Oxygen

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2007

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg discusses the discovery of Oxygen by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier. In the late 18th century Chemistry was the prince of the sciences – vital to the economy, it shaped how Europeans fought each other, ate with each other, what they built and the medicine they took. And then, in 1772, the British chemist, Joseph Priestley, stood in front of the Royal Society and reported on his latest discovery: “this air is of exalted nature…A candle burned in this air with an amazing strength of flame; and a bit of red hot wood crackled and burned with a prodigious rapidity. But to complete the proof of the superior quality of this air, I introduced a mouse into it; and in a quantity in which, had it been common air, it would have died in about a quarter of an hour; it lived at two different times, a whole hour, and was taken out quite vigorous.” For the British dissenting preacher, Joseph Priestley, and the French aristocrat, Antoine Lavoisier, Chemistry was full of possibilities and they pursued them for scientific and political ends. But they came to blows over oxygen because they both claimed to have discovered it, provoking a scientific controversy that rattled through the laboratories of France and England until well after their deaths. To understand their disagreement is to understand something about the nature of scientific discovery itself. With Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge; Jenny Uglow, Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick; Hasok Chang, Reader in Philosophy of Science at University College London.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello in 1772 the British chemist Joseph Priestley stood in front of the Royal Society
0:16.5	and reported on his latest discovery. This hour is of exalted nature, he said, a candle burned
0:22.3	in this hour with an amazing strength of flame, and a bit of red-hot
0:25.8	wood crackled and burned with a prodigious rapidity. But to complete the proof of the superior
0:31.2	quality of this hour, I introduce a mouse into it and in a
0:34.2	quantity in which had it been commoner it would have died in about a quarter of an hour.
0:38.3	It lived a whole hour and was taken out quite vigorous.
0:42.4	Priestley had discovered oxygen which he called de-legislated air or had he?
0:47.0	Soon a brilliant French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier, would name and claim the gas for himself, and so began a dispute between the British
0:54.2	and French chemical establishments undertaken as chemistry itself was in the
0:58.4	process of being rediscovered even revolutionized it was a revolutionary time.
1:03.2	With me to discuss the discovery of oxygen and Jenny Uglow on revisiting professor at the University of Warwick.
1:08.8	Hasak Chang, reader in philosophy of science at, College London and Simon Schaefer,
1:14.0	Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.
1:16.0	Hasak Chand at the moment is in a car,
1:18.0	and so I'm with you too, you happy too.
1:21.0	Simon Schaefer.
1:22.0	This, the end of the 18th century last third was an age
1:25.2	when chemistry was pre-eminent in Europe it was vital in mining in medicine, in medicine, for
1:29.0	industry for war. Why did it become important at that time and in such a way?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.