Black, Joseph

Joseph Black, (born April 16, 1728, Bordeaux, France—died Nov. 10, 1799, Edinburgh, Scot.), British chemist and physicist best known for the rediscovery of “fixed air” (carbon dioxide), the concept of latent heat, and the discovery of the bicarbonates (such as bicarbonate of soda). Black lived and worked within the context of the Scottish Enlightenment, a remarkable flourishing of intellectual life in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen during the latter half of the 18th century. He could count the philosopher David Hume, economist Adam Smith, and geologist James Hutton among his friends.