Editing Carl Wilhelm Scheele (section)

==Biography==
Scheele was born in [[Stralsund]],<ref name="Castle 1886"/> in western Pomerania, which at the time was a [[Dominions of Sweden|Swedish Dominion]] inside the Holy Roman Empire. Scheele's father, Joachim (or Johann<ref name="Castle 1886"/>) Christian Scheele, was a grain dealer and brewer<ref name="Castle 1886"/> from a respected Pomeranian family.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} His mother was Margaretha Eleanore Warnekros.<ref name="Castle 1886"/>

Friends of Scheele's parents taught him the art of reading prescriptions and the meaning of chemical and pharmaceutical signs.<ref name="Castle 1886">{{Cite journal|title=Carl Wilhelm Scheele|journal=American Druggist|url=https://archive.org/details/americandruggis15unkngoog/page/n167/mode/1up|volume=15|pages=157–158|issue=August|year=1886|editor-last=Castle|editor-first=Fred'k A.|location=New York|language=en|editor2-last=Rice|editor2-first=Chas|access-date=8 March 2021}}</ref> Then, in 1757, at the age of fourteen, Carl was sent to [[Gothenburg]] as an apprentice [[pharmacist]]<ref name="Fors, Hjalmar 2008" /> to another family friend and apothecary, Martin Andreas Bauch. Scheele retained this position for eight years. During this time he ran experiments late into the night and read the works of [[Nicolas Lemery]], [[Caspar Neumann (chemist)|Caspar Neumann]], [[Johann von Löwenstern-Kunckel]] and [[Georg Ernst Stahl]] (the champion of the [[phlogiston theory]]). Much of Scheele's later theoretical speculations were based upon Stahl.<ref name="Castle 1886"/>

In 1765 Scheele worked under the progressive and well-informed apothecary C. M. Kjellström in [[Malmö]], and became acquainted with [[Anders Jahan Retzius]] who was a lecturer at the [[University of Lund]] and later a professor of chemistry at Stockholm. Scheele arrived in [[Stockholm]] between 1767 and 1769 and worked as a pharmacist.<ref name="Castle 1886"/> During this period he discovered [[tartaric acid]] and with his friend, Retzius, studied the relation of [[Calcium oxide|quicklime]] to [[calcium carbonate]].<ref name="Castle 1886"/> While in the capital, he also became acquainted with figures including [[Abraham Bäck]], [[Peter Jonas Bergius]], [[Bengt Bergius]] and [[Carl Friedreich von Schultzenheim]].<ref name="Castle 1886"/>

In the fall of 1770 Scheele became director of the laboratory of the great pharmacy of Locke, at [[Uppsala]], about 65 km (40 mi) north of Stockholm. The laboratory supplied chemicals to Professor of Chemistry [[Torbern Bergman]]. A friendship developed between Scheele and Bergman after Scheele analyzed a reaction which Bergman and his assistant, [[Johan Gottlieb Gahn]], could not resolve. The reaction was between melted [[saltpetre]] and [[acetic acid]] that produced a red vapor.<ref name="Castle 1886"/><ref>Scheele found that when potassium nitrite (KNO<sub>2</sub>) was reacted with acetic acid, nitrogen dioxide was produced.  See:  {{cite book |last1=Lennartson |first1=Anders |title=Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman: The Science, Lives and Friendship of Two Pioneers in Chemistry |date=2020 |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland AG |location=Cham, Switzerland |pages=101–104 |isbn=9783030491949 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cmr6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101}}</ref> Further study of this reaction later led to Scheele's discovery of oxygen (see "The theory of phlogiston" below). Based upon this friendship and respect, Scheele was given free use of Bergman's laboratory. Both men were profiting from their working relationship. In 1774 Scheele was nominated by Peter Jonas Bergius to be a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] and was elected 4 February 1775.<ref name="Castle 1886"/> In 1775 Scheele also managed for a short time a pharmacy in [[Köping, Sweden|Köping]]. Between the end of 1776 and the beginning of 1777 Scheele established his own business there.<ref name="Castle 1886"/>

On 29 October 1777, Scheele took his seat for the first and only time at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences and on 11 November passed the examination as apothecary before the Royal Medical College, doing so with the highest honours. After his return to Köping he devoted himself, outside of his business, to scientific researches which resulted in a long series of important papers.<ref name="Castle 1886"/>

[[Isaac Asimov]] called him "hard-luck Scheele" because he made a number of chemical discoveries that were later credited to others.{{cn|date=April 2021}}