author
Pierre Joseph Macquer
1718–1784
An eighteenth-century French chemist who helped make chemistry easier to study and discuss, he is best remembered for a widely read chemical dictionary and for linking scientific ideas with practical industry.
1 Audiobook
Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, 5th ed.
by Pierre Joseph Macquer
About the author
Pierre-Joseph Macquer was born in Paris on October 9, 1718, and died there on February 15, 1784. He became one of the best-known French chemists of his time, admired less for a single dramatic discovery than for the clarity and usefulness of his writing.
He is especially associated with the Dictionnaire de chymie from 1766, an early chemical dictionary that helped organize the language and knowledge of chemistry for a broad readership. His work also reached beyond the page: he was involved in applied chemistry connected with medicine and with French manufacturing, including porcelain.
That mix of scholarship and practical work helped make him an important figure in the scientific world of eighteenth-century Paris. For listeners interested in the history of science, he offers a glimpse of chemistry at a moment when the field was becoming more systematic, public, and useful in everyday life.