Timeline of hydrogen technologies
This is a timeline of the history of hydrogen technology. c. 1520 – First recorded observation of hydrogen by Paracelsus through dissolution of metals (iron, zinc, and tin) in sulfuric acid. 1625 – First description of hydrogen by Johann Baptista van Helmont. First to use the word "gas". 1650 – Turquet de Mayerne obtained a gas or "inflammable air" by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on iron. 1662 – Boyle's law (gas law relating pressure and volume) 1670 – Robert Boyle produced hydrogen by reacting metals with acid. 1672 – "New Experiments touching the Relation between Flame and Air" by Robert Boyle. 1679 – Denis Papin – safety valve 1700 – Nicolas Lemery showed that the gas produced in the sulfuric acid/iron reaction was explosive in air 1755 – Joseph Black confirmed that different gases exist. / Latent heat 1766 – Henry Cavendish published in "On Factitious Airs" a description of "dephlogisticated air" by reacting zinc metal with hydrochloric acid and isolated a gas 7 to 11 times lighter than air. 1774 – Joseph Priestley isolated and categorized oxygen. 1780 – Felice Fontana discovers the water-gas shift reaction 1783 – Antoine Lavoisier gave hydrogen its name (Gk: hydro = water, genes = born of) 1783 – Jacques Charles made the first flight with his hydrogen-filled gas balloon or Charlière. 1783 – Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre Laplace measured the heat of combustion of hydrogen using an ice calorimeter. 1784 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard, attempted a dirigible hydrogen balloon, but it would not steer. 1784 – The invention of the Lavoisier Meusnier iron-steam process, generating hydrogen by passing water vapor over a bed of red-hot iron at 600 °C. 1785 – Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier built the hybrid Rozière balloon. 1787 – Charles's law (gas law, relating volume and temperature) 1789 – Jan Rudolph Deiman and Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk using an electrostatic machine and a Leyden jar for the first electrolysis of water. 1800 – William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle decomposed water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis with a voltaic pile.
