Gay-Lsac's Law—Its Centenary | Nature

Contents:

• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• GAY-LSAC’S LAW
• GAY-LSAC'S GAS LAW EXAMPL
• GAY-LSAC'S LAW—ITS CENTENARY

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.

JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC

This ncln subsequently beme known as Gay-Lsac’s law.

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.

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.

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. 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).

GAY-LSAC'S GAS LAW EXAMPL

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.

GAY-LSAC'S LAW—ITS CENTENARY

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. 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.