Oh yeah, all sorts of physical scientists and ancient philosophers kinda knew that fire needed a special ingredient, but had no clue what it was. So some ancient guy said that combustible stuff had an unobservable, flammable substance in it called phlogiston, and people went with it until chemistry got good enough to discover oxygen.
Before people discovered oxygen, they thought stuff that caught fire had the unobservable substance called phlogiston
/unbit wait didn’t people actually believe that was true back in like 17whenever?
Oh yeah, all sorts of physical scientists and ancient philosophers kinda knew that fire needed a special ingredient, but had no clue what it was. So some ancient guy said that combustible stuff had an unobservable, flammable substance in it called phlogiston, and people went with it until chemistry got good enough to discover oxygen.