The Chemical Revolution

C O N T E N T S

The chemical heritage of Antoine-Laurent
Lavoisier
Combustion and the attack on phlogiston
A new chemistry emerges
Lavoisier's American legacy
The life of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794)
Landmark designation

The Chemical Revolution

"The importance of the end in view prompted me to undertake all this work, which seemed to me destined to bring about a revolution in . . . chemistry. An immense series of experiments remains to be made." When he wrote these words in his laboratory notebook on February 20, 1773, a confident Parisian, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, stood poised to forever change the practice and concepts of chemistry. For the next sixteen years, never doubting that his prophecy would be fulfilled, the indefatigable Lavoisier forged a new series of laboratory analyses that would bring order to the chaotic centuries of Greek philosophy and medieval alchemy, leading future generations to regard him as the framer of modern chemistry.

The American Chemical Society and the Société Française de Chimie designated the chemical revolution, initiated by Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, as an International Historic Chemical Landmark in a ceremony at the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France in Paris on June 8, 1999.

The chemical heritage of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier | Combustion and the attack on phlogiston
A new chemistry emerges | Lavoisier's American legacy
The life of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) | Landmark designation