This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 Excerpt: ...Catholics. In the path of Science his fame rests upon his somewhat accidental discovery of oxygen as one of the component parts of air, a discovery of which he did not realize the full value. But he also discovered some five or six other gases, and the experimental methods of which he made use in his chemical ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 Excerpt: ...Catholics. In the path of Science his fame rests upon his somewhat accidental discovery of oxygen as one of the component parts of air, a discovery of which he did not realize the full value. But he also discovered some five or six other gases, and the experimental methods of which he made use in his chemical researches have been used by all great chemists since his days. He was also to some extent a pioneer of electrical science, anticipating, but seldom perfecting or utilizing, many ideas which only became part of the equipment of men of science in much later times. He wrote much upon his discoveries before he had time to test their worth or apply them to facts. He also projected several great 'Histories' of various branches of science. The fact is that his own training had been too discursive, both in theology and science; his keen mind scented ideas from afar, and he would start upon various quests with imperfect weapons and without a preliminary study of the terrain. He was a man of a pleasant nature and had many friends in Great Britain, France, and America: Shelburne, in whose house he resided for a time as librarian, Banks, Burke, Franklin, Toplady, Price, Wedgwood. He received the degree of LL.D. at Edinburgh in 1764, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society two years later. It was while he resided at Birmingham that the celebrated riot took place, in which a mob, angry because Priestley and his Radical friends got up a dinner on July 14, 1791, to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, sacked his house and destroyed most of his library and scientific apparatus. Priestley was not himself present at the dinner, and had some difficulty in escaping from the rioters, four of whom were afterwards executed for their crime. He received...
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