In Wiltshire, England, on August 1, 1774 Joseph Priestley focused sunlight through a lens in order to heat a sample of mercuric oxide (red calx).
The resulting gas supported the burning of a candle with a vigorous flame, was essentially insoluble in water, and accommodated a mouse under glass for some time. And that’s how Oxygen was born.
Priestley called his new gas “dephlogisticated air.” His discovery came at a very good time, people were getting very tired from holding their breathe all these years.
And so it goes
The Haus of Dcaligari 