Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac | |
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Born | Joseph Louis Gay 6 December 1778 |
Died | 9 May 1850 | (aged 71)
Nationality | French |
Alma mater | École polytechnique |
Known for | Gay-Lussac's law Degrees Gay-Lussac Co-discovery of boron Combustion analysis Cyanogen |
Awards | Pour le Mérite (1842) ForMemRS (1815) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemistry |
Signature | |
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (
Biography
Gay-Lussac was born at Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat in the present-day department of Haute-Vienne.[5]
His father, Anthony Gay, son of a doctor, was a lawyer and prosecutor and worked as a judge in Noblat Bridge.
Gay-Lussac received his early education at the hands of the
Three years later, Gay-Lussac transferred to the
Gay-Lussac married Geneviève-Marie-Joseph Rojot in 1809. He had first met her when she worked as a linen draper's shop assistant; he noticed she was studying a chemistry textbook under the counter, which led to their acquaintance. The couple had five children, of whom the eldest (Jules) became a student of
Gay-Lussac had a reputation as one of the greatest European scientists of his day, well justified by his innumerable discoveries in both chemistry and physics. The restored royalty made him a Peer of France, although he worked politically with the anti-clerical party. He was closely associated with François Arago.
Gay-Lussac died in Paris, and his grave is there at Père Lachaise Cemetery. His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
Achievements
- 1802 – Gay-Lussac first published the law that at constant pressure, the volume of any gas increases in proportion to its absolute temperature. Since in his paper announcing the law he cited earlier unpublished work on this subject by Gay-Lussac's Law. This law was independently and nearly simultaneously stated by John Dalton.
- 1804 – He and Earth's atmosphere. He wanted to collect air samples at different heights to record differences in temperature and moisture.
- 1805 – Together with his friend and scientific collaborator Alexander von Humboldt, he discovered that the composition of the atmosphere does not change with decreasing pressure (increasing altitude). They also discovered that water is formed by two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen (by volume).
- 1808 – He was the co-discoverer of boron.
- 1808 – Discovery and announcement of the law of combining volumes of gases; published in 1809.
- 1810 – In collaboration with Louis Jacques Thénard, he developed a method for quantitative elemental organic combustion analysis by measuring the CO2 and H2O evolved when an organic compound is fully oxidized by potassium chlorate. He also summarised the equation of alcoholic fermentation.
- 1811 – He recognized iodine as a new element, described its properties, and suggested the name iode.[10]
- 1815 – He synthesized cyanogen, determined its empirical formula, and named it.
- 1824 – He developed an improved version of the burette that included a side arm, and coined the terms "pipette" and "burette" in an 1824 paper about the standardization of indigo solutions.[11]
Awards and honors
- Along with Thénard, Gay Lussac received 30,000 francs from Napoleon in the third edition of the Galvanism Prize in 1809 for their research.
- In Paris, a street and a hotel near the Sorbonne are named after him as are a square and a street in his birthplace, Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat
- In Australia, the "Gay-Lussac Room" at AB Mauri STC, Sydney was named after him in honor of his work with yeast fermentation.
Academic lineage
Notable teachers | Notable students |
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Publications
- Chemistry courses of the École Polytechnique, Vol.1&2
- Lessons of Physics, Faculty of Sciences in Paris, (November 6, 1827, March 18, 1828)
See also
References
- ^ "Gay-Lussac". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ^ "Gay-Lussac's law". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11.
- ^ "Gay-Lussac". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ "Gay-Lussac". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 542.
- ^ Biographical Dictionary Ancient and Modern, Volume 16, Michaud
- ^ Biographical sketch by Gay de Vernon
- ^ "December 6: Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac". Freethought Almanac. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter G" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ^
Ede, A. (2006). The Chemical Element: A Historical Perspective. ISBN 0-313-33304-1.
- ^
Rosenfeld, L. (1999). Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry. ISBN 90-5699-645-2.
Further reading
- Partington, J. R. (1950). "J. L. Gay-Lussac (1778–1850)". S2CID 36973995.
- Gay-Lussac, L. J.; von Humboldt, A. (1805). "Expériences sur les moyens eudiométriques et sur la proportion des principes constituans de l'atmosphère". Journal de Physique. 60.
- Crosland, M. (1978). Gay-Lussac, Scientist and Bourgeois. ISBN 0-521-21979-5.
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist (1778–1850) from the Encyclopædia Britannica, 10th Edition (1902)
- Rue Gay-Lussac, Paris
- Gay-Lussac's article (1809) "On the combination of gaseous substances", online and analyzed on BibNum Archived 2019-06-16 at the Wayback Machine (for English, click 'à télécharger').