|
Arabic
Bengali
Chinese
English
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese|
BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Lavoisier Antoine Laurent. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in the family of a lawyer on August 26, 1743. The child spent the first years of his life in Paris, in the Peck lane, surrounded by gardens and wastelands. His mother died, giving birth to another girl, in 1748, when Antoine Laurent was only five years old. He received his early education at the Mazarin College. This school was arranged by Cardinal Mazarin for noble children, but externs from other classes were also accepted into it. It was the most popular school in Paris. Antoine Laurent was an excellent student. Like many of the prominent scientists, he first dreamed of literary fame and, while still in college, began to write a drama in prose "New Eloise", but limited himself to only the first scenes. After leaving college, he entered the Faculty of Law, probably because his father and grandfather were lawyers and this career was already beginning to become traditional in their family: in old France, positions were usually inherited. In 1763, he received a bachelor's degree, the next year - a license in law. But the legal sciences could not satisfy his boundless and insatiable curiosity. He was interested in everything from the philosophy of Condillac to street lighting. He absorbed knowledge like a sponge; every new object aroused his curiosity, he felt it from all sides, squeezing everything that was possible out of it. Soon, however, one group of knowledge begins to stand out from this diversity, which more and more absorbs it: the natural sciences. Without leaving his studies in law, he studied mathematics and astronomy with Lacaille, a very famous astronomer at that time, who had a small observatory at the Mazarin College; botany - by the great Bernard Jussier, with whom he herbarized; mineralogy - from Guetard, who compiled the first mineralogical map of France; chemistry - at Ruel. The first works of Lavoisier were made under the influence of his teacher and friend Guetard. Gaetar undertook a number of excursions; Lavoisier was his collaborator for three years, beginning in 1763, and accompanied him on trips or "tours" alone. The fruit of this excursion was his first work - "Investigation of various types of gypsum". After five years of collaboration with Guetard, in 1768, when Lavoisier was 25 years old, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1769, an event occurred that in the future predetermined the tragic end of the scientist. Lavoisier entered into the general farming out as fellow farmer Bodon, who conceded to him a third of his income. "Ferme generale" was a society of financiers, to which the state conceded for a certain fee the collection of indirect taxes (wine, tobacco, salt, customs and serf duties). The contract between the farm and the state was for six years; between the end of one and the drafting of another contract, the collection of taxes was entrusted (fictitiously) to a specially appointed person, the "general contractor", who gave his name to the new contract and, upon approval of it, ceded the right to collect tax-farmers. It was a pure formality: the work of the "general contractor" was limited to receiving four thousand livres a year for six years. Thus, at the disposal of the Minister of Finance was a sinecure, which he could give to one of his protégés. Buyers were hated. Nobody believed in their honesty. They can steal, therefore they steal, the public reasoned. How not to warm your hands near a public box? This is what God commanded! Such was the general opinion of the institution of which Lavoisier became a member. Some of his comrades in the academy feared that the activities associated with the new position would adversely affect his scientific activities. “Nothing,” the mathematician Fontaine consoled them, “but he will ask us dinners.” Having settled down financially, Lavoisier soon married the daughter of the general farmer Polza. Lavoisier's marriage was to some extent a deliverance for his bride. The fact is that her important relative, the Comptroller General (Minister of Finance) Terre, on whom Polz depended, at all costs wanted to marry her to a certain Count Amerval, an impoverished nobleman, famous for his revels, scandals and violent character and who wanted improve their finances by marrying a wealthy bourgeois. Polz flatly refused this honor; and since Terre insisted, the farmer decided to marry off his daughter as soon as possible in order to stop all talk about the count. He offered her hand to Lavoisier, and the latter agreed. In 1771, he was 28 years old, and his bride - 14. Despite the youth of the bride, the marriage turned out to be happy. Lavoisier found in her an active assistant and collaborator in his studies. She helped him in chemical