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Joseph Priestley: Docter Phlogiston or Reverend Oxygen?
Feature
Endeavour
Vol.34 No.3
Joseph Priestley: Docter Phlogiston or Reverend Oxygen? Patricia Fara Clare College, Cambridge, CB2 1TL, UK
In propaganda material, people are often presented in black-and-white terms as either a villain or a hero. Although Joseph Priestley is denigrated for believing in the discredited substance phlogiston, he is also celebrated for discovering oxygen. Although he was a keen supporter of the French Revolution, the chemist Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) celebrated its second anniversary with nothing more seditious than a game of backgammon and a quiet dinner at home. A couple of hours later, he watched in horror from a nearby hill as his house and possessions were destroyed, including his valuable collections of books and instruments. A religious radical, Priestley had been deliberately victimized by gangs of rioters who were roving around Birmingham that night, attacking Dissenters’ property and protected by the refusal of local magistrates to leave their discussion in the local pub and intervene.1 Only a fortnight earlier, on 1 July 1791, Priestley had been singled out for less physical abuse by an unidentified caricaturist (Figure 1). In reality, Priestley was a mildmannered man, often compared to a woodpecker because of his beaky nose and the staccato rhythm of his stammering speech. In contrast, here the exaggerated nose and beetling brow of his coarse features signal that Priestley is a shady, sinister character. To emphasise his dastardly intentions, his pockets are stuffed with imaginary pamphlets carrying provocative titles such as Gunpowder and Revolution Toasts. Beneath his feet, the BIBLE explained Away refers to Priestley’s unorthodox religious position, while the firebrand tracts in his hands are his own Essay on Government and a Political Sermon that had been printed by request of the Birmingham Dissenters’ Committee two years earlier.2 The dark fumes of smoke and the mocking nickname ‘Docter Phlogiston’ refer to Priestley’s fame as one of England’s greatest chemical experimenters. For much of the eighteenth century, the standard account of burning relied on a weightless, invisible substance called phlogiston. Originally proposed to explain refining processes in German mines, this theoretical entity remained important for many decades in France and England because it provided a useful scientific model. Metals were said to change colour when heated because the dirty phlogiston they Corresponding author: Fara, P. ([email protected]) Jay, M. (2009) The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr Beddoes and his Sons of Genius (New Haven, Yale), pp. 1–10. 2 Fitzwilliam, M. (1984) Priestley in caricature. In Oxygen and the Conversion of Future Feedstocks: The Proceedings of the Third BOC Priestley Conference, pp. 346–69, London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1984. Available online 14 August 2010 1
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contained was being driven off; conversely, smelting ores at high temperatures caused them to absorb phlogiston and be converted into metals. Chemical research was vital for Britain’s burgeoning industrial operations, and Priestley was a leading practitioner, an enthusiastic participant in the networks of Midlands experimenters and factory owners. Taking advantage of nearby breweries, he had developed a refreshing new drink called soda water, which he hoped would provide a cure for scurvy on long sea voyages. Not being financially astute, Priestley handed over the recipe to a Mr Schweppes, and so lost the opportunity for two centuries of brand identification. He did, however, carry out a more momentous experiment: Priestley isolated the element now known as oxygen, the name subsequently invented by his French rival, Antoine Lavoisier. When Priestley found that his new gas seemed to be exceptionally pure and life-supporting, he decided it was dephlogisticated air, a label belonging to a theoretical framework that he never relinquished. The close contemporary ties between politics and religion made this a savage image. In his caption, the anonymous caricaturist has punned on Priestley’s name by calling him a political priest, and three years later, the print reappeared with a new title, The Reverend Philosopher. The clumsiness of the lettering reflects the engraving process, which involved carving out a mirror-image, so that the missing ‘i’ in politician is presumably a slip made while writing backwards. The ‘e’ in ‘Docter’ might perhaps be due to the writer’s own poor spelling, but the correct rendition of the more difficult ‘phlogiston’ suggests that the mistake is a deliberate allusion to Priestley’s lack of university education – as a Dissenter, he was banned from both Oxford and Cambridge. In this post-Revolutionary era, chemistry was fraught with political significance. The greatest innovations were being introduced in France, and Lavoisier’s interest in gunpowder was a gift to English satirists, who made countless puns about explosive theories, airy speculations, fumes of discontent, inflammatory ideas and uncontrollable spirits (to say nothing of scatological references to digestion). The most skilled inventor of this metaphorical abuse, and Priestley’s most eminent public antagonist, was the Irish politician Edmund Burke. In his enormously influential Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Burke stressed the superiority of British customs, built up from practical experience, to the rational system imposed from above on the French people. Burke’s opponents criticized him for using colourful, mocking imagery, but it made good copy for attracting popular
0160-9327/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2010.07.005
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Vol.34 No.3
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Figure 1. DOCTER PHLOGISTON, The PRIESTLEY politician or the Political priest. Anonymous caricature, 1791.
