Everything about Antoine Lavoisier totally explained
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (
August 26,
1743 –
May 8,
1794; [ɑ̃ˈtwanlɔˈʁɑ̃ də la.vwaˈzje]), the
father of modern chemistry, was a
French nobleman prominent in the histories of
chemistry,
finance,
biology, and
economics. He stated the first version of the
law of conservation of mass, recognized and named
oxygen (1778) and
hydrogen (1783), disproved the
phlogiston theory, introduced the
metric system, wrote the first extensive
list of elements, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature. He was also an investor and administrator of the "
Ferme Générale" a private tax collection company; chairman of the board of the Discount Bank (later the
Banque de France); and a powerful member of a number of other aristocratic administrative councils. All of these political and economic activities enabled him to fund his scientific research. However, because of his prominence in the pre-revolutionary government in
France, he was
beheaded at the height of the
French Revolution.
Early life
Born to a wealthy family in
Paris, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier inherited a large fortune at the age of five with the passing of his mother. He attended the
College Mazarin from 1754 to 1761, studying
chemistry,
botany,
astronomy, and
mathematics. His education was filled with the ideals of the French
Enlightenment of the time, and he felt fascination for Maquois's dictionary. From 1761 to 1763, he studied some law at the
University of Paris where he received his Bachelor of Law in 1763. At the same time, he continued attending lectures in the natural sciences. Lavoisier's devotion and passion for chemistry was largely influenced by
Étienne Condillac, a prominent French scholar of the 18th century. His first chemical publication appeared in 1764. In collaboration with
Jean-Étienne Guettard, Lavoisier worked on a geological survey of
Alsace-Lorraine in 1767. At the age of 25, he was elected a member of the
French Academy of Sciences, France's most elite scientific society, for an essay on
street lighting and in recognition for his earlier research. In 1769, he worked on the first geological map of
France.
In 1771, Lavoisier married the 13-year-old
Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, the daughter of a co-owner of the
Ferme. Over time, she proved to be a scientific colleague to her husband. She translated documents from English for him, including
Richard Kirwan's
Essay on Phlogiston and
Joseph Priestley's research. She created many
sketches and carved engravings of the laboratory instruments used by Lavoisier and his colleagues. She also edited and published Lavoisier’s memoirs (whether any English translations of those memoirs have survived is unknown as of today) and hosted parties at which eminent scientists discussed ideas and problems related to chemistry.
Contributions to chemistry
Research on gases, water, and combustion
Some of Lavoisier's most important experiments were in
thermodynamics and the nature of
combustion, or burning. Through these experiments, he demonstrated that burning is a process that involves the combination of a substance with oxygen. (He gave this gas its name, which means "acid former," incorrectly believing that all acids had to contain it). Lavoisier also demonstrated the role of oxygen in the rusting of metal, as well as oxygen's role in animal and plant respiration. Working with
Pierre-Simon Laplace, Lavoisier conducted experiments that showed that respiration was essentially a slow combustion of organic material using inhaled oxygen. Lavoisier's explanation of combustion disproved the
phlogiston theory, which postulated that materials released a substance called phlogiston when they burned.
Lavoisier also discovered that
Henry Cavendish's 'inflammable air', which Lavoisier had termed
hydrogen (
Greek for "water-former"), combined with oxygen to produce a dew, as
Joseph Priestley had reported, which appeared to be water. Lavoisier's work was partly based on the research of Priestley. However, he tried to take credit for Priestley's discoveries. This tendency to use the results of others without acknowledgment, then draw conclusions of his own, is said to be characteristic of Lavoisier. In "Sur la combustion en général" ("On Combustion in general," 1777) and "Considérations Générales sur la Nature des Acides" ("General Considerations on the Nature of Acids," 1778), he demonstrated that the "air" responsible for combustion was also the source of acidity. In 1779, he named this part of the air "oxygen" (Greek for "becoming sharp" because he claimed that the sharp taste of acids came from oxygen), and the other "
azote" (Greek for "no life"). In "Réflexions sur la Phlogistique" ("Reflections on Phlogiston," 1783), Lavoisier showed the
phlogiston theory to be inconsistent.
Pioneer of stoichiometry
Lavoisier's researches included some of the first truly
quantitative chemical experiments. He carefully weighed the reactants and products in a chemical reaction, which was a crucial step in the advancement of chemistry. He showed that, although matter can change its state in a chemical reaction, the quantity of matter is the same at the end as at the beginning of every chemical change. These experiments supported the law of
conservation of mass, which Lavoisier was the first to state,
Contributions to biology
Lavoisier used a
calorimeter to measure heat production as a result of respiration in a
guinea pig. The outer shell of the calorimeter was packed with snow, which melted to maintain a constant temperature of around an inner shell filled with ice. The guinea pig in the center of the chamber produced heat which melted the ice. The water that flowed out of the calorimeter was collected and weighed. Lavoisier found that of melted ice corresponded to 80 kcal of heat production by the guinea pig. Lavoisier concluded, "la respiration est donc une combustion", that is, respiratory gas exchange is a combustion, like that of a candle burning.
Law and politics
Lavoisier received a
law degree and was admitted to the
bar, but never practiced as a
lawyer. He did become interested in French
politics, and at the age of 26 he obtained a position as a
tax collector in the
Ferme Générale, a
tax farming company, where he attempted to introduce reforms in the French
monetary and
taxation system to help the peasants. While in government work, he helped develop the
metric system to secure uniformity of
weights and measures throughout France.
Final days, execution, and aftermath
As one of twenty-eight French tax collectors and a powerful figure in the unpopular Ferme Générale, Lavoisier was branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by
French Revolutionists in 1794. Lavoisier had also intervened on behalf of a number of foreign-born scientists including mathematician
Joseph Louis Lagrange, granting them exception to a mandate stripping all foreigners of possessions and freedom. Lavoisier was tried, convicted, and guillotined on
May 8 in Paris, at the age of 50.
Lavoisier was actually one of the few liberals in his position. One of his actions that may have sealed his fate was a clash a few years earlier with the young
Jean-Paul Marat whom he dismissed curtly after being presented with a preposterous 'scientific invention'. Marat subsequently became a leading revolutionary and one of the French Revolution's more extreme "professional common men."
An appeal to spare his life so that he could continue his experiments was cut short by the judge:
"The Republic needs neither scientists nor chemists; the course of justice can not be delayed."
Lavoisier's importance to science was expressed by Lagrange who lamented the beheading by saying:
"Cela leur a pris seulement un instant pour lui couper la tête, mais la France pourrait ne pas en produire un autre pareil en un siècle." ("It took them only an instant to cut off his head, but France may not produce another like him in a century.")
One and a half years following his death, Lavoisier was exonerated by the French government. When his private belongings were delivered to his widow, a brief note was included reading "To the widow of Lavoisier, who was falsely convicted."
About a century after his death, a statue of Lavoisier was erected in Paris. It was later discovered that the sculptor hadn't actually copied Lavoisier's head for the statue, but used a spare head of the
Marquis de Condorcet, the Secretary of the Academy of Sciences during Lavoisier's last years. Lack of money prevented alterations being made. The statue was melted down during the
Second World War and hasn't since been replaced. However, one of the main "
lycées" (highschools) in Paris and a street in the
8th arrondissement are named after Lavoisier, and statues of him are found on the Hôtel de Ville (
photograph, right) and on the façade of the
Cour Napoléon of the
Louvre.
Selected writings
- - Reprinted 1965, Bruxelles: Cultures et Civilisations
» - Reprint of Robert Kerr's English translation of 1790
Further Information
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