Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Swedish German chemist who discovered oxygen
- Fame63.2
- Momentum15.3
- Sweden rank#160
Source-basedRising
- Fame63.2
- Momentum15.3
- Sweden rank#160
- Scientists rank#210
- Wikipedia7.4K
Lived 1742–1786, aged 44Sweden
SwedenSummary
Updated 2026-06-21
He discovered oxygen but another chemist published first. He also isolated molybdenum, tungsten, barium, nitrogen, chlorine, and a catalog of acids that became the working vocabulary of early chemistry — then died of mercury poisoning at forty-three.
Biography
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Carl Wilhelm Scheele was born 9 December 1742, a German speaker who spent his career as a pharmaceutical chemist in Sweden. He identified oxygen independently, though Joseph Priestley's publication came first. The same hands isolated molybdenum, tungsten, barium, nitrogen, and chlorine, then moved to organic acids: tartaric, oxalic, uric, lactic, citric. He found hydrofluoric, hydrocyanic, and arsenic acids as well. He spoke German among his fellow Swedish pharmacists and never switched. On 21 May 1786, doctors attributed his death to mercury poisoning — the cost of a life spent working direct…
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Fame
Rising63.2
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
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Momentum15.3
Historical24.3
Now attention12.8
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
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- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
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