Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac" - New World
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== Biography == | == Biography == | ||
| − | Gay-Lussac was born at [[Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat]], in the department of [[Haute-Vienne]]. | + | Gay-Lussac was born at [[Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat]], in the department of [[Haute-Vienne]]. Of the three daughters and two sons of Antoine Gay-Lussac, he was the eldest male child. Gay-Lussac's father was an officer of the king, and his grandfather was a medical doctor. In 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution, his parents found it necessary to keep Gay-Lussac at home, where he received his early education. But by 1795, the reign of terror having abated, he was sent to Paris to prepare for entry into the [[École Polytechnique]]. He remained at a boarding school called the Pension Savoure until he gained admittance to the Polytechnique in 1797. During his studies there, he gained the attention of the famous chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet. After three years at the Poltytechnique, he entered the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, and shortly afterwards became Berthollet's demonstrator and assistant. Berthollet took him to his private laboratory in Arcueil, where he came into contact with the physicist-mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace. These two scientists exerted a profound influence on his career. |
===The law of expansion of gases=== | ===The law of expansion of gases=== | ||
| − | In 1802 he was appointed demonstrator to [[Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy|A. F. Fourcroy]] at the École PolytechniqueIn the same year, he published his first paper relating to the properties of gases. Gay-Lussac found that the rate at which all gases expand with increasing temperature is approximately the same. This was | + | In 1802 he was appointed demonstrator to [[Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy|A. F. Fourcroy]] at the École PolytechniqueIn the same year, he published his first paper relating to the properties of gases. Gay-Lussac found that the rate at which all gases expand with increasing temperature is approximately the same. This was a significant discovery, as it paved the way for the concept of absolute zero, the temperature at which the volume of all gases is reduced to zero. Also around this time he embarked on an ambitious series of experiments involving phenomena as diverse as the behavior of fluids and vapors, and the improvement of thermometers and barometers. |
Gay-Lussac and fellow scientist Biot were commissioned to make an ascent in a hot air balloon to take measurements of the earth's magnetic field. They found that the magnetic properties of the field were retained at elevations as high as 4,000 meters. They also measured the air pressure and the temperature during their ascent. | Gay-Lussac and fellow scientist Biot were commissioned to make an ascent in a hot air balloon to take measurements of the earth's magnetic field. They found that the magnetic properties of the field were retained at elevations as high as 4,000 meters. They also measured the air pressure and the temperature during their ascent. | ||
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== References == | == References == | ||
<<Please add any references you use and format all references according to our guidelines.>> | <<Please add any references you use and format all references according to our guidelines.>> | ||
| − | + | * history of the inductive sciences vol. 2 p. 497. | |
| + | * Tilden, William A. 1921. Famous chemists, the men and their work. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. 119-126. | ||
* Asimov, Isaac. 1982. ''Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology''. New York: Doubleday. | * Asimov, Isaac. 1982. ''Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology''. New York: Doubleday. | ||
Revision as of 06:50, 6 July 2007
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Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (December 6, 1778 – May 9, 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for two laws related to gases, and for his work on alcohol-water mixtures, which led to the degrees Gay-Lussac used to measure alcoholic beverages in many countries.
Biography
Gay-Lussac was born at Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in the department of Haute-Vienne. Of the three daughters and two sons of Antoine Gay-Lussac, he was the eldest male child. Gay-Lussac's father was an officer of the king, and his grandfather was a medical doctor. In 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution, his parents found it necessary to keep Gay-Lussac at home, where he received his early education. But by 1795, the reign of terror having abated, he was sent to Paris to prepare for entry into the École Polytechnique. He remained at a boarding school called the Pension Savoure until he gained admittance to the Polytechnique in 1797. During his studies there, he gained the attention of the famous chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet. After three years at the Poltytechnique, he entered the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, and shortly afterwards became Berthollet's demonstrator and assistant. Berthollet took him to his private laboratory in Arcueil, where he came into contact with the physicist-mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace. These two scientists exerted a profound influence on his career.
The law of expansion of gases
In 1802 he was appointed demonstrator to A. F. Fourcroy at the École PolytechniqueIn the same year, he published his first paper relating to the properties of gases. Gay-Lussac found that the rate at which all gases expand with increasing temperature is approximately the same. This was a significant discovery, as it paved the way for the concept of absolute zero, the temperature at which the volume of all gases is reduced to zero. Also around this time he embarked on an ambitious series of experiments involving phenomena as diverse as the behavior of fluids and vapors, and the improvement of thermometers and barometers.
Gay-Lussac and fellow scientist Biot were commissioned to make an ascent in a hot air balloon to take measurements of the earth's magnetic field. They found that the magnetic properties of the field were retained at elevations as high as 4,000 meters. They also measured the air pressure and the temperature during their ascent.
In order to take readings at even greater heights, Gay-Lussac made another ascent, this time alone, and was able to achieve an elevation of 7,000 meters, a record for that time.
