Priestley (Joseph) Autograph Letter signed to Dr [Benjamin Smith] Barton in Philadelphia, 1796, on …

Priestley (Joseph, theologian and natural philosopher, isolated and identified seven gases including oxygen, 1733-1804) Autograph Letter signed to Dr [Benjamin Smith] Barton in Philadelphia, 3pp. with address panel, 4to, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, 16th June 1796, on the subject of the doctrine of phlogiston, botanical experiments, Barton's New Views of the Origins of the Tribes and Nations of America and glassware for chemical experiments, "I wrote to you some time ago... to request... you would be so good as to correct the press for a pamphlet I wished to publish on the subject of the doctrine of phlogiston. By this post I have sent the MS to Mr Dobson, with directions concerning it. I wish you would inform him that my name must be put in the title page as in my other publications, the running title should be The doctrine / of Phlogiston. In the MS I have used the following constructions d/d for dephlogisticated - p/d for phlogisticated - p/n for phlogiston. As you are a botanist, I wish you would get me... some seeds of the Epilobium hirsutum, as I wish to make some experiments upon it, and I cannot find it here. If I remember right, it flowers late in England. Is your ingenious paper on the Indian Antiquities printed and I ordered by Mr Russell some glass balls and tubes, to be made at Mr Nicholson's Manufactory, and to be joined by Mr Gatti the glass blower...", remains of red wax seal, Britannia watermark, split at central fold and professionally repaired, small hole where opened, folds, slightly browned. ⁂ An important letter written from the town in Pennsylvania where Priestley and his wife Sarah lived after leaving England in 1794. The recipient, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) was one of the central figures in Philadelphia's scientific establishment and the author of several influential works including New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, 1798, to which Priestley alludes to in this letter. Priestley, a theologian and dissenting minister is generally credited with the discovery of oxygen, which he called 'dephlogisticated air'. There were, however, other claims to this discovery, notably that of Antoine Lavoisier. Priestley also discovered a number of other gases, but it was his determination to continue with the phlogiston theory or 'doctrine', namely that an element phlogiston was released during combustion, that left him somewhat isolated from the general scientific community. His political beliefs rather than his scientific standing had led to his self-imposed exile to America towards the end of his life.