Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)

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Joseph Priestley. Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. London: J. Johnson, 1774.

Joseph Priestley, an English experimental chemist, historian, and theologian, conducted laboratory experiments with gases for over twenty years and published his findings in this three-volume set. Through his study of carbon dioxide, Priestley discovered a number of other gases, including ammonia, hydrochloric acid, and nitric acid. 

His scientific reputation rested on his writings on electricity, his invention of soda water, and his discovery of ten previously unknown "Airs" (gases), that he reported on from 1774-1786 in his extensive six volume work, Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. Priestley is best known for his discovery of the gas that would later be named "oxygen" by Lavoisier. Priestley wrote approximately 150 books during his lifetime.

Priestley emigrated to America in 1794, settling in Pennsylvania. A leading scientist, thinker and friend of the new republic, Priestley and his wife built a house with a laboratory in Northumberland. Two of Joseph Priestley’s descendants, Harry and Priestley Toulmin, attended Lehigh University and graduated in 1886.

Gift of Eckley Brinton Coxe

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Joseph Priestley. Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. London: J. Johnson, 1774.