In 1805, Gay-Lussac accompanied Alexander von Humbolt on a year-long tour of Europe, during which he met many of the famous scientists of his day, including Alessandro Volta. During this trip he took measurements of the earth's magnetic field, and studied Mt. Vesuvius, which had erupted around that time. In 1807, a year after Gay-Lussac's return to France, Berthollet established a society of scientists called the Societe d'Aucuiel.
Law of combining volumes
Among the memoires published by the society included Gay-Lussac's magnetic measurements made during his European tour, as well as work that he is perhaps best remembered for, in which he formulated what is today generally referred to Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes. Joseph Priestly had observed that a volume of oxygen combines with a double volume of hydrogen to produce water. Gay-Lussac extended his observations to other gases, and noted that, when combining with one another, they always do so by volume in simple integral ratios. For example, he found that hydrogen and chlorine combine in equal volumes, while one volume of nitrogen and three volumes of hydrogen produce two volumes of ammonia.
This law became extremely in understanding the implications of a similar law governing combining weights of elements that were announced by John Dalton, and that were the basis of Dalton's atomic theory. On the basis of Dalton's and Gay-Lussac's work, Avogadro proposed that equal volumes of gas contain equal volumes of molecules, a cornerstone of modern chemistry.
Role as an educator
From 1808 Gay-Lussac was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and in 1809 he also became professor of chemistry at the Polytechnique. In 1832 he resigned from the Sorbonne and accepted the chair of chemistry at the Jardin des Plantes. In 1831 he was elected to represent Haute-Vienne in the chamber of deputies, and in 1839 he entered the chamber of peers.
In 1809 Gay-Lussac married to Geneviève-Marie-Joseph Rojot. He had met her first when she worked as a linen draper's shop assistant and was studying a chemistry textbook under the counter. He then provided for her education. His relationship with his wife is said to have been very close and mutually supportive. The couple were parents to five children, of whom the eldest (Jules) became assistant to Justus Liebig in Giessen. Some publications by Jules are mistaken as his father's today since they share the same first initial (J. Gay-Lussac). Some branches of his descendants live in Brazil, South America (de Salusse Lussac/Lussac Do Coutto/Do Coutto Monni) and Ontario, Canada.
In 1815, Gay-Lussac carried out some important research on iodine and its compounds, although British scientist Humphrey Davy is generally credited with having identified iodine as an element. The name Gay-Lussac gave the element, iode, and its english derivative, iodine, was the one that came into general use.
Achievements
In 1802, Gay-Lussac first formulated the law that a gas expands linearly with a fixed pressure and rising temperature (usually better known as Charles's Law). The same law is also said to have been independently discovered by John Dalton. In Gay-Lussac's own words, "The experiments which I have described, and which have been made with great care, prove incontestably that oxygen, hydrogen, azotic, nitrous acid, ammoniacal, muriatic acid, sulphurous acid, carbonic acid, gases, expand equally by equal increments of heat...therefore, the result does not depend on the physical properties, and I collect that all gases expand equally by heat."
In 1804 he made a hot-air balloon ascent with Jean-Baptiste Biot to a height of 6.4 kilometres in an early investigation of the Earth's atmosphere. He wanted to collect sample of the air at different heights to record differences in temperature and moisture.
In 1805, together with his friend and scientific collaborator Alexander von Humboldt, he discovered that the basic composition of the atmosphere does not change with decreasing pressure (increasing altitude). They also discovered that gases can combine in proportions by volume to produce new compounds. For example, they found that water is formed by the combination of two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen, by volume.
In 1808, he was the co-discoverer of boron. <<HOW DID HE DISCOVER IT? WHAT OTHER WORK DID HE DO IN CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS?>>
Commemoration
In Paris, a street and a hotel near the Sorbonne are named after him as are a square and a street in his birthplace, St Leonard de Noblat. His grave is at the famous cemetery Père Lachaise in Paris.
Academic genealogy
| Academic Genealogy | |
|---|---|
| Notable teachers | Notable students |
| C. L. Berthollet (1748-1822), Paris Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (1755-1809), Paris |
Jean-Jacques Colin (1784-1865), répétiteur in 1809-1817 Pierre Robiquet (1780-1840), répétiteur in 1813-1818 |
See also
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
<<Please add any references you use and format all references according to our guidelines.>>
- history of the inductive sciences vol. 2 p. 497.
- Tilden, William A. 1921. Famous chemists, the men and their work. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. 119-126.
- Asimov, Isaac. 1982. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: Doubleday.
- Gay-Lussac, L. J. and A. von Humboldt (1805) Expérience sur les moyens oediométriques et sur la proportion des principes constituents de l'atmosphère. J. Phys.-Paris LX.
- Maurice Crosland. Gay-Lussac, Scientist and Burgeois, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1978, 333p., ISBN 0521219795
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