Joseph Priestley (13.03.1733-6.02.1804) — English chemist, physicist and materialist philosopher, Fellow of the Royal Society (1767). Born in Fieldhead. Graduated from a theological academy and became a minister. In 1794 he emigrated to the USA.
He discovered photosynthesis (1771) and oxygen (1774). He obtained nitric oxide and nitrous oxide, hydrogen chloride, ammonia, hydrogen fluoride and silicon, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and others. He was a supporter of the phlogiston theory. Besides pneumatic chemistry, his research also concerned electricity and optics. In 1766 he established that the force of electrical interaction is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges. He was the author of the book “The History of Electricity” (1767) and of “The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light and Colours” (1772).
Foreign member of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1780).