1774 oxygen discovered
English amateur chemist Joseph Priestley in August.
Liberated oxygen by intensely heating 'mercurius calcinatus' (mercuric oxide) placed over liquid mercury in a closed vessel.
Unaware of Scheele's earlier work.
Called new gas "dephlogisticated air".
Believed in phlogiston theory.
Theory discredited by brilliant French chemist Antoine Lavoisier.
Lavoisier named gas "oxygene".
"Oxygene" means acid-former.
First person ever to inhale air with a greater than normal concentration of oxygen.
Publications.