Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26 1743 – May 8 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. He stated the first version of the Law of Conservation of Matter, recognized and named oxygen (1778), disproved the phlogiston theory, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature. Lavoisier is often referred to as the father of modern chemistry. He was also an investor and administrator of the Ferme Générale, a private tax collection company; chairman of the board of the Discount Bank (later the Banque de France); and a powerful member of a number of other aristocratic administrative councils. Due to his prominence in the pre-revolutionary government in France, he was beheaded at the height of the French Revolution.

Further reading

• Berthelot, M. La révolution chimique: Lavoisier. Paris: Alcan, 1890.
• Daumas, M. Lavoisier, théoricien et expérimentateur. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1955.
• Donovan, Arthur, "Antoine Lavoisier: Science, Administration, and Revolution.", Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Lavoisier, A. Traité élémentaire de chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes, 2 vols. Paris: Chez Cuchet, 1789. Reprinted Bruxelles: Cultures et Civilisations, 1965.
• Antoine Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry, Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY,1965, 511 pages.
• Hundred Greatest Men, 1885 www.lib.utexas.edu
• Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics by Jack Kelly - The history of the explosive that changed the world (Basic Books, 2004 - 0-465-03718-6).
• Grey, Vivian. "The Chemist Who Lost His Head: The Story of Antoine Lavoisier.", Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc. , 1982