Hydrogen
Hidrógeno (H, Z=1)
- Date
- 1766 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Henry Cavendish
- People
- 👤 Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier1743–1794👤 Henry Cavendish1731–1810
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Cavendish isolated 'inflammable air' by reacting metals with acids and showed that it produced water when burned; Lavoisier named it hydrogen in 1783.
Paracelsus and Boyle had already observed the gas; Cavendish was the first to characterise it as a distinct substance.
What it led to
- The demonstration that water is a compound, not an element
- Hydrogen balloons
- The basis of the Haber-Bosch process and industrial chemistry
Built on
- Fixed air (carbon dioxide) and quantitative pneumatic chemistry1756
- Analytical balance