experiments, kept a laboratory journal, and translated the works of English scientists for her husband. I even made drawings for one of the books. The famous scientist Arthur Jung, who traveled around France in 1787, being interested in "knowledge of all kinds of things," also visited Lavoisier and left the following comment about his wife: "Ms. Lavoisier, a very educated, intelligent and lively person, prepared breakfast for us English; but the best part of her treat is, no doubt, her conversation, partly on Kirwan's Phlogiston Experience, partly on other subjects, which she is able to render remarkably interesting." She was more proud of her husband's success than he was. The disadvantage of her character was some irascibility, harshness and arrogance. Nevertheless, they got along as well as possible, connected not only by love, but - and mainly - by friendship, mutual respect, common interests and common work. They didn't have children. In life, Lavoisier adhered to a strict order. He made it a rule to study science for six hours a day: from six to nine in the morning and from seven to ten in the evening. The rest of the day was divided between occupations, academic affairs, work in various commissions, and so on. One day a week was devoted exclusively to science. In the morning, Lavoisier locked himself in the laboratory with his collaborators; here they repeated experiments, discussed chemical questions, argued about the new system. Here one could see the most glorious scientists of that time - Laplace, Monge, Lagrange, Giton Morvo, Makker. Lavoisier's laboratory became the center of contemporary science. He spent huge sums on the arrangement of instruments, representing in this respect the exact opposite of some of his contemporaries. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, chemistry was in a state of feverish revival. Scientists are working tirelessly, discoveries are pouring in after discoveries, a number of brilliant experimenters are coming to the fore. However, the basic law of chemistry, the guiding rule of chemical research, had yet to be found, the method of research that followed from this basic law had to be created; to explain the main categories of chemical divisions and, finally, to throw away the rubbish of fantastic theories, to dispel the ghosts that interfered with a correct view of nature. This task was undertaken and carried out by Lavoisier. Experimental talent was not enough to carry it out. It was required to attach a golden head to the golden hands. Such a happy union represented Lavoisier. He owns a number of brilliant discoveries, but almost all of them were made independently by other scientists. Oxygen, for example, was discovered by Bayen and Priestley before Lavoisier and Scheele, independently of the first three; the discovery of the composition of water was attributed, in addition to Lavoisier, to Cavendish, Watt and Monge. In scientific activity, Lavoisier is struck by its strictly logical course. First, he develops a research method. The scientist puts the experience. For 101 days it distills water in a closed apparatus. Water evaporates, cools, returns to the receiver, evaporates again, and so on. The result was a significant amount of sediment. Where did he come from? Nevertheless, the total weight of the apparatus did not change at the end of the experiment, which means that no substance from the outside was added. In this work, Lavoisier is convinced of the full armor of his method - the method of quantitative research. Having mastered the method, Lavoisier proceeds to his main task. His works, which created modern chemistry, cover the period from 1772 to 1789. The starting point of his research was the fact of an increase in the weight of bodies during combustion. In 1772, he submitted a short note to the academy, in which he reported the result of his experiments, showing that when sulfur and phosphorus are burned, they increase in weight due to air, in other words, they combine with part of the air. This fact is a fundamental, capital phenomenon, which served as the key to explaining all the others. No one understood this, and it may seem to the modern reader at first glance that we are talking about a single, unimportant phenomenon here ... But this is not true. To explain the fact of combustion meant to explain the whole world of oxidation phenomena occurring always and everywhere - in the air, earth, organisms - in all dead and living nature, in countless variations and diverse forms. About sixty memoirs were devoted to the elucidation of various questions connected with this starting point. In them, the new science develops like a ball. Combustion phenomena naturally lead Lavoisier, on the one hand, to the study of the composition of air, and, on the other hand, to the study of other forms of oxidation; to the formation of various oxides and acids and the understanding of their