Knowing the Pioneers
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was a French nobleman and chemist central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and 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 ". Lavoisier could not fulfill the hope of his father to become a lawyer since he was very interested with scisince he was very interested with science. He thought that science was more interesting for him. Since he got a lot of money from the inheritance of his mother, he was able to pursue all of his interests.
The Conservation of Mass In 1778 Lavoisier found that when mercury oxide is heated its weight decreases. The oxygen gas it releases has exactly the same weight as the weight lost by the mercury oxide. While this may seem obvious to us today, it was less so in those days( hence the general support for the phlogiston theory). After carrying out work with a number of different substances, and recalling earlier work such as his work in 1772 with carbon, Lavoisier announced a new fundamental law of nature: the law of conservation of mass.
Image Source: http:// imageweb-cdn. magnoliasoft. net / royalsociety / supersize / rs-2268. jpg
11