A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.68 (911 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0143038834 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 414 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-08-31 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
8 pages of illus. From Publishers Weekly Who first discovered oxygen in the 1770s: English scientist Joseph Priestley or the French aristocrat Antoine Lavoisier? The question became a controversial one, as novelist and nonfiction author Jackson relates, at a time when France and England were enemies. Jackson (Leavenworth Train) shows that Priestley was the first to isolate oxygen, but didn't realize what it was: British scientists still clung to the old "phlogiston" theory of burning, and Priestley called the gas "deph
makes the world of the time come alive! I'm a professional chemist with a long interest in the history of science, including the history of chemistry. I've studied the history of the "chemical revolution" brought about by Lavoisier, Priestley, and others, and have read some of the original works. Even though I know much of the scientific history, this book really brings to life the two protagonists, the Englishman Priestley and the Frenchman Lavoisier, in a way no other book does, including some recent ones that are selling much . Fascinating Story I want to give this book a quick thumb's up because nobody has reviewed it yet, and it does not seem to be selling well. I bought this book at the same time as "Descartes Secret Notebooks," and I have to say "World on Fire" is far superior to that more successful book about Descartes. Joe Jackson really demonstrates what the history of science can and should do.I know much more about oxygen now than I did before I read this book. It is interesting to learn how these early scientists perform. would give it TEN stars if I could This is simply one of the best books I have ever read; it deserves to be a best seller. Mr.Jackson has meticulously researched this fascinating story, then presented it in a manner and style that make it eminently readable. I am here today to buy copies for all of my friends- something I have never felt compelled to do before. My advice to prospective purchasers: buy it/read it. You will not be disappointed.
Like Charles Seife’s Zero and Dava Sobel’s Longitude, this passionate intellectual history is the story of the intersection of science and the human, in this case the rivals who discovered oxygen in the late 1700s. That breakthrough changed the world as radically as those of Newton and Darwin but was at first eclipsed by revolution and reaction. In chronicling the triumph and ruin of the English freethinker Joseph Priestley and the French nobleman Antoine Lavoisier—the former exiled, the latter exec