Oxygen Essay -- essays research papers

atomic number 8     Oxygen, symbol O, colorless, odorless, tasteless, slightly magneticgaseous element. On earth, group O is more luxuriant than any other element.Oxygen was discovered in 1774 by the British chemist Joseph Priestley and,independently, by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele it was shown to bean elemental gas by the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier in his classicexperiments on combustion.     Large amounts of oxygen are used in high-temperature welding torches, inwhich a mixture of oxygen and another gas produces a flame of much highertemperature than is obtained by burning gases in air. Oxygen is administered topatients whose breathing is impaired and also to people in aircraft flying athigh altitudes, where the poor oxygen concentration cannot support normalrespiration. Oxygen-enriched air is used in open-hearth furnaces for steelmanufacture.     Most of the oxygen produced in the United Sta tes is used to make amixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen called synthesis gas, used for thesynthesis of methanol and ammonia. High-purity oxygen is used also in the metal-fabrication industries in liquid form it is of great importance as a propellantfor guided missiles and rockets2.     I have chosen the element "Oxygen" because without Oxygen, human beingswould not be able to live. Oxygen is probably the single most important element...