audiences. Burke and Priestley had once been friends, but as their political paths diverged, the radical chemist became a favourite target, and around thirty caricatures of Priestley appeared between 1790 and 1794.3 Priestley’s position was not as straightforward as his enemies made out. ‘No Popery’ was adopted as a campaign slogan by the Birmingham rioters – but it was also Priestley’s own; and the French systematic, quantitative methodology deplored by Burke was very different from Priestley’s empirical, chance-driven approach. A century later, Victorian industrialists converted this one-time villain into a local hero by erecting a twenty-foot high marble statue in front of Birmingham Town Hall (Figure 2). The tradition of commemorating anniversaries was a nineteenth-century invention, and this was one of the earliest birthday tributes to an important scientific event – Priestley’s isolation of oxygen in 1774. Thomas Henry Huxley travelled up from London for the unveiling ceremony, and gave a speech before going on to the Great Western Hotel for lunch with the city’s dignitaries. These 3 Golinski, J. (1992) Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 176–87.
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Figure 2. The Discoverer of Oxygen: Statue of Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, 1874. Illustrated London News, Aug 8, 1874, p. 129.
Birmingham celebrations hit the national press, and a headline in the Illustrated London News proclaimed Priestley to be ‘The Discoverer of Oxygen’. Priestley always felt that Lavoisier had breached the codes of ethical conduct by appropriating his results, and he would have been furious to learn that he was being remembered for his rival’s success. The sculptor gave Priestley a small burning lens in his right hand, although the one he actually used was a foot across and had
86
Feature
Endeavour Vol.34 No.3
disappeared the night his laboratory was demolished. In his left hand, Priestley holds a test-tube to collect the substance given off by a powder subjected to the concentrated heat of the sun’s rays. One way of describing this
www.sciencedirect.com
experiment is to say that oxygen gas is released by mercuric oxide. In Priestley’s opinion, it made more sense to believe that God had enabled English chemists to produce life-giving dephlogisticated air from red calx of mercury.
Endeavour
Vol.34 No.3
Joseph Priestley: Docter Phlogiston or Reverend Oxygen? Patricia Fara Clare College, Cambridge, CB2 1TL, UK
In propaganda material, people are often presented in black-and-white terms as either a villain or a hero. Although Joseph Priestley is denigrated for believing in the discredited substance phlogiston, he is also celebrated for discovering oxygen. Although he was a keen supporter of the French Revolution, the chemist Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) celebrated its second anniversary with nothing more seditious than a game of backgammon and a quiet dinner at home. A couple of hours later, he watched in horror from a nearby hill as his house and possessions were destroyed, including his valuable collections of books and instruments. A religious radical, Priestley had been deliberately victimized by gangs of rioters who were roving around Birmingham that night, attacking Dissenters’ property and protected by the refusal of local magistrates to leave their discussion in the local pub and intervene.1 Only a fortnight earlier, on 1 July 1791, Priestley had been singled out for less physical abuse by an unidentified caricaturist (Figure 1). In reality, Priestley was a mildmannered man, often compared to a woodpecker because of his beaky nose and the staccato rhythm of his stammering speech. In contrast, here the exaggerated nose and beetling brow of his coarse features signal that Priestley is a shady, sinister character. To emphasise his dastardly intentions, his pockets are stuffed with imaginary pamphlets carrying provocative titles such as Gunpowder and Revolution Toasts. Beneath his feet, the BIBLE explained Away refers to Priestley’s unorthodox religious position, while the firebrand tracts in his hands are his own Essay on Government and a Political Sermon that had been printed by request of the Birmingham Dissenters’ Committee two years earlier.2 The dark fumes of smoke and the mocking nickname ‘Docter Phlogiston’ refer to Priestley’s fame as one of England’s greatest chemical experimenters. For much of the eighteenth century, the standard account of burning relied on a weightless, invisible substance called phlogiston. Originally proposed to explain refining processes in German mines, this theoretical entity remained important for many decades in France and England because it provided a useful scientific model. Metals were said to change colour when heated because the dirty phlogiston they Corresponding author: Fara, P. ([email protected]) Jay, M. (2009) The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr Beddoes and his Sons of Genius (New Haven, Yale), pp. 1–10. 2 Fitzwilliam, M. (1984) Priestley in caricature. In Oxygen and the Conversion of Future Feedstocks: The Proceedings of the Third BOC Priestley Conference, pp. 346–69, London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1984. Available online 14 August 2010 1
