author
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
1743–1794
A brilliant experimental thinker who helped turn chemistry into a modern science, he is best known for showing the role of oxygen in combustion and for insisting on careful measurement in the laboratory. His life ended during the French Revolution, giving his story an unusual mix of scientific triumph and political tragedy.
4 Audiobooks
Elements of Chemistry, In a New Systematic Order, Containing all the Modern Discoveries
by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
Traité élémentaire de chimie, tome 1 Présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes; avec Figures
by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
About the author
Born in Paris on August 26, 1743, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier trained in law but became one of the most important scientific figures of the 18th century. He brought a new level of precision to chemistry by treating it as a science of exact measurement, using balances and carefully designed experiments to test ideas instead of relying on older theories.
Lavoisier played a central role in the chemical revolution. He helped overturn the old phlogiston theory, clarified the part oxygen plays in combustion and respiration, and helped shape a clearer system for naming chemical substances. His Elementary Treatise of Chemistry became a landmark work, and his influence reached beyond chemistry into biology and public administration.
His life was also deeply tied to the institutions of pre-revolutionary France. Because of his work as a tax official, he was arrested during the French Revolution and executed in Paris on May 8, 1794. Even so, his methods and ideas endured, and he is still widely remembered as one of the founders of modern chemistry.