Historical Figures Codexery

Antoine Lavoisier

French nobleman and chemist who revolutionized chemistry by introducing quantitative methods and discovering oxygen's role in combustion.

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was a French nobleman and chemist who led the 18th-century chemical revolution and influenced both chemistry and biology.[1] On 8 May 1794, at the age of 50, Lavoisier was put to death by guillotine in Paris.[2]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier
Born
26 August 1743
Birthplace
Paris, France
Died
8 May 1794
Cause of death
Execution by guillotine
Resting place
Catacombs of Paris
Education
University of Paris
Notable students
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Lavoisier was born to a wealthy noble family in Paris on 26 August 1743.[3] At age 26 he bought a share in the Ferme générale, a tax farming company.[4] In 1771 he married Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, who assisted him in the laboratory and translated English documents.[5][6] Lavoisier theorized that common air combines with substances when they burn, and demonstrated this through experiment.[7]

He carefully weighed reactants and products in sealed vessels, supporting the law of conservation of mass.[8][9] He served as Secretary of the Royal Commission on Agriculture and spent his own money to improve agricultural yields.[10] In 1754, when he was 11 years old, Lavoisier commenced his education at the Collège des Quatre-Nations in Paris.[3] The year 1764 saw the release of Lavoisier's initial chemical publication.[11]

A provisional membership in the French Academy of Sciences was granted to Lavoisier in 1768.[11] Found guilty of cheating the state, Lavoisier was executed by guillotine together with 27 other defendants.[2]

What the cited sources add

The Bell book "Lavoisier in the year one" describes how Lavoisier gained income through the General Farm to fund his science and community work.[12][13] The Straight Dope article notes that the story of Lavoisier blinking after decapitation likely originated from a 1990s Discovery Channel documentary and is not found in standard biographies.[14][15] According to the Yount book, Lavoisier's schooling was steeped in French Enlightenment principles, and he developed a strong interest in Pierre Macquer's chemistry dictionary.[16][11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent", Oxford University Press; "Lavoisier", Collins English Dictionary; ; Lavoisier, le parcours d'un scientifique révolutionnaire CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Schwinger, "Einstein's Legacy", Scientific American Library, 1986, p. 93 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: W.R. Aykroyd, "Three Philosophers: Lavoisier, Priestley and Cavendish", Elsevier Science, 12 May 2014, p. 168–170; "Today in History: 1794: Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, is executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Citizens, Simon Schama. Penguin 1989 p. 236 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lavoisier, le parcours d'un scientifique révolutionnaire CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Eagle, "Marie Anne Paulze Lavoisier: The Mother of Modern Chemistry", The Chemical Educator, 1998, p. 1–18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Guerlac, "Lavoisier—the Crucial Year: The Background and Origin of His First Experiments on Combustion in 1772", Cornell University Press, 2019; Guerlac, "Lavoisier—the Crucial Year: The Background and Origin of His First Experiments on Combustion in 1772", Cornell University Press, 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Petrucci R.H., Harwood W.S. and Herring F.G., General Chemistry (8th ed. Prentice-Hall 2002), p. 34 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "An Historical Note on the Conservation of Mass" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 313 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Yount, "Antoine Lavoisier : founder of modern chemistry", Enslow Publishers, 2008, p. 115 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Bell, "Lavoisier in the year one", W.W. Norton, 2005. facts only, no text reused. archive.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bell, "Lavoisier in the year one", W.W. Norton, 2005; McKie, "Antoine Lavoisier: scientist, economist, social reformer.", Schuman, 1952 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  14. "Does the head remain briefly conscious after decapitation (revisited)?", The Straight Dope, 1998-06-12. facts only, no text reused. straightdope.com
  15. Wikipedia, "Antoine Lavoisier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jensen, "Did Lavoisier Blink?", Journal of Chemical Education, May 2004, p. 629; "Does the head remain briefly conscious after decapitation (revisited)?", The Straight Dope, 1998-06-12 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  16. Yount, "Antoine Lavoisier : founder of modern chemistry", Enslow Publishers, 2008, p. 115. facts only, no text reused. archive.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Antoine Lavoisier (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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