Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
1743-1794
French Chemist and Economist
Antoine Lavoisier is regarded as the founder of modern chemistry. Although he made few discoveries of new substances or processes, his work in chemical theory provided a synthesis of the discoveries of his contemporaries and a framework upon which subsequent work could be based. He is perhaps best known for his discovery of the role that oxygen plays in combustion, his statement of the conservation of matter in chemical reactions, his clarification of the difference between elements and compounds (molecules), and his part in the development of the modern system of chemical nomenclature.
The son of a prosperous lawyer, Lavoisier was educated at the College Mazarin, where he began his scientific studies after initially studying law. His early scientific publications led to his election to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1768, at age 25. His father bought a title of nobility for him in 1772, and he became a member of the Farmers-General, a private company that collected taxes for the royal government. His personal wealth and political influence grew, and as a member of the Gunpowder Commission, he lived in the Paris Arsenal, where he set up a private laboratory to test the results of chemical experiments performed by others and to carry out his own. In 1791 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury.
Even though Lavoisier was involved in social reforms, such as old age pensions, and supported liberal political causes, after the revolution he was regarded with suspicion because of his previous close connection with the royal government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1793, tried, and executed by guillotine in 1794.
Lavoisier's contribution to the founding of modern chemistry was principally in the area of theory. He confirmed, consolidated, extended, and explained the many new discoveries made by his contemporaries on the European continent and in England, especially those of Joseph Black (1728-1799), Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), and Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). The result was a new theoretical understanding of chemical processes that provided the framework for the development of chemistry as a modern science.
Lavoisier discovered the part that oxygen plays in combustion (burning) and developed a theory that explained combustion, the oxidationof metals, and respiration as all being similar reactions of chemical substances with oxygen gas. Additionally, his theory of combustion discredited the phlogiston theory, which had been a major detriment to scientific progress.
Although not the first to employ careful quantitative methods in the study of chemical processes, his endorsement and use of them was significant in the development of chemistry as a quantitative physical science. The use of a calorimeter by Lavoisier and Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) to measure specific heats and heats of reaction was an important step in the founding of thermochemistry. Lavoisier was also the first to realize that all substances can exist in three states—gas, liquid, and solid. He played a significant part in the development of the metric system and in revolutionizing the nomenclature of chemical substances, both of which are still in use today in much the same form. In this new system of nomenclature, the name of a substance indicates the elements of which it is made.
Despite his brilliance and the enormous contributions he made to the founding of modern chemistry, Lavoisier was far from perfect. He was constantly enmeshed in disputes in which he claimed to be the first to make various discoveries, though his claims of priority had no basis in fact. He used the results of other scientists freely, often without acknowledging their work. Perhaps his contribution would have been even greater had he been more willing to work with his scientific contemporaries with greater cooperation and mutual appreciation.
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