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There must be something in the water
Jan Baptista van Helmont, a Belgian chemist performed a 5-year experiment involving a willow tree plant into soil - controlled environment. Results showed that nutrients came from water and not the soil -
Plants, Oxygen and Light
Jan Ingenhousz was a Dutch chemist who proved that plants produced oxygen. By submerging plants in water and then placing them in sunlight and shade, he noticed that small bubbles were produced as a way to produce oxygen in the sun. -
There must be somethng in the air
Joseph Priestley performed an experiment where he placed a lit candle in a closed jar. Results showed that the air inside had been "injured". Results were published in 'Experiments and Observations of Different Kinds of Air, Volume 1. Proved that air contains oxygen. -
Plants Need Cardon Dioxide
Jean Senebeir, a Swiss botanist demonstrated that plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen with the help of sunlight. -
Carbon Dioxide
Nicolas-Theodore de Saussure proved that although plants need carbon dioxide, the increased mass of growing plants is not the result of carbon dioxide but it is also the increase in water consumption. -
Plants Transform Energy
Julius Robert Mayer, stated that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. First law of thermodynamics - plants convert light energy into chemical energy. -
Period: to
General Equation
Julius Von Sachs investigated how starch is produced under the influence of light and in relation to chlorophyll. -
Equation for Photosynthesis
Cornelis Van Neil proposed that:
carbon dioxide + water + light energy = glucose + oxygen