Oxygen theory of combustion

The great edifice of modern chemistry has arisen upon the twin foundation-stones of Lavoisier s Oxygen Theory of Combustion and Dalton s Atomic Theory of the constitution of matter. It is ollen overlooked that a period of some twenty years separated these two conceptions, It is true that with the acceptance of Lavoisier s views it could have been said that now sits expectation in the air but meanwhile the dormant science, awakening slowly from its age-long sleep, passed through a confused interregnum, coincident in world history with the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte and the consolidation of the former American colonics into a rapidly growing democratic republic. 

Lavoisier checked Ptiesdey s work and recognizing that air contains mainly two gases, named one vital air and the other azote (nitrogen), the latter not supporting life. Later, vital air became oxygen, from the abiUty to form acids ox, ie, sharp (taste) 2in.dgen, to form. In 1777, Lavoisier developed the theory of combustion. His ideas became widely estabhshed and were firmly fixed by his textbook, Ixi Traitu Elumentaire de Chemie (2). 

A. L. Lavoisier recognized oxygen as an element, developed the modem theory of combustion, and demolished the phlogiston theory. 

After Lavoisier had developed his theory of combustion, he was able to go a step further. First, with the assistance of the physicist Simon Laplace, he repeated Cavendish s experiment by burning hydrogen and oxygen in a closed vessel. Next, he passed steam over red-hot iron and found that it could be decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen again. Clearly, water was not an element. It was a compound formed from two gaseous elements. 

Mardles 15 passed hexane-air mixtures through hot tubes and reported the presence of active oxygen in the products. He supports the peroxide theory of combustion for this reason and because it offers a better explanation of engine knocking than does the hydroxylation theory. 1-Ic has also proposed that the oxidation occurs in two steps, the first of which is peroxide formation followed by aldehyde formation through decomposition of the active molecule. 

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