Oxygen
Vital to life, a necessity to combustion, and the component of innumerable compounds, oxygen is by far one of the most important elements. Astoundingly, Oxygen makes up a fifth of our atmosphere, 49.5% of all compounds on Earth contain oxygen, makes up about 2/3 of our body, yet human kind has only know of it since 1977 (http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/8.html). Ironically, within a period of a couple of years, three different men had stumbled upon the vital element. Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swede, made the initial discovery. However, Joseph Priestly, the man generally attributed with the discovery on the basis of his works being published first, discovered it in 1774. Neither of them quite understood it though, and only a French man by the name of Antoine Lavoisier who would be the first to fully understand it and disprove the old “phlogiston� notion (Priestly Joseph 4). Nonetheless, Carl Wilhelm Scheele was still the first to discover oxygen, a discovery that would be one of many in a rich life.
William Scheele’s life was one of humble beginnings. Born on December 19, 1742 he was one of a pack of 11 children. His formal training or education in science was of the bare minimum. By the age of fourteen, a firm by the name of Martin Anders Bauch in Gothenburg had accepted him as an apprentice as a pharmacist. This initial access to various chemicals, compounds, and books gave Wilhelm Scheele just he start he needed for beginning his career into chemistry. When the firm changed hands, Carl Wilhelm Scheele took a job with another company name Kjellström where, once again, he was provided the mean and permission to experiment. Scheele once again changed positions and moved to Stockholm where he continued in a pharmacy. Here his first discoveries were made (http://mattson.creighton.edu/History_Gas_Chemistry/Scheele.html). In 1769 with the help of a man named Anders John Retzius, Scheele isolated tartaric acid, a substance used on lenses, from cream of tartar (Tartaric Acid 1). Scheele made his big break however in 1770. Through various methods, Scheele was able to isolate oxygen. His discovery of “Fire Air� precipitated numerous awards including a membership to the Royal Academy of Sciences, a position never before, and not even to present day to be given to a pharmacist (http://mattson.creighton.edu/History_Gas_Chemistry/Scheele.html). His home town, in an effort to keep him, also found him a place to set up his pharmacy.
Chemists are the specialists in chemistry, that interact with chemical properties, and reactions. The earth is made up of different gases. Some of this gases are needed for life in the planet but other gases can be harmful to the living. Gas’s use in regular quantities are favorable to the earth. The world started to become more advance and had to use more of this gases to produce everyday objects and inventions by men. Little did we knew this chemicals we going to affect us in our life. Chemist Jose Mario Molina actually discovered that chlorofluorocarbons were affecting the ozone layer.
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It is also interesting to know just how many medical breakthroughs came about by accident. It allows people to realize that, although it should be handled with the utmost care, cut of the edge research is not always cut and dry. This book teaches that it takes true intellect to take what seems like a failure or an accident and instead of abandoning it, reflecting on what has truly happened. Students as well as current researchers should read, study, and take inspiration from this book. It has a lot to teach other than simply the surface of the history of the discoveries it
Mary Maynard Daly was born on April 16, 1921 in Corona, Queens and was the daughter of the well-educated Ivan C. Daly and Helen Daly. The Daly’s were well cultured and educated but could not wholly peruse their dreams because of financial complications so Mary Daily took her parents endeavor and turned it into her personal incentive. In addition, Daly’s grandparents contributed a vast role in her road to triumph, by laying down the groundwork of chemistry when she was younger. When Daly visited her grandparents who lived in Washington D.C she was able to read bout scientist and their accomplishments in her grandfather’s diverse and informative library. During her readings at her grandparents’ house, Daly found her science muse, a chemist named Paul De Kruif who made her decision to pursue chemistry as a career assured. Later on Daly married Vincent Clark, in 1961 and decided to move to Florida and unfortunately Daly died in 2003 and the cause of her death was unknown.
and opened doors for later scientists that were in his field of organic synthesis. He was a
The microscope has been a very important part of Chemistry since it was invented. There in some doubt, but Zacharias Jansenn seems to be the one who in vented the microscope in 1595 at Holland (source 1). He invented it by putting to magnifying glass together and a light under the sample he was looking at. Once he did this he could see 20 to 30 times on what he was looking at (source 1). He wanted to look at samples humans could not see with the naked eye. He looked at dirt, grass, and blood even he scraped the tartar of his teeth (source 2). What he saw will change the way everybody looks at everything today.
