The English chemist and clergyman, Joseph Priestley, was once described as a man who had the art of making important discoveries by following the wrong theories. He was born near Leeds in 1733. Priestley was a nonconformist minister with an intense interest in science. A lasting friendship with the American statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin led to his experiments in electricity. Then he turned to chemistry and discovered several gases, the most notable being oxygen. Priestley callad it dephlogisticated air. It was the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier who later gave it the name of oxygen. Priestley was a careless and unmethodical worker, with flashes of brilliance which inspired other men to follow up and complete his experiments. His political views were in advance of his time and found little support. His sympathies with the French revolutionary movement won him many enemies. In 1795 he left England and settled in America.
