Science and Education | Page 3

his earliest days, Priestley had shown a strong bent towards the
study of nature; and his brother Timothy tells us that the boy put
spiders into bottles, to see how long they would live in the same air--a
curious anticipation of the investigations of his later years. At
Nantwich, where he set up a school, Priestley informs us that he bought
an air pump, an electrical machine, and other instruments, in the use of
which he instructed his scholars. But he does not seem to have devoted
himself seriously to physical science until 1766, when he had the great
good fortune to meet Benjamin Franklin, whose friendship he ever
afterwards enjoyed. Encouraged by Franklin, he wrote a "History of
Electricity," which was published in 1767, and appears to have met
with considerable success.
In the same year, Priestley left Warrington to become the minister of a
congregation at Leeds; and, here, happening to live next door to a
public brewery, as he says,
"I, at first, amused myself with making experiments on the fixed air
which I found ready-made in the process of fermentation. When I
removed from that house I was under the necessity of making fixed air
for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distinctly
and faithfully noted in my various publications on the subject, I by
degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the
cheapest kind.

"When I began these experiments I knew very little of chemistry, and
had, in a manner, no idea on the subject before I attended a course of
chemical lectures, delivered in the Academy at Warrington, by Dr.
Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought that, upon the whole, this
circumstance was no disadvantage to me; as, in this situation, I was led
to devise an apparatus and processes of my own, adapted to my
peculiar views; whereas, if I had been previously accustomed to the
usual chemical processes, I should not have so easily thought of any
other, and without new modes of operation, I should hardly have
discovered anything materially new." [3]
The first outcome of Priestley's chemical work, published in 1772, was
of a very practical character. He discovered the way of impregnating
water with an excess of "fixed air," or carbonic acid, and thereby
producing what we now know as "soda water"--a service to naturally,
and still more to artificially, thirsty souls, which those whose parched
throats and hot heads are cooled by morning draughts of that beverage,
cannot too gratefully acknowledge. In the same year, Priestley
communicated the extensive series of observations which his industry
and ingenuity had accumulated, in the course of four years, to the
Royal Society, under the title of "Observations on Different Kinds of
Air"--a memoir which was justly regarded of so much merit and
importance, that the Society at once conferred upon the author the
highest distinction in their power, by awarding him the Copley Medal.
In 1771 a proposal was made to Priestley to accompany Captain Cook
in his second voyage to the South Seas. He accepted it, and his
congregation agreed to pay an assistant to supply his place during his
absence. But the appointment lay in the hands of the Board of
Longitude, of which certain clergymen were members; and whether
these worthy ecclesiastics feared that Priestley's presence among the
ship's company might expose His Majesty's sloop Resolution to the fate
which aforetime befell a certain ship that went from Joppa to Tarshish;
or whether they were alarmed lest a Socinian should undermine that
piety which, in the days of Commodore Trunnion, so strikingly
characterised sailors, does not appear; but, at any rate, they objected to
Priestley "on account of his religious principles," and appointed the two
Forsters, whose "religious principles," if they had been known to these
well-meaning but not far-sighted persons, would probably have

surprised them.
In 1772 another proposal was made to Priestley. Lord Shelburne,
desiring a "literary companion," had been brought into communication
with Priestley by the good offices of a friend of both, Dr. Price; and
offered him the nominal post of librarian, with a good house and
appointments, and an annuity in case of the termination of the
engagement. Priestley accepted the offer, and remained with Lord
Shelburne for seven years, sometimes residing at Calne, sometimes
travelling abroad with the Earl.
Why the connection terminated has never been exactly known; but it is
certain that Lord Shelburne behaved with the utmost consideration and
kindness towards Priestley; that he fulfilled his engagements to the
letter; and that, at a later period, he expressed a desire that Priestley
should return to his old footing in his house. Probably enough, the
politician, aspiring to the highest offices in the State, may have found
the position of the protector of a