Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born on August 26, 1743. His father was a lawyer and his mother was the daughter of the wealthy Punctis family in France. He was born into a prosperous family and while still a young child, his mother passed away and Antoine inherited a great fortune ("Antoine Laurent Lavoisier" 2005, Asimov 1974).

He was a man of genius and great intellect. As John Gribbin (2002) mentioned, Antoine was "the man regarded as the greatest chemist of them all" (p. 275). Besides being "the father of modern chemistry," Lavoisier was involved in other aspects of society as well. He was an economist, public servant and in 1776 he graduated from the School of Law at the University of Paris, as a Bachelor of Law. He also had time to attend courses on astronomy, mathematics, botany, geology, and chemistry (Gribbin, 2002).

In 1766, Lavoisier first became known to the world of science...