Question

The air contaminated by the burning of a candle could not support life in a mouse but support the life in plants. This experiment was demonstrated by

• A. Priestely
• B. Lavoisier
• C. Von Mayer
• D. None of the above

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Priestely

Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen in 1774. He observed that a candle burning in a closed jar gets extinguished soon and similarly and the mouse is kept in it suffocates and dies. Thus according to him candle and animal that breathe the air contaminate it.

Then he placed a plant in the same jar and he found that the mouse stays alive and the candle continued to burn. Priestley reached the conclusion that plants restore to the air whatever the breathing animal and burning candle remove.

And now we know that the plant restores the air with oxygen and animal and candle due to respiration releases carbon dioxide and plant converts that carbon dioxide to oxygen by the process of photosynthesis.

So, the correct option is 'Priestley'