Joseph Priestley, male, a famous British chemist, was born in Yorkshire, England on March 13, 1733LeedsIn a farm called Fieldhead in the suburb.
Priestley's major contribution is to discoveroxygenAnd other gases.It was discovered in 1772Nitrogen dioxide；Discovered in 1773ammonia；Discovered in 1774sulfur dioxide。In 1774, he used a largeConvex lensFocus the sunlight and heat itMercuric oxide, usingDrainage and gas gathering methodThe gas produced was collected and its properties were studied.He found that candles burned in this gas with a strong flame;Mice live twice as long in a bottle as ordinary air of the same volume.He also used a glass straw to suck it from the large bottle filled with this gas, feeling very relaxed and comfortable.Priestley was the first scientist to describe the various properties of oxygen in detail.Since he was a believer in phlogiston theory, he deduced that the new gas must contain very littlePhlogistonOr it contains no phlogiston, which is called "de phlogiston air".In the same year, Priestley told the preparation method and nature of oxygenLavoisier。The latter repeated these experiments, pointing out that the gas produced by Priestley is not "deflagration air", but can support combustionoxygen。LavoisierThe combustion reactionOxidation theory。But Priestley has always rejected Lavoisier's theory and insisted on the wrongPhlogiston theory。His works include《History of electricity》(1766)、《History of optics》(1772) and《Experiment and observation of various kinds of air》(1774-1777), etc.In 1772, Priestley also invented the equipment for manufacturing carbonated saturated waterCarbonated drinksThe ancestor of.He studied not only the carbonation of water, but also the carbonation of wine and beer.He pointed out that when water is carbonized, it produces a pleasant taste and can escape with the fragrance of other ingredients in the water.He also emphasized the medical value of carbonated water.
His father, Jovans Priestley, ran this small farm with low income, and concurrently engaged in wool processing and tailoring to support his family;Joseph Priestley is the eldest son of his family. Because of his difficult family situation, he spent most of his childhood with his grandfather and grandmother.In 1739, his mother died, and he was sent to live with his aunt.My aunt runs a big farm at home.Priestley doesn't have to work there. His task is to learn.His aunt was bent on training him to be a priest.However, his rich life did not last for several years when his uncle suddenly died of illness.
The vagrant life since childhood nurtured Priestley's character of independent thinking.At the age of 18, he was severely scolded by his aunt for his frequent dealings with Christian priests.Since then, he has become a traitor to his family.
Priestley studies hard and has a wide range of interests.He has studied ancient Chinese and mathematics.Introduction to natural philosophy, etc. Later, due to infirmity, he interrupted his study for a period of time. After he recovered, he entered the non state religion in CoventryCollege。Because he studied hard and achieved excellent results, the school agreed to exempt him from some of the first and second grade courses.In his later study, he felt that his foundation in mathematics and German was too poor, and took the initiative to ask the school to allow him to make up for these two subjects.In school, he learned Hebrew, Greek and Latin, plus his extensive knowledge of theology, he often argued with those who believe in traditional religions, and always prevailed.Later, he was a teacher and a priest.He taught linguistics, literature, modern history, law, eloquence, argumentation, and even anatomy in the college of non state education in Warrington. He has written and published《Basic English Grammar》And《Linguistic Principles》, written《Lectures on Eloquence and Debate》。Priestley suggested that the school curriculum should focus more on civil history and policy, including law, government and business theory, rather than the more traditional curriculum.In 1764, the University of Edinburgh awarded him a Doctor of Law.From then on, he began his scientific career and wrote《History of electricity》In 1766, he was recommended asRoyal SocietyMembers of.
Priestley's first major chronograph was a biographical chart from 1765.This picture depicts the life span of about 2000 historical figures over the past 3000 years. It is divided into six fields: historians, antiquarians and lawyers, speakers and critics, artists and poets, theologians and metaphysicists, politicians and warriors.
Priestley then turned his attention to historical events. In this regard, he was deeply influenced by Jeffries' Charts of World History (1753), the only known example of which was the British Library.The significance of Jefferies chart is to combine the table format with the rise and fall of nations and empires as a continuous color block, rather than a cell listing discrete events.Although the details are lost, the biggest advantage is that people can see the rise and fall of the empire at a glance. "This chart aims to show history, or clearly show the rise, development, scope and duration of each important empire or country."
In his New Historical Chart（New Chart of History）》In 1769, Priestley improved Jeffries' method by introducing a consistent time scale. Jeffries' version was characterized by the era before 1000 AD.Priestley also introduced a variety of useful visual conventions to clarify the origin and end of countries and empires.
