Antoine L. Lavoisier (362)

Antoine L. Lavoisier (26 August 1743–8 May 1794) was a chemist and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1775. Born to a wealthy family in Paris, Lavoisier pursued an education in the law as a young man and was admitted to the Order of Barristers, but attended lectures on natural philosophy in his spare time. His inherited wealth supported his study of chemistry: he was able to afford the equipment and time to perform and repeat experiments in an effort to prove his chemical theories. His notable contributions to the field included his experimental attempts to demonstrate the conservation of mass during chemical reactions and, in 1774, the isolation and naming of the element oxygen. In 1787, Lavoisier and a few of his colleagues created a new nomenclature of chemistry, giving the burgeoning field a common vocabulary. In 1768, Lavoisier joined France’s foremost society of natural philosophy, the Academy of Sciences. In 1771, Antoine married Marie-Anne Paulze, who was just fourteen years old. The two became scientific collaborators, and Marie-Anne worked alongside her husband in the laboratory—taking notes, recording results, and translating his work into English. Lavoisier was also involved in politics throughout his life: he worked as a tax collector, a director in France’s Gunpowder Administration, and a financial advisor to the government. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Lavoisier hoped that the upheaval would usher in a new government ruled by reason, and he advocated for the preservation of scientific institutions like the Academy of Sciences. However, Lavoisier’s bourgeois upbringing and his work as a “tax farmer” made him a target of radical revolutionaries. He was imprisoned and executed at the guillotine on May 8th, 1794. (EB)