In 1801 he argued that the atmosphere was filled with mechanical gases and that the chemical reactions between the nitrogen and oxygen played no part in the atmosphere?s construction. To prove this he conducted a lot of experiments on the solubility of gases in water. This showed that dissolved gases were mechanically mixed with the water and weren?t mixed naturally. But in 1803 it was found that this depended on the weight of the individual particles of the gas or atoms. By assuming the particles were the same size Dalton was able to develop the idea of atomic weights.
Ludwig Mond from Germany was the founder of a British chemical industry and the discoverer of many important chemical processes. Chemical processes was what embryos went through to become people well-adapted to their environment. Without deep study into chemistry, the Brave New World wouldn’t have existed.
The 1800’s was a time of development in science. New and what seemed like crazy ideas were surfacing. These ideas were more easily accepted than in past years. There were new theories such as the Cell Theory by Mathias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann in 1838 (Farah 626) and the Atomic Theory by John Dalton (Farah 628).A little over a decade after the Cell Theory was proposed, Louis Pasteur discovered bacteria in 1850 (Farah 627).
Antoine Lavoisier and Dalton are responsible for the discovery of 90 natural elements. Dalton also explained the variations of water vapor in the atmosphere, the base of meteorology.
Sazlberg, Hugh W. From Caveman to Chemist: Circumstances and Achievements. Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1991.
I feel personally that the discovery of the atom was an important discovery for the world. With the discovery we are now able to answer questions we never even thought to ask. We are also answering questions some people asked long ago. We can now use our vast knowledge of the atom to measure the stars and be able to tell you what the stars are made of. The atomic discovery also helped us find our periodic table of elements. The periodic table of elements is a huge scientific chart that shows important facts with the help of its formation. There was a lot of constant scientific research that went into making the periodic table of elements and what it is today.
Bruce Mattson. “Henry Cavendish 1731-1810”. History of Gas Chemistry. Updated September 25, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2011
Brand was obsessed with finding the Philosopher’s Stone; this stone reputedly could change metals into gold. With his discovery, this made Brand the first known discoverer of an element. In 1669, he isolated human urine and distilled it which resulted in a white and waxy material. Brand named this material phosphorus (light bearer) because it glowed in the dark. This discovery was kept a secret until 1680 when an English chemist Robert Boyle discovered phosphorus independently. Boyle’s definition of this element was simply “a substance that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by a chemical reaction”. This definition of the element lasted for three centuries until the discovery of subatomic
In the mid 1500s, the Scientific Revolution was born. Modern science was born at this time where everything as simple as thermometers and telescopes were one of the most astounding things to ever be seen or heard. New discoveries in science that radically changed the way humans understood the world occurred at this time till the late 1700s. Paradigm shifts were happening in every direction possible. A paradigm shift is a change in basic assumptions that is corrected and makes thoughts shift to another assumption. Thoughts of old theories were destroyed and replaced by modernized and corrected ones. Every scientist at this time was attempting to create a paradigm shift that would affect the world drastically. One of those scientists was Joseph Priestley. This chemist and philosopher discovered one of the biggest things in the world. He discovered oxygen or in other words, dephlogisticated air. Before the 1700s, people believed in the phlogiston theory, which was the belief that we breathe to get rid of phlogiston, which is an odorless, colorless substance that is absorbed into the air after combustion. In 1774, a new theory replaced this. The theory was called the dephlogisticated theory or in other words, oxygen. Joseph Priestley discovered that we do not breathe to let out phlogiston but we breathe to take in oxygen to help us with cellular activities and to release carbon dioxide (Phlogiston Theory). After Priestley discovers this new gas he starts to feel confused with his discovery and goes to France to meet his fellow scientist and together they discuss this new theory of dephlogisticated air. He repeated his experiments and proved to Antoine, the scientist he met, that the theory was true, even though Priestley didn’t agree ...