Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

When Lavoisier began his study of chemistry, the subject could hardly be called a science. It had accumulated a large mass of empirical information, but its theoretical basis was uncertain and its formal language was in confusion. There were very few standards that were set. There was no agreement upon which substances where compounds, and which were elements. There were very few substances with precisely known chemical compositions. The major classes of chemical entities (acids, metals, salts, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals) were easily distinguished, but there gap when it came to the knowledge of gasses.

The most widely accepted theory in chemistry was one that explained combustion on the basis of a "fire-matter" called phlogiston. The Phlogiston theory states that when a substance burned, it lost a hypothetical weightless or nearly weightless substance. This substance was referred to as the phlogiston. A remarkable feature of the phlogiston theory was that it correctly recognized that the rusting of iron and the calcination of all metals are processes essentially similar to combustion. Lavoisier was one of the first people to attack this theory. He said that instead of losing phlogiston, the materials were combining with a portion of the air, which increased their weight. Around the same time, English clergyman and chemist Joseph Priestley had isolated a gas that greatly promoted combustion. He called it dephlogisticated air because it absorbed phlogiston so readily. Lavoisier realized this gas was precisely the same as the part of the air which reacts with substances during combustion. After repeating and expanding Priestley’s experiments, Lavoisier announced his new theory. Stating that phlogiston is required if an object is to burn, he renamed Priestley’s gas “oxygen,” from the Greek for "begetter of acids," and argued that air also contains a second gas, which does not support combustion. Although Lavoisier called the gas “azote,” it was soon given the modern name of nitrogen. Along with this incredible discovery in this experiment. Lavoisier also discovered something else. He noted that the total weight of the substances taking part in a chemical reaction remains the same before and after the reaction. This theory was proved and is still used today, but it has since been added upon and is called the Law of Conservation of Matter.

Between the years 1785 and 1789, Lavoisier discussed his views with views a number of French chemists, including Claude-Louis Berthollet, Antoine-François de Fourcroy, and Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau. Lavoisier was ve

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