Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris to a wealthy family and trained as a lawyer, but he devoted himself to science. To fund his research he bought a share in the Ferme générale, a private company that collected taxes for the king. He married Marie-Anne Paulze, who became his partner in the laboratory, translating English papers and drawing his apparatus. Lavoisier insisted on careful weighing. He showed that when substances burn, they combine with a part of the air, which he named oxygen, overturning the old theory that burning released a substance called phlogiston. He showed that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, and he stated that in a chemical reaction matter is neither created nor destroyed. With colleagues he devised a new system of chemical names still used today, and his Elements of Chemistry of 1789 listed thirty-three elements. He also worked on gunpowder, street lighting and the metric system. During the French Revolution he was arrested with the other tax farmers, tried, and guillotined on 8 May 1794.

Antoine Lavoisier is also an author in the library: author page and works.

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