Inventing air—and the American temperament

By the time he died in America in 1804, Priestly had managed to isolate and name 10 gases, become known as "the father of modern chemistry," and, perhaps most wonderfully, invented soda water. He had emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1794, after inspiring an English mob to burn down his laboratory due to his radical Unitarian views, which blended respect for Jesus' moral teachings and an insistence on his lack of divinity. (That may be Priestley's most amazing achievement: Stoking people to violence through Unitarianism!) He was a major influence on his friend Benjamin Franklin and other leading scientists of the day, and his political and pedagogical work left a huge impression on Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson.

Johnson paints Priestley not as a man of the past but precisely the sort of figure the world needs more than ever: A searcher who shared his discoveries openly and willingly, crossed disciplinary boundaries with impunity and insight, who conceived of the world as a large laboratory. As important, Priestley exemplifies "the temperament that we expect to find at the birth of America— bountiful optimism, an untroubled sense that the world must inevitably see the light of reason."

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