Introduction

As the eighteenth century drew to a close,

Lavoisier�s new system of chemistry had
won the day. Mysterious phlogiston was no
longer needed to interpret chemical phenomenon,
yet phlogiston still had a few
staunch adherents such as Joseph Priestley.
Priestley persisted in his belief of phlogiston
until his death in 1804. By this time,
however, a whole new school of chemists
was busy wrestling with problems raised
by Lavoisier�s new chemistry. Foremost
among these problems was determining the
correct composition of substances and
assigning the correct relative masses to the
chemical elements. The relative mass refers
to the ratio of the mass of one element to
another, for example, how many times
heavier is oxygen than hydrogen. The composition
and mass problems were closely
related. Without knowing the exact composition
of a substance, it was impossible
to determine accurately the mass of individual
elements. Likewise, inaccurate relative
masses of the elements brought into
question the exact composition of a substance.