Richard Kirwan's phlogiston theory: its success and fate.
First proposed in the early 1780s, Richard Kirwan's phlogiston theory was the most successful enunciation of the English pneumatic approach to phlogiston. Phlogiston was identified with a material substance, inflammable air. In this paper, I explore the nature of Kirwan's theory, its success in the mid-1780's, the unprecedented collective attack on Kirwan's Essay on Phlogiston by Lavoisier and his colleagues, and Kirwan's ultimate abandonment of phlogistic explanation.
Mauskopf
Seymour
S
Duke University.
D002621:Chemistry / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D007494:Ireland; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*; D006113:United Kingdom