Antoine Lavoisier is deservedly considered one of the cracking chemists in story . We might not know of his experiments if it were n’t for his married woman . She became a noteworthy , if unconventional , chemist herself and had one of the unearthly lives in history .
When Marie - Anne Pierrette Paulze was only 13 years old , she found herself in an awkward position . Her father , a well - off but not particularly powerful moneyman , was being enquire for her paw by a 50 - year - old tally . It was 1771 , and the French nobility had clout .
To prop up the fellowship ’s hereafter while avoiding marrying his daughter to someone nearly four times her age , her father looked around for another suitor and line up it in one of the vernal men ferment for him . Antoine Lavoisier was 28 twelvemonth old , and had excellent prospect . He embraced the scientific curiosity of the eld , study chemistry and perform experiment , but he had secured a practical hereafter as a taxation collector for the jacket crown . Marie - Anne liked him , and given her options , choose to become his married woman .
The married couple was a well-chosen one . Marie - Anne deal her husband ’s sake in chemistry , and had a endowment when it issue forth to languages . To help with his work , she translate English - language interpersonal chemistry schoolbook . One of the text edition , written by a Richard Kirwen , explain the element of phlogiston , and how it toy a part in combustion . Marie - Anne noted the error that Kirwen made , and added her own note to the translation .
This watch Antoine ’s attention . He forgather with other chemists , includingJoseph Priestley , who believed that phlogiston had to be eliminated from air in rescript to lease object combust at maximum efficiency . Antoine do his own experiments , and zero in in on the the true — that phlogiston did n’t exist , that line is not one element , but a combination of many , and that atomic number 8 is the only part that earmark creature to respire and sack to burn . It was one of his most famous uncovering .
Marie - Anne is part of why it is so celebrated . Antoine sent out papers willy - nilly , but Marie - Anne organise and clarified them , wrick them into Elementary Treatise on Chemistry , one of the most influential chemistry textbooks . She even included her own illustrations . She ’d learned to pull out from the famous painter , Jacques - Louis David . In addition to learn Marie - Anne , David had painted the most famous pic of Antoine and Marie - Anne together .
He also created the most famous painting of Marat — which shows the rotatory leader drained in his bathtub after being dig by Charlotte Corday . In the painting , Marat is depict as a stately martyr . In history text edition , he ’s depict as a bloodthirsty behemoth . And unfortunately , Jacques - Louis David was not the only connexion between Marat and the Lavoisiers . Before he became a radical freak , Marat was an amateur scientist , and hadhis theory debunk and his dream blockade by Antoine Lavoisier . Once in power , he took revenge . He dissolve the Academy of Sciences . Antoine Lavoisier got a show trial and execution .
Marie - Anne also spent some fourth dimension in the clink , but survived the revolution . Shemarried another scientistin 1805 . This time the marriage did n’t shape out — who could follow Antoine Lavoisier , after all ? Marie - Anne break at 78 , in her home base in Paris .
Sciencesecret story week
Daily Newsletter
Get the expert tech , science , and cultivation news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , hand over to your present .
You May Also Like
