Valley Girl Views: Joseph Priestly & His Fizzy Water

Dr Joseph Priestly, who lived the last ten years of his life in Northumberland Pa, is known for his discovery of oxygen (he called it "dephologisticated air") Ammonia, & Nitric Oxide. He was an English clergyman, political theorist, and physical scientist.

And he also created Soda Pop.
Well, "fizzy water", at least.

Dr. Physick, the Doctor known as the father of American Surgery, is actually credited with the first soda pop. But it was Joseph Priestly, in 1772, who produced the first "aerated water".

Priestly's experiments in carbonating water had interested the surgeon, Dr Philip Syng Physick. He contacted a druggist, Townsend Speakman, to make this "charged water" for his patients, offering it as a cure for gastric distress. In 1807, the men came up with the idea to add flavoring to the water, and the very first soda "pop" was born, in Philadelphia PA.

Dr Priestly's Fizzy Water -

We purchased this at the Priestly House a few years back, I'm not certain if it is still made.

The Discovery Of Oxygen
In 1767 Priestly was researching "different kinds of air", getting a plentiful supply of "fixed air" from the brewery next to his home. On a trip in 1774, he met the scientist Lavoiser, and gave him and account of his experiments and his resulting "dephologisticated air". Lavoisier would, some years later, name this "dephlogisticated air" as the oxygen compound.

"In the 1770s he [Priestly] began his most famous scientific research on the nature and properties of gases. At that time he was living next to a brewery, which provided him an ample supply of carbon dioxide. His first chemical publication was a description of how to carbonate water, in imitation of some naturally occurring bubbly mineral waters. Inspired by Stephen Hales’s Vegetable Staticks (first edition, 1727), which described the pneumatic trough for gathering gases over water, Priestley began examining all the “airs” that might be released from different substances. Many, following Aristotle’s teachings, still believed there was only one “air.” By clever design of apparatus and careful manipulation, Priestley isolated and characterized eight gases, including oxygen—a record not equaled before or since. In addition, he contributed to the understanding of photosynthesis and respiration."
https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/joseph-priestley

The History Of Joseph Priestly
Dr Joseph Priestly was the son of a cloth dresser, and was born in Fieldhead, England in 1733. His mother died (after having 6 children in 6 years) when Joseph was 6 years old, and he was placed in the charge of an aunt. At 16 he had made progress in most of the ancient languages. At 19 he entered a dissenting academy, having determined to be a clergyman, but later when he attempted to enter the ministry, he was rejected for his liberal views.

Priestly published his first book, Rudiments Of English Grammar, in 1761.

Apparatus designed by Joseph Priestley for electricity generation and storage

His first scientific work, History and Present State Of Electricity With Original Experiments (1767), was encouraged by Benjamin Franklin,.whom he had met in London.

"Upon his return to the ministry at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, in 1767, Priestley began intensive experimental investigations into chemistry. Between 1772 and 1790, he published six volumes of Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air and more than a dozen articles in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions describing his experiments on gases, or “airs,” as they were then called.....

Priestley discovered 10 new gases: nitric oxide (nitrous air), nitrogen dioxide (red nitrous vapour), nitrous oxide (inflammable nitrous air, later called “laughing gas”), hydrogen chloride (marine acid air), ammonia (alkaline air), sulfur dioxide (vitriolic acid air), silicon tetrafluoride (fluor acid air), nitrogen (phlogisticated air), oxygen (dephlogisticated air, independently codiscovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele), and a gas later identified as carbon monoxide.

Priestley’s experimental success resulted predominantly from his ability to design ingenious apparatuses and his skill in their manipulation. He gained particular renown for an improved pneumatic trough in which, by collecting gases over mercury instead of in water, he was able to isolate and examine gases that were soluble in water.

For his work on gases, Priestley was awarded the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal in 1773." https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Priestley

An Anti-Priestly Political Cartoon

Still a theologian, in 1780 he moved to Birmingham, where he had charge of an independent congregation in Birmingham.

His radical opinions, and writings, made him unpopular with his frienda and also with Fellows of the Royal Society - a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences, of which Priestly was a member.

The Priestly Riots

In 1791, Priestly's notorious predilection in favor of the French Revolutionists led a mob to burn his home and chapel in Birmingham, while he was at a dinner celebrating the anniversary of the French Revolution. Priestlys library and apparatus, along with many manuscripts, years of research and writings, perished in that fire.

In 1794, he brought his family to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where he lived the rest of his life. He is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Northumberland Pa.

Visiting The Joseph Priestly House In Northumberland PA

472 Priestley Ave, Northumberland, PA 17857

https://joseph-priestley-house.org/

"The Joseph Priestley House and laboratory is an historic site that preserves and interprets the contributions and significance to American history of Joseph Priestley. As a National Historic Landmark and National Historic Chemical Landmark, the site features Priestley’s manor house with its laboratory. In the nearby Pond Building can be found the Joseph Priestley Timeline, a series of panels that present accomplishments during different periods of his life."