Michał Sędziwój

Michael Sendivogius (; Polish: Michał Sędziwój; 2 February 1566 – 1636) was a Polish alchemist, philosopher, and physician. A pioneer of chemistry, he developed ways of purifying and creating various acids, metals, and other chemicals. He discovered that air is not a single substance and contains a life-giving substance – later called oxygen – 170 years before Scheele's discovery of the element. He correctly identified this "food of life" with the gas (also oxygen) given off by heating nitre (s…