History
The gas was first created by chemist Joseph Priestly in 1772. He called it phlogisticated nitrous air, which came from the ancient Greek word phlogiston (burning up). He then went on to publish his findings in a book in 1775 where he described the production of "nitrous air diminished" by heating iron fillings dampened with nitric acid
Medical uses for the compound started in December of 1844 when Horace Wells made the first 12-15 operations using the gas at Harvard. However, it wasn't until 1863, when Gardner Quincy Colton introduced it at the Colton Dental Association clinics in New Haven and New York. It was used back then in a breathing bag made of rubber cloth, which is considered a somewhat unreliable use today.