Reverend Joseph Priestley

In August 1774 he isolated an "air" that appeared to be completely new (oxygen).

In his paper "Observations on Respiration and the Use of the Blood", Priestley was the first to suggest a connection between blood and air.

The Priestleys arrived in New York City in 1794.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Priestley

Dr Priestley was about the middle stature, or five feet eight inches high. He was slender and well proportioned; his complextion was fair, his eyes grey and sparkling with intelligence, and his whole countenance was expressive of the benignity of his heart. He often smiled, but seldom laughed. He was extremely active and agile in his motions. He walked fast and very erect, and his deportment was dignified. His common dress was a black coat without a cape, a fine linen or cambric stock, a cocked hat, a powdered wig (which, however, he laid aside in America), shoes and buckles. The whole of his dress was remarkably clean, and his purity of person and simply dignity of manners evinced that philosophy of propriety which prevailed throughout his conduct as a private individual. He was an ungraceful orator; his voice as low and faltering; and he had a custom of shruggling up his shoulders.

Joseph Priestley (13 March 1733 (Old Style) – 6 February 1804) was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works. He is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen, having isolated it in its gaseous state, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier also have a claim to the discovery.[2]

During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). However, Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become the Chemical Revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.

Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse Enlightenment rationalism with Christian theism.[3] In his metaphysical texts, Priestley attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called "audacious and original".[4] He believed that a proper understanding of the natural world would promote human progress and eventually bring about the Christian Millennium.[4] Priestley, who strongly believed in the free and open exchange of ideas, advocated toleration and equal rights for religious Dissenters, which also led him to help found Unitarianism in England. The controversial nature of Priestley's publications combined with his outspoken support of the French Revolution aroused public and governmental suspicion; he was eventually forced to flee, in 1791, first to London, and then to the United States, after a mob burned down his home and church. He spent the last ten years of his life living in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

A scholar and teacher throughout his life, Priestley also made significant contributions to pedagogy, including the publication of a seminal work on English grammar and the invention of modern historiography. These educational writings were some of Priestley's most popular works. It was his metaphysical works, however, that had the most lasting influence: leading philosophers including Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer credit them among the primary sources for utilitarianism.

Nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") was first synthesized by English chemist and natural philosopher Joseph Priestley. Priestley describes the preparation of "nitrous air diminished" by heating iron filings dampened with nitric acid in Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. 3 vols. London, (1775). Priestley was delighted with his discovery: "I have now discovered an air five or six times as good as common air... nothing I ever did has surprised me more, or is more satisfactory." But unlike Humphry Davy, Priestley didn't try inhaling gas to explore its psychoactive effects.

Priestley further isolated and described the properties of carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and "dephlogisticated air". He corresponded with Antoine Lavoisier, who debunked phlogiston theory and re-named "dephlogisticated air" as oxygen. Priestley identified the gases involved in plant respiration, and observed photosynthesis. He also discovered that graphite is a conductor of electricity; and invented a very drinkable beverage of carbonated water, i.e. soda pop.

In the 18th century, doctors had very little idea of what caused disease. Its symptoms could sometimes be palliated, but cures were rare. So doctors and other assorted medical men eagerly experimented with the new gases and the vapours of volatile liquids to discover if they conferred any therapeutic benefits, especially for respiratory disease. One of the most prominent investigators was Thomas Beddoes, founder of the Pneumatic Institution (1798).