Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley ; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804 was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, & liberal political theorist who published over 150 works.

Priestley is credited with his self-employed grown-up discovery of oxygen by the thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide, having isolated it in 1774. During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water, his writings on electricity, & his discovery of several "airs" gases, the almost famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" oxygen. Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become a chemical revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.

Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse in England. The controversial kind of Priestley's publications, combined with his outspoken help of the French Revolution, aroused public and governmental contempt; eventually forcing him to hover in 1791, first to London and then to the United States, after a mob burned down his Birmingham domestic and church. He spent his last ten years in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

A scholar and teacher throughout his life, Priestley made significant contributions to English grammar and books on history; he prepared some of the most influential early timelines. The educational writings were among Priestley's most popular works. Arguably his metaphysical works, however, had the most lasting influence, as now considered primary controls for utilitarianism by philosophers such(a) as Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer.

Needham Market and Nantwich 1755–1761

Robert Schofield, Priestley's major advanced biographer, describes his number one "call" in 1755 to the Dissenting parish in Needham Market, Suffolk, as a "mistake" for both Priestley and the congregation. Priestley yearned for urban life and theological debate, whereas Needham Market was a small, rural town with a congregation wedded to tradition. Attendance and donations dropped sharply when they discovered the extent of his heterodoxy. Although Priestley's aunt had promised her assistance whether he became a minister, she refused any further assistance when she realised he was no longer a Calvinist. To earn extra money, Priestley produced opening a school, but local families informed him that they would refuse to send their children. He also presented a series of scientific lectures titled "Use of the Globes" that was more successful.

Priestley's Daventry friends helped him obtain another position and in 1758 he moved to Latin grammar, led 20th-century scholars to describe him as "one of the great grammarians of his time". After the publication of Rudiments and the success of Priestley's school, Warrington Academy offered him a teaching position in 1761.