Oxygen and One God: Joseph Priestley in 1774
The discoverer of oxygen - a man of ‘singular energy and varied abilities’ - was, writes A.D. Orange, also a bold progressive thinker.
On Monday, August 1st, 1774, in his laboratory in the country mansion of Lord Shelburne at Bowood, near Caine, Joseph Priestley - the Rev Dr Joseph Priestley, Fellow of the Royal Society - heated red mercuric oxide and obtained the previously unknown gas, oxygen.
Nine days later, he added the final touches to a combative metaphysical treatise usually known as An Examination of the Scotch Philosophers.
Before the end of the month, he had left the rural fastness of Wiltshire in the company of Shelburne for a tour of Belgium, Holland, Germany and France which was to bring him face to face with Lavoisier and the Parisian scientists, and to cast him in the role of defender of the Christian faith against the scepticism of the French intellectuals.
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