Antoine Lavoisier · Science
How Lavoisier overturned the reigning theory of combustion. Burning was thought to release a fire-stuff, <em>phlogiston</em>; but metals grow <em>heavier</em> when they burn, and Lavoisier’s balance showed that burning is not a loss but a gain - a combination with a part of the air he named oxygen.
You learned that the phlogiston theory explained burning as the escape of a fire-substance, but could not account for the weight metals gain when calcined. Lavoisier weighed everything and showed combustion is combination with oxygen, a part of the air. Explain why the weight gain was fatal to phlogiston, in your own…
Leads to Joseph Priestley.
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