Joseph Priestley
24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, dissenting clergyman, and political theorist, credited with the discovery of oxygen, which he called 'dephlogisticated air'. He also invented carbonated water, wrote an influential history of electricity, and published widely on theology and liberal politics. After a mob destroyed his Birmingham home in the 1791 riots, he emigrated to the United States, spending his last years in Pennsylvania.
Lived at the same time
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Life events
Joseph Priestley was born at Fieldhead, Birstall, near Leeds, into a family of Calvinist cloth-finishers.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPriestley trained for the dissenting ministry at the academy in Daventry, where he received a broad education in science, philosophy, and languages.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPriestley married Mary Wilkinson, sister of the ironmaster John Wilkinson; the couple had four children.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPriestley was elected to the Royal Society in recognition of his experimental work on electricity.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPriestley's comprehensive history of electrical research, encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, became a standard work for over a century.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWhile living next to a brewery in Leeds, Priestley devised a method of impregnating water with carbon dioxide, publishing his technique in 1772.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWorking at Bowood House, Priestley heated mercuric oxide and isolated a gas he called 'dephlogisticated air', now known as oxygen.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgA mob hostile to Priestley's support for the French Revolution and his dissenting religion burned his house, laboratory, and library in the Priestley Riots, forcing him to flee to London.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPriestley sailed with his family to America and settled in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where he continued his scientific and theological work.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPriestley died at his home in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and was buried in the town's Riverview Cemetery.
Source: en.wikipedia.org