Antoine Lavoisier (born Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier the August 26th 1743 with Paris - May 8th 1794 in Paris) is a Chimiste, Philosophe and economist French. He stated the first version of the Loi of conservation of the matter, identified and baptized the Oxygène (1778), dislocated the Théorie phlogistic, and taken part in the reform of the chemical nomenclature. He is often refers to Lavoisier as a father of the modern Chimie.

Biography

He attends the Collège of the Four-Nations of 1754 to 1761. He studies there the Chimie, the Botanique, the Astronomie and the Mathématiques. Its first publication in the field of chemistry appears in 1764. In 1767, he works on a geological investigation of the Alsace and Lorraine. He is elected member of the Academy of Science in 1768. In 1771, he marries Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze then 13 years old, which will translate then English works and will illustrate its books. As from 1775, it is used for the royal administration of the powders, where its work will result in improvements in the production of the Poudre and in the field of the Agrochimie by the creation of a new method of production of the Salpêtre by the Potasse of Alsace.

One of the most important experiments of Lavoisier is the determination of the nature of the phenomenon of Combustion. These experiments made it possible to show that combustion is a process which implies the combination of a substance with the Oxygène. It also shows the role of oxygen in the Respiration vegetable and animal, like its role in the formation of the Rouille. The explanation of Lavoisier on combustion replaces the phlogistic Théorie, which postulates that the materials slacken a substance called phlogistic when they burn.

He as discovers that the flammable air of Henry Cavendish, as he baptizes hydrogen (of the Greek “water former”), reacts with oxygen to form a Rosée, as noticed it Joseph Priestley, which is water. The work of Lavoisier is partly based on that of Priestley.

In On combustion in general and general Considerations on the nature of the acids (1778), it shows that the air responsible for combustion is also a source of acidity. In 1779, it names this part of the air “oxygenates” (of the Greek “former of acid”) and the other part “nitrogenizes” (of the Greek “without life”). In Reflections on phlogistic the (1783), Lavoisier shows that the phlogistic theory is not coherent.

The experiments of Lavoisier are among the first truly quantitative chemical experiments ever carried out. It proved that, although the matter changes state in a Chemical reaction, the quantity of matter remains identical beginning until the end of the reaction. It burned Phosphore and Soufre in the air, and showed that the products weighed more than the reagents of departure. Nevertheless, the gained weight was lost by the air. These experiments were evidence at the base of the Loi of conservation of the matter. Lavoisier also studied the composition of water, and it calls its components “oxygenates” and “hydrogen”.

In 1784, Lavoisier belongs to a commission named by Louis XVI to study the practice of the animal Magnétisme with the doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly and the ambassador of the United States in France, Benjamin Franklin.

With the chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet and others, Lavoisier conceives a chemical nomenclature or a system of the names, which is used as a basis for the modern system. It describes it in Méthode of nomenclature chemical (1787). This system is always mainly in service in XXIe century, including names such as the sulphuric Acid , the Sulfate S and the Sulfite S. Its elementary Traité of chemistry (1789) is regarded as the first modern chemical handbook, and presents a unified sight of the new theories of chemistry, provides a clear report/ratio of the law of the conservation of the mass and denies the existence of the Phlogiston. Moreover, Lavoisier clarifies the concept of a simple element as substance which can be broken up by no known method of chemical Analyze, and conceives a theory of the formation of the chemical compounds of the elements.

Moreover, its work contains a list of elements or substances which cannot be broken up more, including oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, the Phosphore, the mercury, the Zinc and the Soufre. Its list, however, also includes the Lumière and the Chaleur, which he thought of being material substances.

Of an major importance in the life of Lavoisier of the Loi S. This was its study leads it to be interested in the Politique Frenchwoman, and consequently, it obtains a work as tax collector of tax at the 26 years age in the general Ferme, a private company of collection of taxes. It tried to present reforms in the French monetary system and the system of imposition.

In its work for the government, it took part in the development of the Metric system to fix the uniformity of the weights and the measures to the whole of France. Being one of the 28 farmer general, Lavoisier is stigmatized like traitor by the revolutionists in 1794 and guillotine at the time of the Terreur in Paris on May 8th, 1794, at the 51 years age, at the same time as the whole of his/her colleagues. Having asked a deferment to be able to complete an experiment, he intends himself to answer by Jean-Baptiste Coffinhal, the president of the revolutionary tribunal: “The Republic does not need scientists nor chemists; the course of justice cannot be suspended. ” (This celerity is explained by the fact that the goods of condemned were confiscated with the profit of the State and the farmers general had largest fortunes of France.)

The fundamental contributions of Lavoisier to chemistry are the result of an effort conscious of adapting all the experiments within the framework of a simple theory. It established the coherent use of chemical balance, used its discoveries on oxygen to reverse the phlogistic theory, and developed a new system of chemical nomenclature which supports that oxygen is a constituent essence of all the acids (what later appeared incorrect). For the first time, the modern concept of element is presented systematically. The three or four elements of traditional chemistry led to the development of the modern system, and Lavoisier represented reactions in the chemical equations which respected the law of conservation of the masses.

It took again the maxim “Nothing is not lost, nothing is not created, all changes” which comes at the origin from Anaxagore de Clazomènes.

Homages

Its name is registered on the Eiffel Tower and also on a street in Normandy.

Works

• Treated elementary of chemistry, presented in a new order and according to the modern discoveries (2 volumes, 1789). Rééditon: Brussels: Cultures and Civilizations, 1965.
• complete Works , Paris: CRHST, 2003. Text in line

See too

Related articles

• Law of Lavoisier

External bonds

• Works of Lavoisier digitized by the SCD of the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg
• Documents

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