Lin 1
Rosa Lin
Smith, Period 4
Chemistry
9/23/13
Father of Chemistry: Antoine Laurent Lavoisier Born on August 23rd 1743, in Paris, France, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was a French lawyer, economist, and chemist. Although he started out his career as a lawyer, he also studied geology, mineralogy, botany, as well as chemistry. Soon, he abandoned his study in law and converted completely to studying solely science. He was best known for his naming and discovery of the elements oxygen, and hydrogen. His many other major accomplishments include, disproving the universally accepted phlogiston theory, aiding the construction of the metrics system, and writing the first list of elements. Furthermore, predicted the existence of silicon, and also made the discovery that sulfur was an element and not a compound. Today he is known as the “Father of Chemistry”. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was the founder of the law of conservation of mass, also known as principle of mass conversation. He concluded that although matter constantly shifts in from and shape, the mass will always remain the same. In 1771 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier married a young fourteen year old named Marie Ann Pierrette Paulze. Over time, Marie Ann Pierrette Paulze played an extremely important part in his scientific career throughout his life, for she translated his chemical works from English to French, and also assisted in much of his laboratory work. She often drew diagrams for the scientific works he took part in. In 1775, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was appointed to be The Royal Gunpowder and Saltpeter Administration because of his knowledge of science. People believed he could make an amazing breakthrough on the French’s military system. His work indeed brought a large improvement to the French’s gunpowder system. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier greatly improved the quality as well as the quantity of the French gunpowder. Given a large laboratory there, he worked there from 1775 to 1792. In 1777, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier came to the conclusion that burning is