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If I Were an Element.. “If I Were an Element...” I chose Oxygen as my element. The chemical symbol for my element (Oxygen) is O. Oxygen was discovered in 1774. It was discovered by Joseph Priestly. Joseph Priestly made many scientific discoveries without ever taking a single science course. He discovered Oxygen by heating up mercury in air. The mercury became coated with a rusty red color. He then took the rusty red mercuric oxide and heated it separately with the result that it was converted back to mercury. That’s how he discovered Oxygen. Here are some i