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| Under water divers breathing with oxygen tanks |
AUGUST 26, 1743 was the date of birth of Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist who was one of the discoverers of oxygen and gave the gas its name.
1. Oxygen was discovered independently by Carl Scheele, Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier.
2. Scheele was first to discover it, Priestley was first to publish his findings, while Lavoisier was first to isolate it and understand its true nature.
3. He named it from two Greek roots, “oxys” (acid) and “genes” (producer) as he thought mistakenly that all acids contained oxygen.
4. By mass, oxygen is the third most abundant element, after hydrogen and helium.
5. About 21 per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere consists of oxygen.
6. More than 200 years before oxy- was a prefix indicating a process involving oxygen, it was used to mean pertaining to an ox.
7. Oxygen accounts for about two-thirds of the weight of a human body.
8. Oxygen gas is colourless, tasteless and odourless; liquid and solid oxygen are pale blue.
9. Besides discovering and naming oxygen in 1778 Lavoisier also gave hydrogen its name in 1783.
10. After the French Revolution Lavoisier was accused of selling adulterated tobacco and of other crimes and died at the guillotine in 1794
2. Scheele was first to discover it, Priestley was first to publish his findings, while Lavoisier was first to isolate it and understand its true nature.
3. He named it from two Greek roots, “oxys” (acid) and “genes” (producer) as he thought mistakenly that all acids contained oxygen.
4. By mass, oxygen is the third most abundant element, after hydrogen and helium.
5. About 21 per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere consists of oxygen.
6. More than 200 years before oxy- was a prefix indicating a process involving oxygen, it was used to mean pertaining to an ox.
7. Oxygen accounts for about two-thirds of the weight of a human body.
8. Oxygen gas is colourless, tasteless and odourless; liquid and solid oxygen are pale blue.
9. Besides discovering and naming oxygen in 1778 Lavoisier also gave hydrogen its name in 1783.
10. After the French Revolution Lavoisier was accused of selling adulterated tobacco and of other crimes and died at the guillotine in 1794
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