when was nitrogen discovered

Nitrogen was first identified as a distinct component of air in 1772 by Scottish physician and chemist Daniel Rutherford.

Quick Scoop

• In 1772, Daniel Rutherford removed oxygen and carbon dioxide from air and found that the remaining gas would not support life or combustion; this gas was nitrogen.

• Around the same time, other scientists such as Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestley also studied this “burnt” or “dephlogisticated air,” but Rutherford received primary credit because he published first.

• The word “nitrogen” was introduced later, in 1790, by French chemist Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal, who named it for its presence in nitre (potassium nitrate).

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