Phlogiston theory
Teoría del flogisto
- Date
- 1703 · confidence medium
- Place
- Halle, Prussia
- Credited to
- Georg Ernst Stahl (building on Johann Joachim Becher)
- People
- 👤 Georg Ernst Stahl1659–1734👤 Johann Joachim Becher1635–1682
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Postulates that combustible bodies contain a fiery principle, phlogiston, released on burning or calcination. Although wrong, it unified combustion, calcination and respiration and guided experimental chemistry for almost a century.
Refuted by Lavoisier in 1777-1783.
What it led to
- Pneumatic chemistry
- Controversy leading to oxygen theory
- Concept of chemical reaction
Built on
- Becher's terra pinguis
Made possible
- analysis of metal calcination