Scientists initially believed that earth, water, fire, and air were the basis for everything. In the early 18th century, Georg Ernst Stahl proposed the phlogiston theory, which was also totally wrong. Around 1770, Antoine Lavoisier conducted many experiments weighing the elements before and after reactions took place, like boiling water in a vase for a prolonged period. His findings jeopardized the 4 elements theory and meant that boiling water in a vase could alter its material. Carl Wilhelm Scheele analyzed the residuum retrieved after the same experiment and found it contained the elements used to make glass. Lavoisier conducted more precise experiments which showed that heat generated a reaction that transformed matter without altering the total weight. In 1789, Lavoisier published his findings in his Elementary Treatise on Chemistry which is summarized as "nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed".