IT seems strange now to think that oxygen required discovery, so perhaps 'identifying' or 'isolating' would sit better. Whichever, I suspect that those who have experienced intense pain relieved by gas and air or the panic of gasping for breath calmed by an oxygen mask are immensely grateful to Dr Joseph Priestley (1733-1804).
For seven years, Priestley was employed by William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (17371805), as his librarian, which gave a way for the Earl to support Priestley's scientific work. Lord Shelburne, who became the Marquess of Lansdowne after serving as Prime Minister and securing peace with America, surrounded himself with a group of intellectuals passionate about political and economic reform, science, philosophy and non-conformist religion. They were called the Bowood Circlefor Bowood House, the Earl's Wiltshire seat -and included Benjamin Franklin, scientist, politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the US; André Morellet, a French economist and writer; the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who is regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism, based on his principle that 'it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong'; Étienne Clavière, financier and politician of the French Revolution; and Dr Richard Price, a non-conformist minister and mathematician, who encouraged Lord Shelburne to patronise Priestley.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 15, 2024-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 15, 2024-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
