Antoine%20Laurent

1
Vanessa Calanche Ody Frausto
Antoine Laurent
Lavoisier
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Table of Contents
- Life
- Works
- References
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Life

• Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born
  on August 26, 1743 in Paris.
• His father, Jean Antoine Lavoisier worked
  as a prosecutor.
• His mother, Emillie Punctis was the daughter of
  an advocate.
• Antoine grew up in Maras, known as a quite part
  of Paris with his only sister Marie.
• His mother died in 1748, the family moved into
  his grandmothers house.

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• Antoines father did not re-marry, he was fully
  devoted to the upbringing of his children.
• Antoine had very few friends he developed a
  special friendship with his father, which greatly
  affected his life.

• Antoine lived at his grandmothers house for the
  next twenty three years until his marriage in
  1771.

• During his school years

from 1754 - 1760 he
won awards in languages, and was granted a
special prize for his great effort and hard work.
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- In 1760, his sister Marie died at the age of
15. The praise by others at school helped Antoine
cope with the loss of his sister, Marie. -
Antoine attended the college at Mazarin to study
chemistry, astronomy, biology, and mathematics.
- Antoines family consisted of lawyers, but
this was not in his interest.

• - Lavoisier left college in 1761, because his
  father wanted him to study law. He graduated with
  a law degree in 1764.
• Antoine had much more interest in meteorology and
  science.
• He observed the work of miners and metallurgists.

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• In 1768, at a young age of 25, he accepted
  office as a Farmer General of Taxes, and as a
  chemist at the Royal Academy of Sciences, the
  most elite science society.
• Accepting Farmer-General of Taxes he used his
  income to finance his experiments.
• A few years later he married the daughter of
  another

• tax farmer, Marie Anne who was only 13 at the
  time.
• Antoine Lavoisier was appointed regional
  inspector for the Tobacco Commission.

• His only dream in life was to make France the
  richest country in Europe by spreading technical
  education.

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Works

• Lavoisiers work was the result of extending and
  coordinating the research of others.
• Showed air is a mixture of gases by
  demonstrating oxygen is required for combustion,
  rusting, and respiration.
• Opened the way for organic

• chemistry by inventing a method of analyzing
  organic bodies by combustion.
• Wrote about oxygenating and deoxygenating sugars
  to produce alcohol.
• Gave chemistry its first general laws and made
  it a science.

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• Worked to improve economic and social conditions
  in France.
• Expressed one of the first laws of the
  psychology of exertion and invented the
  measurement of the heartbeat.
• Clearly described the role of oxygen in the
  respiration of animals and plants.
• Invented calorimeter, tool used to measure the
  heat released by an animal.
• In his experiments using the calorimeter he was
  able to

• establish theories concerning respiration,
  movements, and digestion.
• His concern for public health led him towards
  medicine, physiology, and biology.

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• Conducted experiments to establish the
  composition of water and organic compounds.
• Produced experiments on perspiration and the
  waterproofing of fabrics, these experiments led
  to medical considerations.

• Meteorology was his specialty.
• Introduced a universal measuring system, the
  decimal system.
• First to introduce effective methods of chemical
  reactions.
• He tried to establish agricultural experiment
  stations to improve the farming methods in
  France.
• In 1775, he was appointed director of the Gun
  Powder Commission.

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• He was appointed as one of the four
  commissioners for Gun Powder and Saltpeter
  Administration, in 1776.
• Lavoisier was nominated as the director of the
  Government Powder Mills, in 1776.
• In 1777, he published his experiments on animal
  respiration and the changes occurring when air
  passes through the lungs.
• Lavoisier became an important landowner by
  successive acquisition of land, in 1778.

• In 1785, he became a member of the Committee on
  Agriculture

• and was appointed the director of the Academy of
  Sciences.
• Proved the law of the conservation of matter.

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• He became a member of the Commission on Weights
  and Measurers and Commissioner of the Treasury,
  in 1790.
• In 1791, Lavoisier was nominated as a member of
  the Bureau of Consultation of Arts and Crafts.

• Lavoisier devoted three months at the Advisory
  Boards for Arts and Trades for perfecting the
  fabrication of counterfeit paper currency, in
  1793.
• On May 8, 1794, during The Reign of Terror, the
  greatest head of science was severed by the
  guillotine.
• He was charged withincivism, the damaging of
  public health.
• Antoine Laurent Lavoisier died at the age of
  fifty one.

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References

• Internet source http//www.top-biography.com/91
  19-Lavoisier/index1.htm
• Encyclopedia source The World Book Encyclopedia
  Volume 10/Field Enterprises Educational
  Corporation. Chicago, IL c1958
• Book source The Cautionary Scientists/ Kenneth
  S. Davis c1912
• Scientific period source The French Revolution
  sourcebook/edited by John Hardman. London New
  York Arnold, 1999.