www.sciencedirect.com
contained was being driven off; conversely, smelting ores at high temperatures caused them to absorb phlogiston and be converted into metals. Chemical research was vital for Britain’s burgeoning industrial operations, and Priestley was a leading practitioner, an enthusiastic participant in the networks of Midlands experimenters and factory owners. Taking advantage of nearby breweries, he had developed a refreshing new drink called soda water, which he hoped would provide a cure for scurvy on long sea voyages. Not being financially astute, Priestley handed over the recipe to a Mr Schweppes, and so lost the opportunity for two centuries of brand identification. He did, however, carry out a more momentous experiment: Priestley isolated the element now known as oxygen, the name subsequently invented by his French rival, Antoine Lavoisier. When Priestley found that his new gas seemed to be exceptionally pure and life-supporting, he decided it was dephlogisticated air, a label belonging to a theoretical framework that he never relinquished. The close contemporary ties between politics and religion made this a savage image. In his caption, the anonymous caricaturist has punned on Priestley’s name by calling him a political priest, and three years later, the print reappeared with a new title, The Reverend Philosopher. The clumsiness of the lettering reflects the engraving process, which involved carving out a mirror-image, so that the missing ‘i’ in politician is presumably a slip made while writing backwards. The ‘e’ in ‘Docter’ might perhaps be due to the writer’s own poor spelling, but the correct rendition of the more difficult ‘phlogiston’ suggests that the mistake is a deliberate allusion to Priestley’s lack of university education – as a Dissenter, he was banned from both Oxford and Cambridge. In this post-Revolutionary era, chemistry was fraught with political significance. The greatest innovations were being introduced in France, and Lavoisier’s interest in gunpowder was a gift to English satirists, who made countless puns about explosive theories, airy speculations, fumes of discontent, inflammatory ideas and uncontrollable spirits (to say nothing of scatological references to digestion). The most skilled inventor of this metaphorical abuse, and Priestley’s most eminent public antagonist, was the Irish politician Edmund Burke. In his enormously influential Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Burke stressed the superiority of British customs, built up from practical experience, to the rational system imposed from above on the French people. Burke’s opponents criticized him for using colourful, mocking imagery, but it made good copy for attracting popular
0160-9327/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2010.07.005
Feature
[(Figure_1)TD$IG]
Endeavour
Vol.34 No.3
85
[(Figure_2)TD$IG]
Figure 1. DOCTER PHLOGISTON, The PRIESTLEY politician or the Political priest. Anonymous caricature, 1791.
audiences. Burke and Priestley had once been friends, but as their political paths diverged, the radical chemist became a favourite target, and around thirty caricatures of Priestley appeared between 1790 and 1794.3 Priestley’s position was not as straightforward as his enemies made out. ‘No Popery’ was adopted as a campaign slogan by the Birmingham rioters – but it was also Priestley’s own; and the French systematic, quantitative methodology deplored by Burke was very different from Priestley’s empirical, chance-driven approach. A century later, Victorian industrialists converted this one-time villain into a local hero by erecting a twenty-foot high marble statue in front of Birmingham Town Hall (Figure 2). The tradition of commemorating anniversaries was a nineteenth-century invention, and this was one of the earliest birthday tributes to an important scientific event – Priestley’s isolation of oxygen in 1774. Thomas Henry Huxley travelled up from London for the unveiling ceremony, and gave a speech before going on to the Great Western Hotel for lunch with the city’s dignitaries. These 3 Golinski, J. (1992) Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 176–87.
www.sciencedirect.com
Figure 2. The Discoverer of Oxygen: Statue of Joseph Priestley, Birmingham, 1874. Illustrated London News, Aug 8, 1874, p. 129.
Birmingham celebrations hit the national press, and a headline in the Illustrated London News proclaimed Priestley to be ‘The Discoverer of Oxygen’. Priestley always felt that Lavoisier had breached the codes of ethical conduct by appropriating his results, and he would have been furious to learn that he was being remembered for his rival’s success. The sculptor gave Priestley a small burning lens in his right hand, although the one he actually used was a foot across and had
86
Feature
Endeavour Vol.34 No.3
disappeared the night his laboratory was demolished. In his left hand, Priestley holds a test-tube to collect the substance given off by a powder subjected to the concentrated heat of the sun’s rays. One way of describing this
www.sciencedirect.com
experiment is to say that oxygen gas is released by mercuric oxide. In Priestley’s opinion, it made more sense to believe that God had enabled English chemists to produce life-giving dephlogisticated air from red calx of mercury.