Antoine Lavoisier
French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier isolated the major components of air, determined the role of oxygen in combustion to disprove the phlogiston theory, and devised a system of chemical nomenclature; during the Reign of Terror, the period from 1793 to 1794 of the French revolution, the hands of a small group temporarily suspended the republican government, concentrated power, and executed him and thousands of other suspected counterrevolutionaries.
This central nobleman to the 18th century largely influenced on the history of biology. People widely consider him the "father of modern chemistry."
People most note Lavoisier for his discovery. He also first established sulfur as an element in 1777 rather than a compound. He recognized and named oxygen in 1778 and hydrogen in 1783 and opposed the theory. Lavoisier helped to construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, and helped to reform. He predicted the existence of silicon in 1787. He discovered always the same mass of matter, which nevertheless may change its form or shape.
Lavoisier, an administrator of the Ferme Générale, served as a powerful member of a number of other aristocratic councils. All of these political and economic activities enabled him to fund his scientific research. At the height of the French revolution, Jean-Paul Marat accused him of selling adulterated tobacco and other crimes, and a year fater death of Marat, people eventually guillotined Lavoisier.
Joseph-Louis Lagrange expressed importance of Lavoisier to science and, lamenting the beheading, said: "Il ne leur a fallu qu’un moment pour faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour en reproduire une semblable." ("It took them only an instant to cut off this head, and one hundred years might not suffice to reproduce its like.")
Lavoisier also early researched in physical chemistry and thermodynamics in joint experiments with Pierre-Simon Laplace. Lavoisier also contributed to early ideas on composition and chemical changes by stating the radical theory, believing that radicals, which function as a single group in a chemical process, combine with oxygen in reactions. He also introduced the possibility of allotropy in chemical elements when he discovered that diamond is a crystalline form of carbon.
Overall, his contributions are considered the most important in advancing chemistry to the level reached in physics and mathematics during the 18th century. Lavoisier's work was recognized as an International Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society, Académie des sciences de L'institut de France and the Société Chimique de France in 1999.
This central nobleman to the 18th century largely influenced on the history of biology. People widely consider him the "father of modern chemistry."
People most note Lavoisier for his discovery. He also first established sulfur as an element in 1777 rather than a compound. He recognized and named oxygen in 1778 and hydrogen in 1783 and opposed the theory. Lavoisier helped to construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, and helped to reform. He predicted the existence of silicon in 1787. He discovered always the same mass of matter, which nevertheless may change its form or shape.
Lavoisier, an administrator of the Ferme Générale, served as a powerful member of a number of other aristocratic councils. All of these political and economic activities enabled him to fund his scientific research. At the height of the French revolution, Jean-Paul Marat accused him of selling adulterated tobacco and other crimes, and a year fater death of Marat, people eventually guillotined Lavoisier.
Joseph-Louis Lagrange expressed importance of Lavoisier to science and, lamenting the beheading, said: "Il ne leur a fallu qu’un moment pour faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour en reproduire une semblable." ("It took them only an instant to cut off this head, and one hundred years might not suffice to reproduce its like.")
Lavoisier also early researched in physical chemistry and thermodynamics in joint experiments with Pierre-Simon Laplace. Lavoisier also contributed to early ideas on composition and chemical changes by stating the radical theory, believing that radicals, which function as a single group in a chemical process, combine with oxygen in reactions. He also introduced the possibility of allotropy in chemical elements when he discovered that diamond is a crystalline form of carbon.
Overall, his contributions are considered the most important in advancing chemistry to the level reached in physics and mathematics during the 18th century. Lavoisier's work was recognized as an International Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society, Académie des sciences de L'institut de France and the Société Chimique de France in 1999.
