SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PORTRAIT Displayed prominently in the CHF lobby is this oil painting of Priestley from the Chemists' Club Collection, attributed to Ozias Humphrey.
who carried out early studies on the physical properties of gases. At the Priestley medalist session, CHF President Arnold Thackray presented each awardee with a miniature of this Priestley portrait.
F R O M T H E ACS
MEETING
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY REMEMBERED
ONE OF THE founders of modern chemistry, Priestley is best known for his discovery of oxygen. But "airs" (gases) that he discovered also include ammonia, carbon monoxide, three nitrogen oxides, silicon tetrachloride, and sulfur dioxide. Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele actually discovered oxygen before Priestley did, but Priestley tends to get top billing for the finding because he was thefirstone to report it publicly , Bowood House, Calne, England, where Priestley's lab was located when he discovered oxygen in 1774, is designated an International Historic Chemical Landmark by ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry Despite his discovery of oxy-
Discoverer of oxygen and other gases played key role in history of chemistry STU B0RMAN, C&EN WASHINGTON
A
TTENDEES COULDN'T HAVE
easily missed hearing about 18th-century chemist Joseph Priestley at last month's American Chemical Society national meeting in Philadelphia. A number of events conspired to keep Priestley in the limelight. "Working the Frontiers of Chemistry," a symposium honoring winners of the Priestley Medal, ACS's highest honor, was held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF), a few blocksfromthe meeting site. A new exhibit, "Joseph Priestley, Radical TTiinker," had its grand opening, also at CHF. And a two-day ACS symposium, "Joseph Priestley, Universal Catalyst: A Bicentennial Celebration ofHis Life," spon-
sored by the Division of the History of Chemistry and cosponsored by the Division of Chemical Education, was held in one of the regular ACS meeting venues. A highlight of the latter symposium was a personal appearance by Priestley—as channeled by Ronald C. Blatchley, a retired high school chemistry teacher who has portrayed the chemist for the past 20 years. Blatchley portrays Priestley as a volunteer at Joseph Priestley House, in Northumberland, Pa., an ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark. Priestley, who lived from 1733 to 1804, is a centralfigurein the history of chemistry His portrait is displayed prominently in CHF's lobby—next to that of English physicist and chemist Robert Boyle,
MEDALIST At an event held at CHF to honor winners of the ACS Priestley Medalp Thackray (left) presented miniatures of Ozias Humphrey's portrait of Priestley to the Priestley medalists, including Caltech professor of chemistry emeritus John D. Roberts (right).
gen, the basis for combustion, Priestley continued throughout his life to defend the phlogiston theory, the idea that a substance called phlogiston is liberated in the burning process. In addition to pursuing chemical re-
The codiscovery of the process of photosynthesis, and not his oxygen discovery, was Priestley's "great moment.' WW
HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
C & E N / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 . 2004
41
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY tions"—a set of Priestley-related carica tures contributed by emeritus professor of chemistry Derek A. Davenport of Purdue University and books written by and about PriestleyfromCHF's Roy G. Neville His torical Chemical Library and other insti tutions. The Neville library recently ac quired all ofPriestley's scientific works and some of his educational books. SOME OBJECTS in the exhibit, such as a pneumatic pump on loanfromthe Franklin RIBBON CUTTING The CHF exhibit "Joseph Priestley, Radical Thinker" was Institute, were Priestley's personal prop opened formally by Thackray (far left) and Priestley Medalists (from left) F. erty. And "The Doctrine of Phlogiston Albert Cotton of Texas A&M University; Roald Hoffmann of Cornell University; Established, and that of the Composition John D. Roberts of Caltech (wielding scissors); Darleane C. Hoffman of the of Water Refuted," a book by Priestley University of California, Berkeley; Ronald Breslow of Columbia University; Harry displayed at the exhibit, is inscribed in B. Gray of Caltech; and Mary L. Good of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. his own hand: "From Dr. Priestley at Northumberland, Feb. 16,1800."The ex search, Priestley wrote more than 200 torian Mary Ellen Bowden at the ACS sym- hibit, created by a CHF team led by head books, pamphlets, and articles, including a posium. In the new exhibit, she said, "we of collections Rob Lukens, will be at CHF grammar text, a history of electricity, and hope to show the importance of Priestley throughJuly 2005. religious treatises. He also served as a The Priestley symposium at the Unitarian minister and teacher; had ACS meeting had a notable cast, in his house and laboratory in England cluding PriesdeyTbulmin, a direct burned down in a political and relidescendant of Priestley's, and emi giousriot;and in 1796 helped found nent Priestley scholar Robert E. one ofthe oldest Unitarian congregaSchofield. A new book by Schotions in the US., the First Unitarian field—"The Enlightened Joseph Church of Philadelphia. Unitarians Priestley: A Study of His Life and permit considerable individual deciWork from 