"One of the most fundamental principles of Lavoisier's chemistry was the use of numbers, notably in relation to what we often call today the principle of conservation of mass... The principle implies that the experimenter must not only keep account of all the reacting solids and liquids, but also the gases—that is, all of the products. ...This rule led to quantitative experiments. Lavoisier was not the first person to use numbers in chemistry but he was a pioneer in using such numerical measurements as the basis of his system of chemistry. ...When Lavoisier first announced this law, chemists generally believed in... "phlogiston" which supposedly entered into chemical reactions (such as combustion) but had no weight. It was a radical step, therefore, for Lavoisier to base a system of chemistry on a balance of weights and to maintain that chemistry is not concerned with weightless "substances." ...this was indeed a chemical revolution."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
I. Bernard Cohen, The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life (2005)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (26 August 1743 – 8 May 1794) was a French intellectual and nobleman, widely regarded as the founder of modern chemistry.
14 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Antoine Lavoisier →
Related Quotes
"The art of concluding from experience and observation consists in evaluating probabilities, in estimating if they are…"
"Here, then: a revolution [in science and chemistry] has taken place in an important part of human knowledge since you…"
"When I began the following Work, my only object was to extend and explain more fully the Memoir which I read at the p…"
"Thus, while I thought myself employed only in forming a Nomenclature, and while I proposed to myself nothing more tha…"
"It is a maxim universally admitted in geometry, and indeed in every branch of knowledge, that, in the progress of inv…"
"We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every insta…"
"We may lay it down as an incontestible axiom, that, in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created; an e…"
"Now Mayow, like Boyle, conceived the air as made up of minute particles, while he restricted himself to two varieties…"
"Though Lavoisier generally gets credit for the authorship of this principle [ conservation of mass ], others had conc…"
"In 1774 he [ Joseph Priestley ] thought he had obtained nitrous oxide... in 1775 he saw the gas as dephlogisticated a…"