In $1774$ , a British clergyman named Joseph Priestley conducted an experiment in which he focussed sunrays on a tube containing mercuric oxide. This produced a gas which he noticed made candles burn brighter, thus discovering a gas which is the very essence of life. What gas was it?

Carbon dioxide

No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today!

Nitrogen

No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today!

Oxygen

Right on! Give the BNAT exam to get a 100% scholarship for BYJUS courses

Helium

No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today!

Open in App

Solution

The correct option is B Oxygen
Joseph Priestley was hugely productive in research and widely notorious in philosophy. He invented carbonated water and the rubber eraser, identified a dozen key chemical compounds, and wrote an important early paper about electricity.
He found that air is not an elementary substance, but a composition, or mixture, of gases. The world recalls Priestley best as the man who discovered oxygen, the active ingredient in our planet's atmosphere.

Suggest Corrections

Similar questions

Joseph Priestley performed an experiment in which __________ was heated by focusing Sun’s rays on it using a convex lens.

Q. Which gas was filled in discharge tube by JJ Thomson when he discovered electrons?

Q. A student performed an experiment and a gas was produced. After the gas was collected and tested with a burning splint, a loud popping noise was heard. Which of the following gases was produced?

In an experiment, a lighter is brought in contact with a funnel contaning a gas. The lighter burns with a bright flame. Presence of which gas is confirmed in this experiment?

Q. In an experiment reproducing the measurements of Rutherford and his co-workers,

22 \times 10^{- 3}

mg of He gas was collected in one year from a sample of radium. This sample was observed to emit

1.06 \times 10^{11} α

- particles per second. Thus, Avogadro's number is?

Join BYJU'S Learning Program

In 1774, a British clergyman named Joseph Priestley conducted an experiment in which he focussed sunrays on a tube containing mercuric oxide. This produced a gas which he noticed made candles burn brighter, thus discovering a gas which is the very essence of life. What gas was it?

In $1774$ , a British clergyman named Joseph Priestley conducted an experiment in which he focussed sunrays on a tube containing mercuric oxide. This produced a gas which he noticed made candles burn brighter, thus discovering a gas which is the very essence of life. What gas was it?