Question

It seems that Antoine Lavoisier tried to take full credit for the discovery of oxygen when the credit really belonged to another scientist. People still considered him an ethical man. Why?

Answer 1

Lavoisier is most noted for his discovery of the role oxygen plays in combustion. He recognized and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783) and opposed the phlogiston theory. Lavoisier helped construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature.