8. PROFILE
Antoine-Laurent Lavosiere was born into a privileged family
on August 26, 1743 in France’s capital city, Paris.
His father was Jean-Antoine
Lavosiere; a lawyer in the Paris parliament.
His mother was Emily Punctis, whose family wealth had come
from a butchery business. She died when Antoine was five
years old, leaving him a large amount of money.
Between the ages of 11 and 18,
Antoine was educated at College des Quatre-Nations, a
college of the University of Paris. He studied general subjects
there, including the sciences in his final two years.
9. SOME PERSONAL DETAILS
In addition to his scientific research, Lavoisier was
indrustrious in other fields.At the age of 26 he bought
into a company which gathered tax for the French
government. Having done this, he tried to reform tax
law to help poorer taxpayers. He also served on the
government’s gunpowder , commission, improving
the quality of French gunpowder considerably.
10. Antoine Lavoisere revolutionized chemistry. He
named the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen;
discovered oxygen’s role in combustion and
respiration ; and established that water is a
compound of hydrogen and oxygen; discovered that
sulphur is an element , and helped continue the
transformation of chemistry from a qualitative
science into a quantitative one.
11. CLASSIFICATION OF ELEMENTS BY
LAVOSIERE
Lavosiere defined an element as any substance which could
not be decompose into simpler substances. Several of the
elements he lists in his introductory chemistry text are now
known to be compounds. Two of his elements ( Heat and Light
) are not considered matter at all. Lavosiere anticipated that
hid list was necessarily limited to 18th century perspective.
12. He classified the known elements into four groups.
ELASTIC FLUIDS
Lavosiere , ere included light , heat, oxygen, nitrogen,
and hydrogen in this group.
NON – METALS
This elements are metallic , oxydizable , and capable
of neutralizing an acid to form a salt. They include
antimony and arsenic, silver, bismuth, tin, iron,
manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, gold,
platinum, lead and zinc.
METALS
These elements are metallic, oxydizable, and
capable of neutrilizing an acid to form a salt.
EARTHS
Lavosier's salt forming earthy solids
included, lime, magnesia, alumina, etc...
