Which chemist discovered oxygen in 1774, calling it 'dephlogisticated air'?
History of chemistry paper on the production of water by burning inflammable air (that is, hydrogen) in dephlogisticated air (now known to be oxygen), the latter a constituent of atmospheric air (phlogiston theory). In 1773, Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered oxygen, which he called "fire air", but did not immediately publish his achievement. In 1774, English chemist Joseph Priestley independently isolated oxygen in its gaseous state, calling it "dephlogisticated air", and published his work before Scheele. During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the
Period 3 element by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who called it "dephlogisticated muriatic acid air," having thought he synthesized the oxide obtained from the hydrochloric acid, because acids were thought at the time to necessarily contain oxygen, a number of chemists, including Claude Berthollet, suggested that Scheele's dephlogisticated muriatic acid air must be a combination of oxygen and the yet undiscovered element, and Scheele named the supposed new element within this oxide as "muriaticum." The suggestion that this newly discovered gas was a simple element was made in 1809 by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques. This was confirmed by Sir Humphry Davy