Antoine Lavoisier, Scientist
18th Century French Chemist, Economist and Social Reformer
May 18, 2008
French chemist Antoine Lavoisier reformed old concepts of chemistry, made the first list of elements, and proved that metals burn by absorbing "vital principle" from air. He conceived the law of conservation of mass, and the role of oxygen, among others. He is regarded the father of modern chemistry.
Early Years of Lavoisier
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris on August 26, 1743, the son of a prominent lawyer Jean Antoine Lavoisier. He was only three when his mother died, so he was brought up by his wealthy aunt. He studied both science and law, but his real passion was in science.
After graduation from law, he went on a trip to France with a family friend, geologist Jean-Etienne Guettard, cataloguing minerals. From this experience, he presented a report on the nature of gypsum (used to make plaster of Paris) to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, the most elite scientific society in France. Aged 25, he was elected to the academy.
The Lawyer and Science Writer
During this time, he accepted the office of farmer-general of taxes, where he bought an interest into the Ferme Générale (General Farm), the private corporation that collected taxes for the Crown. Incidentally, the tax farmers were unpopular with the people.
In 1771, he married Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, the young daughter of another tax farmer. His wife was instrumental in bringing his experiments to publication, as she translated documents and illustrated his scientific texts with incredible competence and efficiency. She prepared herself to be her husband's scientific collaborator by learning English to translate the work of British chemists like Joseph Priestley, and studying art and engraving to illustrate her husband's scientific experiments.
The Chemist and Social Reformer
Lavoisier was appointed a commissioner of the Royal Gunpowder and Saltpeter Administration in 1775. He took up residence in the Paris Arsenal and set up his own laboratory, attracting young chemists about the "Chemical Revolution" in progress. He greatly improved the production of gunpowder, and ensured the purity of its chemical constituents.
More Laboratory Experiments
While working on air and water, Lavoisier was not aware of the experiments that the English chemist Joseph Priestley has already been working on in 1774. On Priestley's visit to Paris the following year, the two met and discussed findings. Immediately, Lavoisier did experiments with the new gas and with air by interpreting Priestley's facts - its importance in respiration, combustion and as a compound with metals. In effect, Lavoisier discovered the chemical element oxygen, although Priestley was a pioneer in the chemistry of gases, including his earlier work on oxygen.
Air, Water, and Oxygen
Associated with Lavoisier's understanding of combustion from the chemical reactions with the part of the air he called "oxygen" (from the Greek meaning "acid-former") was his theory that oxygen was the acidifying principle, and his proof that water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen. He determined some weights of reagents and products involved in chemical reactions, and believed that matter, identified by weight, would be conserved through any reaction.
The phlogiston theory, to which the alchemists subscribed, stated that anything burnable contained an active substance, phlogiston, that dissolved into the air when it burned. Lavoisier disproved this theory as he discovered the true nature of burning and the role of oxygen in the chemical reaction.
Final Years of Lavoisier
Lavoisier gave new names to some substances, most of which are still used today. In 1789, he published a textbook which is considered his masterpiece, Traite Elementaire de Chimie, followed by a journal, Annales de Chimie, which carried research reports about the new chemistry he was advocating.
Lavoisier, saw the need for reform in France and actively took part in laying out plans for the reforms. Sadly, despite his significant work and services to science and a lifetime of dedication to his country, he came under enormous attack as a former farmer-general of taxes. On May 5, 1794, he was guillotined in Paris.
On his death, a distinguished mathematician, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, remarked, "It took them only an instant to cut off that head, and a hundred years may not produce another like it."
Sources:
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers (2002)
The Great Scientist by John Farndon and Alex Woolf, Anne Rooney and Liz Gogerly, Capella (2005)
