Abstract
Historians of chemistry usually associate the eighteenth century with the Chemical Revolution, but it could just as readily be called ‘the century of gases’ (or ‘airs’, as they were called in the eighteenth century). In the early part of the century, the British pneumatic chemists struggled to replace the traditional notion ‘Air’, understood as an inert chemical element, with the concept of ‘air’, regarded as the third state of matter, encompassing a wide variety of chemical species. These developments constituted a necessary condition for the Chemical Revolution, which occurred in the latter part of the century. In ‘Observations’, Priestley took pneumatic chemistry to a new level, with the discovery of eight simple inorganic gases. Motivated by his belief in a benevolent God and a pious utilitarianism, Priestly explored the role of the atmosphere in the balance of nature and the politics of the state, which he linked to the movement of Rational Dissent. He styled himself an ‘aerial philosopher’ to signal the interdisciplinary nature of his inquiries, which he regarded not as a branch of ordinary chemistry, but as a mode of thought that encompassed physics, chemistry and natural theology. Priestley saw it as a source of principles and secrets of nature more extensive than that of ‘gravity itself’. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
Highlights
The publication of Joseph Priestley’s ‘Observations on different kinds of air’ [1] in the Philosophical2015 The Authors
Henry Cavendish [14] clarified the disciplinary boundaries of pneumatic chemistry when he published in the Philosophical Transactions of 1766 a paper that dealt with more than one kind of air—fixed air and ‘inflammable air’ (hydrogen (H2))—and focused on determining their characteristic properties, rather than their role in a specific chemical reaction or medical procedure
Priestley’s valorization of ease and simplicity in the laboratory was more than a matter of preferred technique; it carried with it important epistemological and metaphysical interests that transcended the disciplinary boundaries of pneumatic chemistry
Summary
The publication of Joseph Priestley’s ‘Observations on different kinds of air’ [1] in the Philosophical. Building on the work of the previous generation of British ‘pneumatic chemists’, Priestley provided the first, clear, experimentally articulated statement of ‘air’ as a state, rather than an elemental form, of matter, which like solids and liquids encompasses a variety of chemical species While his famous rival in the annals of the history of chemistry Antoine Lavoisier selectively incorporated some of the empirical findings of the pneumatic chemists into his revolutionary oxygen theory of chemistry, Priestley integrated them more expansively into a comprehensive ‘doctrine of airs’, which functioned not as a branch of normal chemistry, but as an interdisciplinary mode of inquiry encompassing issues and problems in physics, chemistry, medicine and natural theology. Priestley’s inquiries depended on the deployment of new instruments of inquiry, a broad philosophical vision of the unity of God, man and nature, and wider social interests in the utility of science and its role in Enlightenment programmes of individual improvement and social reform
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