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Two scientists, Carl Scheele of Sweden and Joseph Priestly of England working independently, discovered oxygen. They published their discovery in 1777. Scheele obtained oxygen by heating potassium nitrate and mercuric oxide and called it "Fire Air". Priestley called it "Dephlogisticated Air".
There is an interesting history behind the name 'Dephlogisticated Air'. In the mid-eighteenth century scientists assumed that there was a material called 'Phlogiston' present in all the substances that burn. When the substances burn, this Phlogiston escaped and gathered around the burning substances. If the air was full of phlogiston, the substances did not burn. The air from which this phlogiston was removed supported burning vigorously. Hence that air was called "Dephlogisticated Air".
Antonie Lavoisier, a French chemist, gave oxygen its present name. 'Oxygene' in French means "Acid producer", for, during Lavoisier's time all known acids contained oxygen. The name was modified to Oxygen in English. In fact this name is not correct, for though most of the acids do contain oxygen, there are quite a few acids that do not contain it.
