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had produced oxygen gas by heating mercuric oxide and various nitrates by about
1772. Scheele called the gas "fire air" because it was the only known supporter of
Treatise on Air and Fire, which he sent to his publisher in 1775. However, that
glass tube, which liberated a gas he named "dephlogisticated air". He noted that
candles burned brighter in the gas and that a mouse was more active and lived
longer while breathing it. After breathing the gas himself, he wrote: "The feeling
of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air, but I fancied
that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards." Priestley
Discoveries in Air" which was included in the second volume of his book titled
brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen
therapy and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving.
member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive
nonmetallic element and oxidizing agent that readily forms compounds (notably
element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium. At STP, two atoms of the
element bind to form dioxygen, a diatomic gas that is colorless, odorless, and
2.
nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and fats, contain oxygen, as do the major inorganic
compounds that are constituents of animal shells, teeth, and bone. Diatomic
oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% of the volume of air.[7] Oxygen is the most abundant
element by mass in the Earth's crust as part of oxide compounds such as silicon
cycling to concentrate oxygen from air, electrolysis of water and other means.