Oxygen

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reactive and capable of combining with most elements.
It is essential for respiration of all plants and animals and for
practically all combustion.

history of oxygen

Leonardo da Vinci suggested that air consists of at least two
different gases. Before then, air was felt to be an element in its own
right. He was also aware that one of these gases supported both flames and
life. Oxygen was prepared by several workers before 1772 but these workers
did not recognise it as an element. Joseph Priestley is generally credited
with its discovery (who made oxygen by heating lead or mercury oxides), but
Carl Wilhelm Scheele also reported it independently. The behaviour of
oxygen and nitrogen as components of air led to the advancement of the
phlogiston theory of combustion, which influenced chemists for a century or
so, and which delayed an understanding of the nature of air for many years.

History

(Gr. oxys, sharp, acid, and genes, forming; acid former) For ...

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