Joseph Priestley, Pioneer in Chemistry

Soda pop has become a staple in everyday life. From Mountain Dew to Coca Cola, millions of cans of pop are consumed daily. Common belief is that these delicious beverages have only been around for the last 75 years, but, in reality, our forefathers such as George Washington and Ben Franklin could have enjoyed these drinks. Without the discoveries of Joseph Priestley, we may not have delicacies such as Coke and Pepsi, as well as many other important discoveries in Chemistry

Priestley was born March 13^th, 1733, in a small town near Leeds, called Fieldhead, in Yorkshire, England. Priestley was the oldest of five children. At the age of 7, his mother passed away. His father worked as a weaver and a tailor, but he had trouble supporting the large family, so at the age of nine, he and his siblings came under the care of his aunt (The Death of Joseph Priestley"). Priestley did attend schools in his youth, but because his dissenting religious views, he was not allowed into prestigious schools such as Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, he attended the Daventry Academy (Joseph Priestly: Icon of the Enlightenment". Despite his later success in the field of science, Priestley was never interested in the subject throughout his numerous years of schooling.

In 1766, he met the great American inventor and scientist, Benjamin Franklin. This encounter inspired Priestley to become more involved in the sciences and established a life-long friendship between himself and Franklin ("Joseph Priestley II"). Priestley was also associated with great inventors of the Enlightenment era such as James Watts.