Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac | Science History Instute

Contents:

• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• EXPERIMENT: GAY-LSAC’S LAW
• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC BGRAPHY
• FIGURE 12: JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC AND JEAN-BAPTISTE BT ASCEND BALLOON NDUCTG SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS
• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC AND HIS WORK ON GAS
• JOSEPH GAY-LSAC SUMMARY
• SCIENTIST OF THE DAY - JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac proposed two fundamental laws of gas the early 19th century. While one is generally attributed to a fellow untryman, the other is well known as Gay-Lsac’s law. Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac (1778–1850) grew up durg both the French and Chemil Revolutns.

Gay-Lsac’s own reer as a profsor of physics and chemistry began at the Éle Polytechnique. In 1804 Gay-Lsac ma several darg ascents of over 7, 000 meters above sea level hydrogen-filled balloons—a feat not equaled for another 50 years—that allowed him to vtigate other aspects of gas.

In 1808 Gay-Lsac announced what was probably his sgle greatt achievement: om his own and others’ experiments he duced that gas at nstant temperature and prsure be simple numeril proportns by volume, and the rultg product or products—if gas—also bear a simple proportn by volume to the volum of the reactants. This ncln subsequently beme known as Gay-Lsac’s law.

JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC

Wh his fellow profsor at the Éle Polytechnique, Louis Jacqu Thénard, Gay-Lsac also participated early electrochemil rearch, vtigatg the elements disvered by s means. Featured image: Undated portra of Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac.

EXPERIMENT: GAY-LSAC’S LAW

Joseph-Louis Gay-Lsac, (born December 6, 1778, Sat-Léonard--Noblat, France—died May 9, 1850, Paris), French chemist and physicist who pneered vtigatns to the behavur of gas, tablished new techniqu for analysis, and ma notable advanc applied chemistry. Gay-Lsac was the elst son of a provcial lawyer and royal official who lost his posn wh the French Revolutn of 1789.

Early his schoolg, Gay-Lsac acquired an tert science, and his mathematil abily enabled him to pass the entrance examatn for the newly found Éle Polytechnique, where stunts’ expens were paid by the state.

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC BGRAPHY

Gay-Lsac proved to be an exemplary stunt durg his studi there om 1797 to 1800.

The society’s first volume of memoirs, published 1807, clud ntributns om Gay-Lsac.

FIGURE 12: JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC AND JEAN-BAPTISTE BT ASCEND BALLOON NDUCTG SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS

At Arcueil, Berthollet was joed by the ement mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, who engaged Gay-Lsac experiments on pillary orr to study short-range forc. Gay-Lsac’s first publitn (1802), however, was on the thermal expansn of gas.

Charl as “Charl’s law, ” was the first of several regulari the behavur of matter that Gay-Lsac tablished. ” Of the laws Gay-Lsac disvered, he remas bt known for his law of the bg volum of gas (1808).

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC AND HIS WORK ON GAS

Gay-Lsac’s approach to the study of matter was nsistently volumetric rather than gravimetric, ntrast to that of his English ntemporary John Dalton.

Another example of Gay-Lsac’s fondns for volumetric rats appeared an 1810 vtigatn to the posn of vegetable substanc performed wh his iend Louis-Jacqu Thenard. As a young man, Gay-Lsac participated dangero explos for scientific purpos. In a followg solo flight, Gay-Lsac reached 7, 016 metr (more than 23, 000 feet), thereby settg a rerd for the hight balloon flight that remaed unbroken for a half-century.

In 1805–06, amid the Napoleonic wars, Gay-Lsac embarked upon a European tour wh another Arcueil lleague, the Pssian explorer Alexanr von Humboldt. Gay-Lsac’s rearch together wh the patronage of Berthollet and the Arcueil group helped him to ga membership the prtig First Class of the Natnal Instute (later the Amy of Scienc) at an early stage his reer (1806). Three years prevly Gay-Lsac had been appoted to the junr post of répétr at the Éle Polytechnique where, 1810, he received a profsorship chemistry that clud a substantial salary.

JOSEPH GAY-LSAC SUMMARY

Gay-Lsac’s appotment to the faculty of the Éle Polytechnique 1804 provid him wh laboratory facili the centre of Paris.

Rivalry between Gay-Lsac and Davy reached a climax over the de experiments Davy rried out durg an extraordary vis to Paris November 1813, at a time when France was at war wh Bra. Gay-Lsac prented a much more plete study of de a long memoir prented to the Natnal Instute on Augt 1, 1814, and subsequently published the Annal chimie.

SCIENTIST OF THE DAY - JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

In 1815 Gay-Lsac experimentally monstrated that pssic acid was simply hydrocyanic acid, a pound of rbon, hydrogen, and nrogen, and he also isolated the pound cyanogen [(CN)2 or C2N2]. Begng 1816, Gay-Lsac served as the jot edor of the Annal chimie et physique, a posn he shared wh his former Arcueil lleague François Arago. Gay-Lsac also performed experiments to terme the strength of alholic liquors.

Still, Gay-Lsac did not pe cricism om lleagu for turng away om the path of “pure” science and toward the path of fancial ga. Gay-Lsac was a key figure the velopment of the new science of volumetric analysis. Prevly a few c trials had been rried out to timate the strength of chlore solutns bleachg, but Gay-Lsac troduced a scientific rigour to chemil quantifitn and vised important modifitns to apparat.