1773 to 1804" (Penn sion-making about spiritual matters State Press, 2004)—was just pub rather than espousingrigiddoctrines. lished, and Schofield signed copies The CHF exhibit includes narraat the CHF exhibit booth during tive descriptions about Priestley's life the ACS meeting. This is the sec and relationships with his contemond volume ofSchofield's definitive poraries, such as U.S. President two-volume biography of Priestley Thomas Jefferson, English cerami- LOOKING GLASS Visitors to the CHF Priestley the first of which is "The Enlight cist Josiah Wedgwood, French exhibit view "burning lens" on loan from the enment ofJoseph Priestley" (Penn chemist Antoine Lavoisier, and US. Smithsonian Institution. This lens is similar to the State Press, 1997). diplomat and scientist Benjamin one Priestley used to heat and decompose The ACS symposium was coorFranklin. It also contains many "mercurius calcinatus" (mercuric oxide) when he ganized by visiting research scien Priestley-associated objects from discovered oxygen in 1774. tistJamesJ Bohning ofLehigh UniCHF's own collection and others. versity, Bethlehem, Pa.; emeritus This Priestley exhibit is CHF's second, in his own times, highlight several areas in professor of chemistry Roy A. Olofson of the first having been presented about 20 which he made important contributions, Pennsylvania State University, University years ago, said CHF senior research his- and showcase two CHF special collec- Park; and chemistry professor Leslie V. Wrodcock of the University of Manches ter, in England. Olofson recounted chrono logically the major events in Priesdey's life, lUew Heterocyclic Building Blocks f r o m Sigma-Aldrich noting that in addition to Priestley's dis O^H 0* .OH coveries of oxygen and other gases, he al ?*0 so discovered the role of blood in oxygen transport and codiscovered the process of Η photosynthesis. 63,242-2 63,215-5 63,280-5 In fact, this photosynthesisfinding,and not his oxygen discovery, was Priestley's OH ÇH 3 "great moment," Davenport said at the symposium. In describing a key experi Ν OH % S^NH ment showing that oxygen was generated in photosynthesis, Priestley wrote that he 63,875-7 64,275-4 63,636-3 63,674-6 TO ORDER: Contact your local Sigma-Aldrich office, call 1-800-558-9160 (USA), or visit sigma-aldrkh.com. "put a sprig of mint into a glass jar" that For additional information on our complote line of heterocydes contact cdavis10sial.com. ALDRICtr had been inverted in a vessel of water. Afe
ôg
"tk.
42
C&EN / SEPTEMBER 20, 2004
Ogi
2
HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
"It's fabulous with a twist of lemon," Blatchley replied. "The most important gas you discov ered is oxygen," Bohning continued. "You mean dephlogisticated air," Blatchley replied. "I first made that when I was the liter THE SESSION revealed ary companion to that although Priestley did Lord Shelburne at not discover carbon diox Bowood. On Aug. 1, ide, he used the gas to in 1774,1 focused sun vent "Pyrmont water" (soda light through a great water). The beverage was burning glass onto produced, said Blatchley on {mercuric oxide}. I Priestley's behalf, "by put did a lot of experiting a large dish of water above an open brewery vat ments on this new in Leeds," in England. The air. I was able to gases spewingfromthe vat carbonated the prove to much of the world that it was or water in the dish. Priestley believed Pyr- dinary air that had been deprived of its mont water might be useful for fighting phlogiston." scurvy, a major health problem of the time, Blatchley recounted how Priestley test and a human clinical trial of sorts was car ed this dephlogisticated air on himself by ried out "on board the Resolution and the breathing it. "The feeling of it to my lungs Adventure by Captain Cook on his second was not sensibly different from that of trip around the world," Blatchley said. common air," Blatchley said. "But I fan "Did it work?" Bohning asked. cied that my breast felt particularly light At the symposium, Priestley expressed himself not only through his writing, but also in person, in a sense. Priestley, as por trayed by Blatchley in an 18th-century cos tume, discussed his life and career in a question-and-answer session with Bohning.
SHOW-AND-TELL Opening panel from the CHF Priestley exhibit and pneumatic pump (foreground) on loan from the Franklin Institute. Priestley owned this pump and used it in his lab in Northumberland. ter the mint "continued growing there for some months, I found that the air {in the jar} would neither extinguish a candle nor inconvenience a mouse."
The phlogiston theory did a reasonable job of explaining chemical reactivity before the advent of thermodynamics/
Contract Manufacturing&Research From Flask to cGMP Production Products:Anticancer agents, Antibiotics etc.
Change
stferaan
the way you see
Oxygen
Expert For
Microbial Fermentation &
Bioconversion (Biotransformation, Biocatalysis)
L-Lys Flavobacterium
lutescens
». Recombinant R colt
(IAT) Η2Ο
tu Aminoadipic semialdehyde Flavobacterium
lutescens
| P6C dehydrogenase |
L-2-Aminoadipic acid (L-Homoglutamic acid)
FOXY Sensors are spectrometer-coupled, fiber optic chemical sensors for full spectral analysis of dissolved and gaseous oxygen pressure.
a. Recombinant E. colt I P6C reductase |
α
^ ^
Use in biological, pharmaceutical and food applications.
/\ ^
Sensors consume no oxygen and can be used in constant contact with viscous media.
A
Fit varied applications, from rugged process probes to micron-sized fibers for inserting into needles.
L·Pipecoiic acid
