The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 477-501 (25 pages) William Cullen, lecturer in chemistry at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, spent many years ...

Before it was learned that matter burns by taking up oxygen, most chemists sought to explain combustion as the release of a mysterious substance, which they named "phlogiston". Phlogiston theory was a ...

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, the French scientist, is known as the Father of Chemistry (Specifically, the Father of Modern ...

Before the age of science, it was clear to most observers that air was a "vital spirit," but beyond that, little was known about the physical properties of air. Aristotle suggested that air was one of ...

Part of the appeal of the Boyle myth may be that it promised a clean break: a waymark at which alchemy was cast aside and chemistry took over. But such changes rarely if ever happen in science, and ...

Because there are three different dead guys who regularly vie for credit for discovering oxygen, we’ve staged a little friendly competition to establish which of these great men deserves the title of ...

Most chemists sought to explain combustion as the release of a mysterious substance, which they named "phlogiston" prior to the knowledge that matter burns by taking up oxygen. Phlogiston theory was a ...