Johnson Steven. The Invention of Air: An experiment, a journey, a new country and the amazing force of scientific discovery

Penguin Books Ltd, 2010. — 287 p. —— ISBN 978-0141044354, 0141044357.Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), remembered in Britain for radical politics and theology as well as his discovery of oxygen, spent his last decade in the United States, where his camaraderie with Franklin and Jefferson helped build the new country and establish transatlantic cooperation. In this «biography of one man's ideas» Johnson reflects on a thinker who epitomized the creative power that comes from crossing intellectual boundaries.
In 1794, Joseph Priestley - amateur scientist, ordained minister and radical thinker - set sail for America to escape persecution. Stephen Johnson tells his incredible story: the discovery of oxygen, the invention of a science, the founding of a church, and, with the great minds of his time, the development of the United States itself. But Priestley's revolutionary ideas put him in terrible danger.
Johnson uses the progress of Priestley and his colleagues not merely to describe the wonder of discovery, but to show us how we have come to understand the world, how far we have travelled with the power of human enquiry - and how one man's curiosity can help build an entire country.Author’s Note.
Prologue. The Vortex.
The Electricians.
Rose and Nightshade.
Intermezzo: An Island of Coal.
The Wild Gas.
A Comet in the System.
Acknowledgments.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.