Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (lah vwah ZYAY) was one of the best-known French scientists and was an important government official. His theories ofcombustion, his development of a way to classify the elements and the first modern textbook ofchemistry led to his being known as the father of modern chemistry. He contributed to much ofthe research in the field of chemistry. He is quoted for saying, "Nothing is lost, nothing is created,everything is transformed." Lavoisier was born in Paris, France on Aug. 26, 1743. When he waseleven years old he attended a college called Mazain. For Lavoisier's last two years in college hefound a great deal of interest in science. He received an excellent education and developed aninterest in all branches of science, especially chemistry. Abbe Nicolas Louis de Lacaill taughtLavoisier about meteorological observation. On 1763 Lavoisier received his bachelor's degree andon 1764 a licentiate which allowed him to practice his profession. In his spare time he studiedbooks all about science. His 1st paper was written about gypsum, also known by hydrated calciumsulfate. He described its chemical and physical properties. He was elected to the French Academyof Sciences in 1768. On 1771 he married Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze. She helped Lavoisier bydrawing diagrams for his scientific works and translating English notation for him. Unlike earlierchemists, Lavoisier paid particular attention to the weight of the ingredients involved in chemicalreactions and of the products that resulted. He carefully measured the weights of the reactants andproducts. He noted that the weight of the air in which combustion occurred decreases. He foundthat when the burning material combined with the air somehow and that the air weighed less.Lavoisier found that the weight of the products of combustion equals the weight of the reactingingredients. This observation became known as the law of conservation of mas...
