Comprehensive account illuminating Lavoisier's role in the rise of modern chemistry and the French Revolution.

Recounts the life of the French chemist whose work helped transform many of the undocumented scientific beliefs of the Middle Ages into an exact science.

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (Antoine Lavoisier after the French Revolution; August 26, 1743 - May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman and chemist who was central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and who had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology. He is widely considered in popular literature as the "father of modern chemistry." The 1789 publication of Elements of Chemistry (Trait� �l�mentaire de chimie) became the first modern textbook on chemistry and represented Lavoisier's major contribution to the field. Within this work, Lavoisier introduced a new nomenclature, proposed an oxygen theory that dismantled the theory of phlogiston, presented a clear statement of the law of conservation of mass, clarified the concept of an element as a substance that could not be broken down by any known physical process, and described the method whereby compounds are formed from elements.

This Very Short Introduction traces the history and cultural impact of the elements on humankind, and examines why people have long sought to identify the substances around them. Looking beyond the Periodic Table, the author takes the reader on an engaging and entertaining tour: from the Greek philosophers who propounded a system with four elements - earth, air, fire, and water - to the modern-day scientists who are able to create their own.

Before Henry Guerlac's book, we knew little about the reasons that led the great chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier to discover the role of air in combustion. Henry Guerlac finds that this breakthrough that began the Chemical Revolution did not come "ex nihilo," as many historians claim. Rather, it marked the culmination of research by British and French chemists, radically refashioned by Lavoisier and his disciples. Henry Guerlac portrays Lavoisier integrating Continental and British chemical traditions. Like New ton in physics and Darwin in biology, Lavoisier was a revolutionary. This work presents his in a vigorous and innovative light.

Originally published in French in 1993 (Editions Pygmalion/Gerard Watelet, Paris), and expanded and revised for this translation. The founder of modern chemistry, Lavoisier (1743-1794) was active on commisions connected with agriculture, gunpowder, banking, and finance, and was ultimately executed during the Reign of Terror. This biography recounts Lavoisier's scientific accomplishments and his role in the chemical revolution and early history of organic chemistry and physiology; but it is in the examination of his political and economic activities and accomplishments that it breaks new ground. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR