Jean-Baptiste Dumas
Jean-Baptiste Dumas | |
---|---|
Atomic weights | |
Awards | Copley Medal (1843) Faraday Lectureship Prize (1869) Albert Medal (1877) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemistry |
Notable students | Eugène-Anatole Demarçay,[1] Auguste Laurent |
Jean Baptiste André Dumas (French pronunciation:
Biography
Dumas was born in
In 1832 Dumas became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. From 1868 until his death in 1884 he would serve the academy as the permanent secretary for its department of Physical Sciences. In 1838, Dumas was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The same year he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands and, when that became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851, he joined as a foreign member.[5] Dumas was president of Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale from 1845 to 1864. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1860.[6]
After 1848, he exchanged much of his scientific work for ministerial posts under
Dumas was a devout Catholic who would often defend Christian views against critics.[7]
Dumas died at
Scientific work
Dumas was one of the first to criticise the electro-chemical doctrines of
Dumas also showed that kidneys remove urea from the blood.[9][3]
Vapour densities and atomic masses
Dumas perfected the method of measuring vapor densities which was also important in determining atomic weights (see below). A known amount of the substance being analyzed was put into a previously weighed glass bulb, which was then sealed and heated in water to vaporize the substance. The pressure was recorded with a barometer, and the bulb is allowed to cool to determine the mass of the vapor. The universal gas law was then used to determine the moles of gas within the bulb.[10]: 40
In an 1826 paper, he described his method for ascertaining vapour densities, and the redeterminations which he undertook by its aid of the
Dumas established new values for the atomic mass of thirty elements, setting the value for hydrogen to 1.
Determination of nitrogen
In 1833, Dumas developed a method for estimating the amount of nitrogen in an organic compound, founding modern analysis methods. He made important revisions to the existing combustion methods with a sophisticated pneumatic trough. These revisions were the flushing of the combustion tube with carbon dioxide and the addition of potassium hydroxide in the pneumatic trough. Flushing with carbon dioxide eliminated the nitrogen present in the air that previously occupied the combustion tube, eliminating the need for correction due to nitrogen in the air. The potassium hydroxide dissolved the passing carbon dioxide gas, which left nitrogen as the only gas in the collection tube.[12][10]: 122–124
Theory of substitution and theory of chemical types
At the Tuileries palace in Paris, guests at a soirée began reacting adversely to a gas suddenly emitted by the candles. Alexandre Brongniart asked his son-in-law, Dumas, to investigate. Dumas found that the coughing and dangerous fumes were caused by chlorine present in the candle wax. Chlorine had been used to whiten the candles, and Dumas concluded that it must have combined during the candle-making process. This led Dumas to investigate the behavior of chlorine substitution in other chemical compounds.[10]: 122–124
One of the most important research projects of Dumas was that on the action of chlorine on acetic acid to form trichloroacetic acid – a derivative of essentially the same character as the acetic acid itself,[13] though a stronger acid. Dumas extended this to a theory (sometimes considered a law) which states that in an organic compound, a hydrogen atom may be substituted for any halogen.[10]: 122–124
In his published paper on the subject, Dumas introduces his theory of types. Since the trichloracetic acid retained similar properties to acetic acid, Dumas reasoned that there were certain chemical structures that remained comparatively unchanged even if one atom were changed within them. The basis of this theory rests in the natural history of organism classification, which Dumas learned under the botanist de Candolle. This new theory challenged Berzelius's previous theory of electrochemical dualism and was also a competitor of radical theory.[10]: 122–124 [14]
Family
He married Herminie Brongniart, daughter of Alexandre Brongniart, in 1826.[15]
See also
References
- OCLC 421632468.
- ISBN 978-0-7923-0625-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4614-8196-6.
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dumas, Jean Baptiste André". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 657–658. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ "J. B. A. Dumas (1800–1884)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ "Jean-Baptiste Dumas". Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
- ISBN 978-1-317-27792-7.
- ISBN 978-0-300-15359-0.
- ^ a b c d e Nye, Mary (1996). Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics 1800-1940. Twayne Publishers. pp. 122–124.
- ^ Weeks, Mary Elvira (1956). The discovery of the elements (6th ed.). Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education.
- ^ Ihde, Aaron (1964). The Development of Modern Chemistry. Harper & Row. p. 182.
- Annalen der Chemie. XXXII: 101.
- ^ Levere, Trevor H. (1994). Chemist and Chemistry in Nature and Society 1770-1878. Aldershot,Hampshire,Great Britain: Variorum. pp. XVII 113–116.
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
Further reading
- Rocke, Alan J. (2001). Nationalizing Science: Adolphe Wurtz and the Battle for French Chemistry. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18204-1.
- "Obituary". Proceedings of the Royal Society. 37: x. 1884.
- Noyes, William Albert (1927). "Valence". JSTOR 3301070.
- Tiffeneau, Marc (1934). Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800–1884), Paris, Laboratoires G. Beytout.
External links
- Works by or about Jean-Baptiste Dumas at Internet Archive
- Jean-Baptiste Dumas Biography, Pasteur Brewing
- An essay by Josiah Parsons Cooke Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xix, 1883–'84 Archived 5 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas Science Science Vol. III No.72 Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science