Around 1772, a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist discovered oxygen and identified it as 'fire air' but failed to report it in time. The chemist was Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who worked as an apothecary and pharmacist in Sweden. He conducted chemical experiments with basic equipment available in pharmacies. Scheele prepared oxygen independently of Joseph Priestley and studied its ability to support combustion. He called the gas “fire air” because he believed in the phlogiston theory that was used by many chemists at the time. His work later became part of the history of modern chemistry.