"Every independent country or province is represented by a space bounded by a line parallel to the horizon. A space that ends with a solid line indicates that it was conquered and annexed by another country. If it ends with a dotted line, it indicates that its participation is not violent but peaceful. In any case, the dotted line indicates uncertainty.The distant parts of the great empire are distinguished by color. "
In another innovation, Jefferies' chart is from top to bottom. Priestley rotated his chart to make the time axis move from left to right.This has great advantages in matching the Western writing and reading modes, and it alsoIt conveyed that the Enlightenment regarded history as a narrative marked by progress。He dedicated this chart to his friends and supportersBenjamin FranklinHe must appreciate this honor and Priestley's originality.[6]
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Devote oneself to science
In 1762, Priestley andMary WilkinsonMarried.His wife wasEnglandAfter marriage, Priestley, the daughter of Isaac, the largest ironware manufacturer, still concentrated on scientific research.By 1767, the family's financial burden had increased because of the birth of their children.In addition, with the increasingly sharp contradiction between the various sects, Priestley gave up his teaching career and became a priest again. Although his family income did not increase much, he had more free time to engage in scientific research and write books and books.The book History of Electricity was written in this period.He not only outlined the complete history of the study of electrical phenomena in popular, accurate and vivid language, but also specifically described various experimental situations.Soon, he felt that he lacked knowledge of chemistry, so he moved his interest from physics to chemistry.In the field of chemistry, he first became interested in air and thought about many problems about air.For example, why do mice in closed containers die after a few days.There is air in the container, why can't the mouse live for a long time.When he visited the brewery when he was a student, he found that there was an air that could extinguish the burning wood immediately. This air existed in the beer barrel in the fermentation workshop.Therefore, he wondered whether there were many kinds of air."In order to find out these problems, Priestley carried out a variety of interesting experiments. For example, he lit a candle, put it into a glass container with a small mouse in advance, and then closed the container tightly. He found that the candle burned for a while and then went out, and the small mouse soon died.This phenomenon made Priestley think that there might be something in the air. When it burns, the air will be polluted, so it will become "polluted air" that cannot be used for animals to breathe and candles to continue burning.In order to prove whether this idea is correct or not, he wondered whether the polluted air could be purified to make it breathable again.He made a new experiment for it.He washed the polluted air with water, and the result surprised him. He found that water can only purify part of the polluted air, while the other part of the unpurified air is still unable to breathe, and rats will still die in it.
Priestley, who is good at thinking and studying problems, further thought that animals would die in polluted air, so what would happen to plants.To this end, he designed the following experiment: put a pot of flowers in a glass cover, and put a burning candle beside the pot to make polluted air.When the candle went out a few hours later, the plant could not see any change.He put the device on the table near the window again. The next morning, he found that the flowers had not died, but had grown buds.So he thought, can plants purify the air.To test this idea, he lit a candle and quickly put it into the hood.The candle was burning normally and it took a while to extinguish.At that time, scientists called all gases air.In order to determine how many kinds of air there are, Priestley repeated his experiments many times.He believes that the gas produced during beer fermentation, candle burning and animal breathing is what people called "fixed air" (actually carbon dioxide) earlier.He made an in-depth study of the nature of this "fixed air".He proved that plants can release "living air" (actually oxygen) by absorbing "fixed air".It was also found that "living air" can not only maintain animal respiration, but also make matter burn more violently.
Thus, Priestley tried to make this "living air".At that time, it was known that nitrate could also support combustion, so he thought: "Maybe nitric acid can separate it. Or, heating the copper wire stained with dilute nitric acid may release living air." He followed this idea and immersed himself in various experiments.He took a glass tube with one end closed, filled it with mercury, blocked the mouth of the tube with his finger, put the open end into the tank containing mercury, and then connected the other tube containing nitric acid and copper filings with the tube containing mercury.Then, start heating the mixture.After a short time of heating, the colorless gas produced will discharge the mercury out of the tube, so the tube is filled with new substances.Priestley carefully took out the tube, opened the nozzle, leaned over and smelled. Suddenly, he was stunned: a volatile colorless gas turned into brownish red steam in a flash, its strong smell was like nitric acid, so it was called "saltpeter air" at that time.This reddish brown gas in the air is nitrogen dioxide. The test results failed to produce "living air", but two new gases were found:nitric oxideandNitrogen dioxideHe continued his experiment and found many new gases. Priestley named them "alkali air" (ammonia), "hydrochloric acid air" (hydrogen chloride) and sulfur dioxide.After that, Priestley has been studying gases for many years, and has written a book, On Various Gases, which greatly enriched gas chemistry.
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Priestley's research achievements in chemistry and physics have improved his academic prestige.In 1772, "he was electedAcademy of France In December of the same year, he was invited by Lord Shelburne, a political dignitary in Britain at that time, to be a tutor and librarian.This job has a high salary and only uses morning time every day.So every afternoon, he can still engage in scientific research.Here, he completed many books.Five of his six most valuable gas experiments were completed here.Priestley believed in phlogiston theory all his life. Here he wrote an article about demonstrating phlogiston theory.
a theologian
He's still aa theologian, completed a representative work on theology here《Material and spiritual research》(1777);Also written《Notes on the Theory of Philosophical Necessity》(1777).He clearly analyzed the connection between theology and philosophy of science.
