Who discovered oxygen?
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In 1608, Cornelius Drebbel had shown that heating saltpetre (potassium nitrate, KNO3) released a gas. This was oxygen although it was not identified as such.The credit for discovering oxygen is now shared by three chemists: an Englishman, a Swede, and a Frenchman. Joseph Priestley was the first to publish an account of oxygen, having made it in 1774 by focussing sunlight on to mercuric oxide (HgO), and collecting the gas which came off. He noted that a candle burned more brightly in it and that it made breathing easier. Unknown to Priestly, Carl Wilhelm Scheele had produced oxygen in June 1771. He had written an account of his discovery but it was not published until 1777. Antoine Lavoisier also claimed to have discovered oxygen, and he proposed that the new gas be called oxy-gène, meaning acid-forming, because he thought it was the basis of all acids.