Antoine Lavoisier Facts
Antoine Lavoisier Facts
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| Interesting Antoine Lavoisier Facts: |
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| Lavoisier was born into a wealthy family with connections in Parlement. His mother's death early in his left meant he inherited a great deal of money which provided the best education available. |
| During his formal schooling, he was interested in practically every field of science, and had highly acclaimed figures as his teachers of math and philosophy. |
| Lavoisier went on to attend law school and was even admitted to the bar upon graduation, but never practiced law. While in law school, he continued with his interests in science. |
| Throughout the course of his chemistry career, he made significant contributions in everything from basic discovery and naming of elements to changing the concept of chemistry itself to a quantitative science, where it had originally been based on qualitative research. |
| Lavoisier's work included isolating and naming both hydrogen and oxygen, and predicting the later discovery of silicon. |
| His experiments with oxygen produce the first profound understanding of oxygen's role in combustion. |
| Through his work within the government, Lavoisier produced an early list of elements, as well as created the metric system as a means of standardizing units of measure. |
| He was the first to prove that matter's shape may change, but its mass will stay the same. |
| Lavoisier conducted a number of experiments with what came to be known as "fixed air," or carbon dioxide, first outlined by Scottish scientist Joseph Black as the agent that made different similar chemical formulas caustic or benign. |
| Using his most important scientific contribution, Lavoisier conducted phlogiston experiments on air and combustion in a variety of forms. |
| In addition to his many contributions to chemistry and his revitalizing of the science, he best served to combine the distant work of foreign scientists and explain many phenomenon that were all related, but that the scientific community didn't yet recognize. |
| Unfortunately, Lavoisier's status as a member of the nobility and his important government work in a variety of aristocratic councils led to his arrest, trial, and conviction during the French Revolution. |
| Anti-royalty sentiments ran high, and Lavoisier was wrongly accused. He was executed by guillotine, then less than two years later he was exonerated by the government and his personal affects returned to his widow. |
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