Did you know that Daniel Rutherford was born today in 1749? He was a Scottish botanist, doctor, and chemist. Rutherford is best known for discovering nitrogen. Air is made of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other substances. In a sample of air Rutherford removed all the oxygen and carbon dioxide. In the gas he was left with he found that a mouse could not live in it and that a flame would not burn. He called the substance ‘noxious air’.
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Rutherford removed all the oxygen in his sample by burning a candle or phosphorus. He then removed the carbon dioxide using a chemical solution.
His mentor was Joseph Black, who assigned Daniel Rutherford to study the properties of what would be known as carbon dioxide.
During his studies, he also described another gas, which would be known as ‘oxygen’.
Daniel Rutherford was the uncle of Sir Walter Scott, the novelist and poet who wrote Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Bride of Lammermoor, and other works.