Though Antoine Lavoisier should be remembered for more than his achievements and death, it is his legacy and his sacrifice that has sealed his place in the annals history. One of the missions of IFSA is to portray the humanity of the hard sciences.
And nothing is more descriptive of humanity than the drama that is history — the excitement of discovery and the tragedy of loss, the passion of love and the flames of hate, and everything in between. We begin this particular drama on the 26th of August , the day Antoine-Laurent of the noble house of Lavoisier probably the first of his name was born.
His father was a successful Parisian lawyer, and thus has the means to give his son the best education money can buy. He began his formal schooling at 11 home-schooling was a trend for the wealthy at the time at the prestigious College des Quatre Nations of the University of Paris. It was here that his passion in the sciences was founded, especially considering he was under the tutelage of astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille.
Though he was forced into the life of a solicitor, Lavoisier pursued his secret interest — corresponding with scholars and philosophers of the time, went on expeditions, wrote papers for the Academie des Sciences , until so much so that his contributions are recognised by the Academie to warrant a membership; at the tender age of Our hero, in a mortal folly worthy of a Greek tragedy, chose a fateful method to fund his research.
Not surprisingly, the Ferme earned the anger of the French people; and by delving into such a business Lavoisier too will have his share of that anger.
In he married Marie-Anne Paulze, the daughter of one of his obscenely wealthy Ferme partners. But more than that Madame Paulze also became his greatest asset in his scientific endeavors. She translated the works of foreign researchers, assisted him in setting up his lab and experiments as well as documenting his notes, thoughts and discoveries.
Our hero and his wife. His First Revolution Together, man and wife, researcher and assistant, broke new grounds in their field, and in no small manner.
Antoine Lavoisier is the answer to Guess the Chemist Please note that to comment on an article you must be registered and logged in. Registration is for free, you may already be registered to receive, e. When you register on this website, please ensure you view our terms and conditions. All comments are subject to moderation. If you would like to reuse any content , in print or online, from ChemistryViews. Found guilty of fraud, the French chemist was executed on 8 May Popular articles.
When the Men Came Marching Home. Developed by the German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl early in the 18th century, phlogiston was a dominant chemical concept of the time because it seemed to explain so much in a simple fashion.
Stahl believed that every combustible substance contained a universal component of fire, which he named phlogiston, from the Greek word for inflammable. Because a combustible substance such as charcoal lost weight when it burned, Stahl reasoned that this change was due to the loss of its phlogiston component to the air. It followed that the less residue a substance left after burning, the greater its phlogiston content. Turning from organic substances to metals, Stahl knew that a metal calx known today as an oxide heated with charcoal formed the original metal.
He proposed that the phlogiston of the charcoal had united with the calx. Therefore, metals, which were thought to contain phlogiston, were also classified as combustibles.
The difficulty with this scheme was the reverse reaction. When metals were strongly heated in air, the resulting calx weighed more than the original metal, not less, as would be expected if the lead had lost the phlogiston component. This inconsistency caused some phlogistonists to suggest that phlogiston might even have a negative weight.
By , having abandoned law to pursue a career in science, Lavoisier turned his curiosity to the study of combustion. The importance of the end in view prompted me to undertake all this work, which seemed to me destined to bring about a revolution in…chemistry. An immense series of experiments remains to be made. In experiments with phosphorus and sulfur, both of which burned readily, Lavoisier showed that they gained weight by combining with air.
With lead calx, he was able to capture a large amount of air that was liberated when the calx was heated. To a suspicious Lavoisier, these results were not explained by phlogiston.
Although Lavoisier now realized that combustion actually involved air, the exact composition of air at that time was not clearly understood. He described how he had recently heated mercury calx a red powder and collected a gas in which a candle burned vigorously. Priestley believed his "pure air" enhanced respiration and caused candles to burn longer because it was free of phlogiston. In Paris, the intrigued Lavoisier repeated Priestley's experiment with mercury and other metal calces.
He eventually concluded that common air was not a simple substance. Instead, he argued, there were two components: one that combined with the metal and supported respiration and the other an asphyxiant that did not support either combustion or respiration. By , Lavoisier was ready to propose a new theory of combustion that excluded phlogiston.
Combustion, he said, was the reaction of a metal or an organic substance with that part of common air he termed "eminently respirable. Lavoisier began his full-scale attack on phlogiston in , claiming that "Stahl's phlogiston is imaginary.
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