Reading Guide
For confusing terminology, see Glossary or extended glossary of outdated chemical terms.
for Encyclopedia Britannica, "Chemistry"
This is partly for fun -- what chemistry in "textbook" form would look like in 1770s. For example, consider the classification of matter -- the closest equivalent to our periodic table. Read the entry "of the Phlogiston". Examine the table of affinities, its explanation and the "general View of the Affinities."
for Lavoisier, "Memoir on Combustion in General" (1775, published 1777)
How does Lavoisier solve the puzzles he faced about combustion, air, and the relation of heat and gases? Given his earlier ideas, what seems critical to his conclusion now?
How would someone who understood combustion as the release of phlogiston likely interpret these claims?
for Lavoisier, "Report of a memoir... on the nature of water..." (1783)
What is Lavoisier's central claim and what evidence does he provide for it?
Why would the claims in this paper, which seem ordinary, perhaps evenmundane to us, have been revolutionary in 1783, esp. for someone like Joseph Priestley?
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