History of Carbon Dioxide

Scottish chemist, Joseph Black, discovered carbon dioxide gas. Black notices that upon heating, calcium carbonate produced a gas (CaCO3) that was denser than air and could not sustain fire or animal life. He called this gas "fixed air", however it is now known this gas was carbon dioxide.

Joseph Black proved that carbon dioxide is present within the atmosphere and it combines with other chemicals to form compounds. Black also discovered that the gas he called "fixed air"was present in exhaled breath, and characterised its chemical behaviour as that of a weak acid. When bubbled through an aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide it would precipitate calcium carbonate.

Joseph Priestley, an English chemist, invented the first practical use for carbon dioxide. Priestley duplicated Black's experiments using a gas produced by fermenting grain, which had the same properties as Black's fixed air, or CO2. When he dissolved the gas in water, he found that it created a drink with a slightly tart flavour. This was the first artificially carbonated water produced.

The pioneering work of Black and Van Helmont led to the discovery of other gases by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Henry Cavendish, and other chemists.

John Dalton, an English chemist, guessed in 1803 that the carbon molecule contained two oxygen atoms bound to one carbon atom (CO2); this later proved to be true.