Antoine Lavoisier

In 1771, the young scientist married a girl fifteen years younger to him, Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze. An intelligent young girl, she became Antoine's assistant, helping him not just with his experiments, but also with his publications.

With the advent of the 'French Revolution', Antoine soon lost his government job, and was forced to halt his scientific research. Since he was an influential member of the tax collecting establishment, 'Ferme Générale', the new French leader, Maximilien de Robespierre, labelled him a renegade.

In 1794, he was indicted for various crimes, including being a quisling of foreign scientists like Joseph Louis Lagrange, and was executed on May 8, along with twenty-seven other accused.

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was born to well-to-do parents, in Paris, France, on 26 August 1743.

The child pursued his primary schooling from the 'Collège des Quatre-Nations', graduating in 1761. In school, he developed an interest in subjects like botany, chemistry, mathematics and astronomy. His philosophy teacher, Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, influenced his love for meteorological observation.

By 1764, Antoine graduated from the school of law and became a qualified lawyer, though his actual interests lay in scientific studies.

Lavoisier's passion for science grew mainly because of the works of scholars like Étienne Condillac and Pierre Macquer. During 1763 to 1767, the young man was trained in geology by Jean-Étienne Guettard, who the former assisted in a survey of the Alsace-Lorraine territory.

The year 1764 was in particular quite fruitful for Antoine, since he published his first ever scientific paper, dealing with the properties of the sulfate mineral, 'gypsum'. This paper, which was read to the 'French Academy of Sciences', marked the beginning of his career as a scientist.

In 1768, the 'French Academy of Sciences' employed Lavoisier as one of its members, in the capacity of which he began making France's earliest geological map.

It was in 1772 that Lavoisier found out the effects of combustion of phosphorus. He realized that the process required a lot of air and the consequence was a gain in mass.

Later, he conducted the same experiment on sulphur, and arrived at the same inferences. This research proved to be one of the most pioneering chemical theory ever deduced, which remains applicable in the field of science, to this day.

Lavoisier is best known, even today, for his invaluable identification of oxygen, and his theory determining the role that the gas plays in the process of combustion of any substance.