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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Joseph Priestley
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(1733–1804) Experimental chemist and dissenting minister, as radical in his approach to science as to religion. His first studies were in electricity, but an interest in gases was prompted by observing fermentation in a brewery next door to his chapel in Leeds. In 1773 he was employed as librarian at *Bowood, where he was able to continue his researches. In 1774 he isolated oxygen and went on to discover several other gases including nitrogen (he cannot claim priority for either, because *Scheele had independently prepared oxygen and nitrogen about two years earlier in Sweden). Priestley also did pioneering work on photosynthesis.
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In 1780 he became minister of a nonconformist congregation in *Birmingham, where he was a prominent member of the Lunar Society. But his radical views (attacking conventional Christianity, supporting the American and French revolutions) made him an object of popular hostility. On 14 July 1791, the second anniversary of the fall of the *Bastille, a mob burnt his chapel, house and laboratory. He moved first to London and then in 1794 to the USA, where he remained for the rest of his life.
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