How Did Antoine Laurent Lavoisier Contribute To Chemistry

On August 26, 1743 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born. Lavoisier is considered to be one of the major fathers of chemistry because of his multiple advancements in chemistry during his life. There were many different instances where Lavoisier furthered the understanding of the scientific community. Throughout his life Lavoisier has helped with establishing a naming system for chemical substances, introduced the Law of Conservation of Mass, concluded that sulfur was an element, discovered that there was “oxygène” in the air that helped with combustion, and many other discoveries. During his lifetime, the French Revolution was taking place. Lavoisier was appointed to help create the gunpowder that the Frenchmen would be using; he received the title as a commissioner of the Royal Gunpowder and Saltpeter

Lavoisier devised an experimental apparatus that would allow him to prove that water was divisible and not an element. Lavoisier determined that if he burned hydrogen and oxygen, he would have water. He built an apparatus that would allow for this experiment to take place (see sketch). The idea of the apparatus was to use a vacuum pump to remove all of the air inside of the apparatus; after all the air was removed, hydrogen would be pumped in through the left pipe and oxygen would be pumped in through the right pipe. Once the hydrogen entered the apparatus, an electric spark was made to ignite the gases. The flux ration of oxygen and hydrogen was 1:2 and combustion was maintained for a long time5. At the bottom of the apparatus’s container, the water that was created from the experiment was collected. The total mass of oxygen and hydrogen was approximately the same in the water as it was in the gas; this proved that water was not an element. Lavoisier proved that water was a compound made of hydrogen and oxygen, with a weight percentage of 15% and 85%,