing his books he did several experiments. Out of all the experiments he went through, one of them was a demonstration of the inverse square law of the electrostatics, which is known as coulombs law. He also discovered oxygen and many other types of air. de la Fuente 2
He was having financial problems and during this time and he needed to take his families responsibilities into his own hands and he got a job as a teacher.
During this time he finished his books History which was published in 1772 and his other book Present State of Electricity which was published in 1767. After he founded the Leeds Library. He then began researching the properties of gases and became the “father of the soft drinks industry”. He invented “soda water” which is also known as Carbonated water.
While he was in his service of the Earl of Shelburne he discovered Oxygen. During one of his many experiments he used a heating lens to heat up mercuric acid and made an observation that a remarkable gas was made. He described and referred to the gas with the words.. "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, exhibiting an appearance something like that of iron glowing with a white heat, and throwing sparks in all directions. 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 at two different times, a whole hour, and was taken out quite
vigorous."
Joseph Priestley wrote several political, philosophical and theological, philosophical essays. He became a dissenter with censure of the church. He made the government and the English press furious with his theories including “rational Christianity”. Him and his family had nearly escaped hundreds of raging protesters who attacked their home in 1791. Due to all the chaos, him and his family came to the United States in 1794. He died at the age 70 in Pennsylvania on February 6,1884.