Nov 3, 2022
Daniel Rutherford was born on November 3, 1749. A Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. When Joseph Black was studying the properties of carbon dioxide, he found that a candle would not burn in it. Black turned this problem over to his student at the time, Rutherford, who burned candles and experimented with mice until he was able to isolate what he called “noxious air” or “phlogisticated air”. He and Black were convinced of the validity of the phlogiston theory, so they explained their results in terms of it.
