The Priestley Riots

This picture appeared in one of my chemistry journals a few weeks ago. It shows the house of a revered icon in my field, one Joseph Priestley, being burnt to the ground by a mob. Unfortunately, the article offered no background information regarding the pic. . I naturally wondered how a chemist could p*ss off such a large number of people (isn't everyone in awe of us chemists?) , so I wiki'd it and found an enlightening article on something called the Priestley Riots, which you can read here. . I suppose I should be critical of those Birmingham brutes who torched Priestley's house. After all, it's been a long time since Presbyterians and Methodists were viewed as radical revolutionaries. OTOH, Priestley admired the French Revolution, and anyone who doesn't support Royalty - French, British, or whatever - will eventually get his just desserts. . All in all, the Wiki article is quite educational, and it's reassuring to realize Priestley was assaulted because of his Unitarian leanings, not because of his scientific insight into that well-known gas, phlogiston.