Discovery of Oxygen

Joseph Priestley

- Joseph Priestley was an English scientist who discovered oxygen in 1774.
- He used a method called the "dephlogisticated air" experiment, where he heated a sample of mercuric oxide and collected the gas that was released.
- He then placed a candle in the container of the gas and observed that it burned much brighter and longer than in normal air.

William Ramsay

- William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered several noble gases, including helium, neon, and argon.
- In 1894, he and his colleague Lord Rayleigh discovered a new gas while studying the density of nitrogen.
- This gas, which they named "argon," was found to be an element that made up about 1% of the Earth's atmosphere.

Rutherford and Bohr

- Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealand physicist who discovered the concept of radioactive decay and the structure of the atom.
- Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who developed a model of the atom that explained the behavior of electrons.
- While neither Rutherford nor Bohr directly discovered oxygen, their work on atomic structure and behavior paved the way for a better understanding of how oxygen interacts with other elements and molecules.

Conclusion

- While several scientists made significant contributions to our understanding of oxygen, Joseph Priestley is usually credited with its discovery.