Phlogiston Theory

Before the modern chemical ideas of atoms and elements, phlogiston theory was a widely held belief.
According to phlogiston theory, matter consisted of three essential essences:

• sulfur (terra pinguis - the essence of inflammability, which was to become known as phlogiston)
• mercury (terra mercurialis - the essence of fluidity)
• salt (terra lapida - the essence of fixity and inertness)

 Phlogiston theory was an early attempt to to try to explain what happened when things were burnt or combusted. In phlogiston theory, substances were made up of a "calx" (or residue) combined with phlogiston (the essence of inflammability). When a substance was burnt (combusted), phlogiston was released, and the residue (calx) was left behind. Even the rusting of iron could be explained using phlogiston theory, because the "iron" would lose its phlogiston during the rusting process and leave behind the "calx" or residue. One of the problems with the phlogiston theory is that metals should lose mass when they burn, owing to the loss of phlogiston.

In the 18th century, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, the man who is considered to be the father of modern of modern chemistry, conducted a series of combustion experiments. In these experiments he carefully weighed the substances to be combusted as well as the products of combustion, and found that the weight of the products of combustion was greater than the weight of the substance before combustion. He also demonstrated that when a substance corrodes in a sealed container, the gain in weight of the substance is equal to the loss in weight of the air in the container.
This was the beginning of the downfall of the phlogiston theory, but it was the beginning of the modern chemistry when Lavoisier generalized that if the weights of all substances involved in a chemical reaction are considered then there is no overall loss or gain in weight.

Further Reading:
http://www.ausetute.com.au/elemhist.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/elements.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/atomichist.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/wriiform.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/namiform.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/namcform.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/balcheme.html

Suggested Study Questions

1. Lavoisier burnt sulfur. When sulfur burns in air, it reacts with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide. Write a word equation for this reaction.
2. Write the chemical formula for each of the following:
   • sulfur
   • oxygen gas
   • sulfur dioxide gas
3. Write a balanced chemical equation for the combustion of sulfur to produce sulfur dioxide gas.
4. If Lavoisier had weighed out 32 grams of sulfur and then burnt it in air, the sulfur dioxide he collected would have a mass of 64 grams. What mass of oxygen would have been reacted with the sulfur? 
5. Explain why a substance such as sulfur appears to gain mass when it is combusted.
6. When wood is burnt, the mass of the ashes left behind is actually less than the mass of wood you started with. How do you explain this loss of mass?
7. Magnesium is a metal that combusts readily in oxygen gas to form magnesium oxide.
   • Write a word equation for the combustion of magnesium to form magnesium oxide,
   • Write a balanced chemical equation for this reaction.
8. If 20.16 grams of magnesium oxide is produced as a result of the combustion of 12.16 grams of magnesium, how much oxygen gas was consumed during the reaction?
9. Imagine you are living in the 18th century and that you are a firm believer in the phlogiston theory. How would you explain to Lavoisier how metals gain mass when they burn?