Among the research achievements of gas chemistry, Priestley's most important discovery is the discovery of oxygen.In 1774, he got a large convex lens (fire lens) and began to study various gases emitted by certain substances under the high temperature generated by the convex lens.Among the substances he studied were "red sediment" (mercury oxide) and "mercury ash", also known as mercury cinder, namely (mercury oxide).Priestley placed mercury oxide on the mercury surface in the glass bell jar, and used a fire mirror with a diameter of 30 cm and a focal length of 50 cm to focus sunlight on mercury oxide.It was soon found that the mercury oxide was decomposed, releasing a gas that squeezed out the mercury in the glass cover.He called this gas "deflagration air".He usedDrainage and gas gathering method, collect this gas and study its properties.It was found that the candle would burn in this air, and the flame was very bright. The mice lived normally in this gas, and lived about 4 times longer than in the ordinary air of the same volume;He also tried it himself and felt that the air made people breathe easily and comfortably.He gave a detailed description of the whole process of the experiment.
scientist
In fact, as early as 1771, Priestley heated the saltpeter to make oxygen.In his article entitled "Observation of various kinds of air", he once mentioned that "in a certain amount of air I get from saltpeter, not only the candle can be lit, but also the flame increases, and a sound is heard, like the sound of saltpeter burning and exploding in an open fire." But because he confused this gas with ordinary air at that time, he could not find oxygen.Priestley believes that air is a single gas, and the difference in combustion supporting ability is only due to the difference in the amount of phlogiston contained in it.The air decomposed from the mercury cinder is fresh and contains no phlogiston, so the ability to absorb phlogiston and support combustion is particularly strong.So he called this gas "deflagration air".However, ordinary air has absorbed a lot of phlogiston through animal respiration, burning and decay of plants, so its combustion supporting ability is poor: once the air is saturated with phlogiston, it will no longer support combustion, and become "air saturated with phlogiston" (nitrogen) or "phlogistized air".In later research, Priestley found that green plants can also emit "deflagration air" in the sunphotochemical action Research basis.
Lord Shelburne supported Priestley's research work and has always provided him with research funds.In 1774, he took Priestley to visit the European continent.In Europe, they met many scientists, which is of great significance to Priestley's academic career.In Paris, Priestley visited French chemist Lavoisier, who introduced and demonstrated the experiment of extracting gas from mercury oxide.Lavoisier later repeated his experiment and linked Priestley's experimental materials with his own experimental results.Lavoisier was able to get rid of the shackles of traditional ideas, boldly put forward the concept of oxidation, and formed the oxidation theory of combustion.He pointed out that the so-called "dephlogiston air" was actually oxygen, which finally overturned the phlogiston theory that had dominated chemistry for nearly a century.However, Priestley, who insisted on the phlogiston theory, was firmly opposed to Lavoisier's new view and refused to accept any explanation of Lavoisier on oxygen and water.So, they started an argument.
The dispute between the two sides first appeared in《Journal of Philosophy》Later, these controversial articles were edited into some pamphlets.The last articles they debated were published in the United States《Journal of the American Philosophical Society》Their articles are also occasionally published in other publications.
In the debate, Priestley proved that not all acids contain oxygen, and hydrochloric acid is an example.He objected to Lavoisier's oxidation theory.However, Priestley's theory used in the debate has always been phlogiston theory.This made him like a conservative old man, who often recited the dogmatic phlogiston theory in his mouth, but was not willing to give it up at all.Priestley and Lavoisier have been continuously observing and studying each other.However, they have different depth of observation and different understanding of the essence behind the observed phenomenon.Priestley always evades theoretical thinking. He only immerses himself in experiments, believing that only experiments are the most important. He falls into a narrow empiricism, which affects the further development of his understanding.Lavoisier, on the other hand, attached great importance to theoretical thinking on the basis of experiments, which enabled him to realize the first chemical revolution in the long history of scientific development.
Throughout his life, Priestley studied gas chemistry from the age of 37 until his whole life.He has separated and discussed more gases than anyone else of his time.He can be said to be an amateur chemistry master in the second half of the 18th century.It was he who invented the sour gas water.In 1772, he published his pamphlet Collection of "Air" by Drainage and Gas Gathering, which was very popular and popular and was translated into French that year.Priestley is famous all over the world. In 1773, he was awarded the Bronze Medal of the British Royal Society.His research achievements in Qilin Chemistry are based on his strong thirst for knowledge and extraordinary diligence, and he benefits from his experimental skills.For this reason, the Royal Society has awarded him the Capri Prize.He has published a great book, Experiments and Observations on Various Atmospheres (three volumes).Later, his research results were collected in Experiments and Observations Related to Various Departments of Natural Science (Volume III).
On February 6, 1804, Priestley died in the United StatesPennsylvaniaNozanbalan, aged 71.Priestley's life mainly depended on self-study to become aChemistryMaster.His hardworking spirit can be called the model of modern people.[1]