composition; to the process of respiration, and hence to the study of organic bodies and the discovery of organic analysis, etc. In 1775, he presented a memoir to the academy, in which the composition of air was for the first time precisely clarified. Air consists of two gases: "pure air", capable of intensifying combustion and respiration, oxidizing metals, and "mephitic air", which does not have these properties. The names oxygen and nitrogen were given later. The theory of combustion led to an explanation of the composition of various chemical compounds. Oxides, acids and salts have long been distinguished, but their structure remained mysterious. Lavoisier considers all acids as compounds of non-metallic bodies with oxygen: for example, with sulfur he gives sulfuric acid, with coal - carbonic acid, with phosphorus - phosphoric acid, etc. Finally, knowledge of hydrogen and its oxidation product enabled him to lay the foundation for organic chemistry. He determined the composition of organic bodies and created organic analysis by burning carbon and hydrogen in a certain amount of oxygen. "Thus, the history of organic chemistry, like that of inorganic chemistry, has to begin with Lavoisier" (N. Menshutkin). When the foundations of modern chemistry were established, Lavoisier decided to combine the data of his many memoirs in the form of a concise essay. In 1789, his first textbook of modern chemistry appeared - a unique phenomenon of its kind in the history of science: the entire textbook was compiled from the works of the author himself. The work of Lavoisier captured not only the field of chemistry; they mark the beginning of a new era in physiology as well. Lavoisier was the first to reduce the phenomena of life to the action of chemical and physical forces, and in so doing dealt a crushing blow to the theories of vitalism and animism. He created the doctrine of respiration as a slow oxidation that occurs inside the body, and oxygen, combining with tissue elements, gives water and carbon dioxide. The exchange of gases during respiration was studied by him with such completeness that further studies did not add almost anything significant to his data. No less important was his doctrine of animal warmth. It develops as a result of tissue combustion due to oxygen absorbed during breathing. The amount of oxygen absorbed increases in the cold, during digestion, and especially during muscular work, that is, in all these cases, increased combustion occurs. Food plays the role of fuel: "if the animal did not renew what it loses when breathing, it would soon die, just as a lamp goes out when its oil supply is exhausted." Scientific research and farming did not prevent Lavoisier from showing amazing energy in academic affairs. The number of his reports (not counting the actual scientific memoirs) is more than two hundred. In 1768 he was elected an adjunct, in 1772 Lavoisier became a full member, in 1778 - a pensioner, in 1785 - director of the academy. In 1778, Lavoisier bought the Frechin estate between Blois and Vendôme for 229 livres; then he acquired some other estates (for a total of 600 thousand livres) and set about agronomic experiments, thinking that "it is possible to render a great service to local farmers by giving them an example of a culture based on the best principles." On his estate, he did not skimp on agronomic experiments and gradually brought his economy to a flourishing state. The results of Lavoisier's management of gunpowder factories in 1775-1791 were also fruitful. He took on this task with his usual energy. During the French Revolution, as one of the tax-farmers, the scientist was imprisoned. On May 8, 1794, the trial took place. On fabricated charges, 28 tax-farmers, including Lavoisier, were sentenced to death. Lavoisier was fourth on the list. Before him, his father-in-law, Polz, was executed. Then it was his turn. "It was enough for the executioner to cut off this head," Lagrange said the next day, "but perhaps a century will not be enough to produce another one of the same kind." Author: Samin D.K.
Machine for thinning flowers in gardens
02.05.2024 Advanced Infrared Microscope
02.05.2024 Air trap for insects
01.05.2024
▪ You can go to jail for watching a pirated DVD movie in Germany ▪ Sound waves are sources of negative gravity that have a negative mass ▪ The robot will help you get dressed ▪ DVD+RW discs for video recording
▪ site section Infrared technology. Article selection ▪ article abstruse language. Zaum. Popular expression ▪ article How Many Magi Came to Worship Jesus? Detailed answer ▪ article Doctor-infectionist. Job description ▪ article Take away and substitute. Focus Secret
Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews
www.diagram.com.ua |
We recommend interesting articles Section 
See other articles Section 
Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:
All languages of this page