The Probert Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology

NITROGEN

Nitrogen (originally known as azote, a name given to the gas by Antoine Lavoisier) is a colourless, odourless, tasteless, gaseous element discovered about 1772 by Daniel Rutherford, though credit for the discovery of nitrogen in the atmosphere was claimed by Carl Scheele. The gas was renamed nitrogen in 1790 by J Chaptal. Nitrogen constitutes 78% of the atmosphere by volume, and occurs as a constituent of all living tissues in combined form. It is slightly soluble in water, but very soluble in liquid oxygen, and has the symbol N.
Research Nitrogen