(Incomplete) Discovery Of Hydrogen

Accidentally Discovering A New Gas:

Carl Wilhelm Scheele produced an inflammable gas by immersing iron filings in dilute acid. At the time Scheele believed in the phlogiston theory, so he thought iron was a compound of calx and phlogiston. After producing the inflammable gas, he thought he had captured the myterious phlogiston, and called it "phlogiston elasticum", but in fact it was actually hydrogen.[1]


Sources:

  1. Two Thousand Years Of Science: The Wonders Of Nature And Their Discoverers (by R. J. Harvey-Gibson)