Alchemist


Born26 August 1743
Paris, France

Died8 May 1794 (aged 50)
Paris, France

Cause of deathExecution by guillotineResting
placeCatacombs of ParisAlma materCollège des
Quatre-Nations, University of
ParisKnown forCombustion

Identified oxygen

Identified hydrogen

Stoichiometry
 Scientific careerFieldsBiologist, chemistNotable
studentsÉleuthère Irénée du PontInfluencesGuillaume-
François Rouelle, Étienne Condillac
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 To prove the presence of oxygen in atmosphere
 Oxygen theory of combustion
 Antoine Lavoisier's phlogiston experiment. Engraving by Mme
Lavoisier in the 1780s taken from Traité élémentaire de chimie (Elementary
treatise on chemistry)
 During late 1772 Lavoisier turned his attention to the phenomenon
of combustion, the topic on which he was to make his most significant
contribution to science. He reported the results of his first experiments on
combustion in a note to the Academy on 20 October, in which he reported
that when phosphorus burned, it combined with a large quantity of air to
produce acid spirit of phosphorus, and that the phosphorus increased in
weight on burning. In a second sealed note deposited with the Academy
a few weeks later (1 November) Lavoisier extended his observations and
conclusions to the burning of sulfur and went on to add that "what is
observed in the combustion of sulfur and phosphorus may well take
place in the case of all substances that gain in weight by combustion and
calcination: and I am persuaded that the increase in weight of metallic
calces is due to the same cause."
 Joseph Black's "fixed air"