Oxygen theory

On the whole, historians have tended to identify the beginnings of the "modem" discipline of chemistry with a "Chemical Revolution," with Lavoisier and his circle, and more particularly with pneumatics, the oxygen theory, the balance, and the new chemical nomenclature of the late eighteenth century. This traditional historical interpretation is rooted in nineteenth-century histories of chemistry, particularly those written by the French chemists Dumas, Berthelot, and Wurtz.5... 

Lavoisier summarized his ideas developed over the previous twenty years in his seminal 1789 book Traite Elementaire de Chimie (Elements of Chemistry). This work presented his findings on gases and the role of heat in chemical reactions. He explained his oxygen theory and how this theory was superior to phlogiston theory. Lavoisier established the concept of a chemical element as a substance that could not be broken down by chemical means or made from other chemicals. Lavoisier also presented a table of thirty-three elements. The thirty-three elements mistakenly included light and caloric (heat). Lavoisier put forth the modern concept of a chemical reaction, the importance of quantitative measurement, and the principle of conservation of mass. The final part of Lavoisier s book presented chemical methods, a sort of cookbook for performing experiments. 

To illustrate the application of the active oxygen theory to inorganic oxidation, let us consider several conjugated oxidation reactions. 

Conjugated reactions are the only ones in which the active oxygen theory preserves the meaning ascribed to it by Shilov. This fact is clearly illustrated by Shilov s examples [ 1 ], in which inorganic substances were subject to conjugated oxidation and the rules of the game were strictly obeyed, conjugated reaction separation conditions, in particular. 

Guyton s two-fluid theory of calcination came remarkably close to Lavoisier s oxygen theory. According to Guyton s hypothesis, acids had to contain fixed air, since they furnished it to metallic earths to produce metallic calces. Acids did not touch metallic calces because both were neutralized by the same principle fixed air. Metallic earths were, therefore, always united to phlogiston, fixed air, or acids. All these facts showed that... 

The composite nature of water held a significant place in Lavoisier s oxygen theory because it accounted for the inflammable air and the vital air produced in the humid calcination of metals. In the calcination of metals using vitriolic acid, Lavoisier knew that the vital air did not come from the vitriolic acid, since the operation did not produce sulphur or sulphurous acid. Water was the only possible source. Lavoisier worked hard, therefore, to prove the compound nature of water, which he presented to the Academy on November 12, 1783. The importance he attached to this project becomes evident, as Daumas and Duveen pointed out, in his careful preparation for a large-scale demonstration. The public enthusiasm for ballooning had induced the Academy to appoint a... 

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