Joseph Black

Hello! My name is Joseph Black. I was a scientist who loved asking questions. I was born a long, long time ago, on April 16th, 1728, in a sunny place called Bordeaux in France. Even though I was born in France, my family was Scottish, and Scotland was the place I would always call home. Ever since I was a little boy, I was very curious about the world around me. I wanted to know what things were made of and why they worked the way they did.

When I grew up, I went to university in Scotland to become a doctor, but I loved my science classes the most! Around the year 1754, I did some exciting experiments with a soft, white powder. When I heated it up, something amazing happened. An invisible gas came out of it! I couldn't see it, but I knew it was there. It was heavier than regular air, and it could even put out a candle's flame. I called it 'fixed air.' Today, you know this gas by a different name: carbon dioxide!

I also wondered about heat. I noticed that when ice melts into water, it soaks up a lot of heat without getting any warmer until all the ice is gone. And when water boils to become steam, it does the same thing! It was like the heat was hiding inside. I called this 'latent heat,' which means 'hidden heat.' My discovery helped my good friend, James Watt, make a much better and more powerful steam engine, which changed the world!

I spent many years as a teacher, sharing my love for science with my students at the University of Edinburgh. I lived to be 71 years old and had a very full life exploring the wonders of chemistry. People remember me for discovering a new gas and for figuring out the secrets of heat. My ideas helped other scientists make many more amazing discoveries long after I was gone.