Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac | Science History Instute

Contents:

• JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC BGRAPHY
• JOSEPH GAY-LSAC SUMMARY
• SCIENTIST OF THE DAY - JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC AND HIS WORK ON GAS
• CATEGORY:JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC
• GAY-LSAC AND THENARD
• AUTHOR:JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC

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.

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. Charl as “Charl’s law, ” was the first of several regulari the behavur of matter that Gay-Lsac tablished.

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

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

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. 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).

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC BGRAPHY

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.

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. 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.

JOSEPH GAY-LSAC SUMMARY

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. 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. The prcipl of volumetric analysis uld be tablished only through Gay-Lsac’s theoretil and practil geni but, once tablished, the analysis self uld be rried out by a junr assistant wh brief trag.

Gay-Lsac published an entire seri of Instctns on subjects rangg om the timatn of potash (1818) to the nstctn of lightng nductors. In 1848 (the year of revolutns) Gay-Lsac rigned om his var appotments Paris, and he retired to a untry hoe the neighbourhood of his youth that was stocked wh his library and a private laboratory. ” In a logy livered after his ath at the Amy of Scienc, his iend, the physicist Arago, summed up Gay-Lsac’s scientific work as that of “an gen physicist and an outstandg chemist.

SCIENTIST OF THE DAY - JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

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.

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. Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac (December 6, 1778 – May 9, 1850) was a French chemist and physicist whose disvery of the law of bg volum of gas chemil reactns paved the way for our unrstandg of molecul and atoms. In 1789, at the begng of the French Revolutn, his parents found necsary to keep Gay-Lsac at home, where he received his early tn.

Gay-Lsac and fellow scientist Jean-Baptiste Bt were missned by the French ernment, at the stigatn of Berthollet and Laplace, to make an ascent a hot air balloon to take measurements of the earth's magic field and perform other experiments. In orr to take readgs at even greater heights, Gay-Lsac ma another ascent, this time alone, and was able to achieve an elevatn of seven thoand meters, a rerd for that time. Durg this ascent, Gay-Lsac was able to brg back sampl of air, and found their posn to be the same as the air at the earth's surface.

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC AND HIS WORK ON GAS

In 1805, Gay-Lsac acpanied Alexanr von Humboldt on a year-long tour of Europe, durg which he met many of the famo scientists of his day, cludg Alsandro Volta. In 1807, a year after Gay-Lsac's return to France, Berthollet tablished a society of scientists lled the Societe d'Aucuiel.

CATEGORY:JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

Among the memoir published by the society clud Gay-Lsac's magic measurements ma durg his European tour, as well as work that he is perhaps bt remembered for, which he formulated what is today generally referred to Gay-Lsac's law of bg volum. Gay-Lsac extend his observatns to other gas, and noted that, when bg wh one another, they always do so by volume simple tegral rats. On the basis of Dalton's and Gay-Lsac's work, Ameo Avogadro proposed the hypothis that equal volum of gas nta equal volum of molecul, one of the rnerston of morn chemistry.

GAY-LSAC AND THENARD

From 1808 Gay-Lsac was appoted profsor of physics at the Sorbonne, and 1809 he also beme profsor of chemistry at the Polytechnique. In 1815, Gay-Lsac rried out some important rearch on de and s pounds, although Brish scientist Humphrey Davy is generally creded wh havg intified de as an element.

In 1824, Gay-Lsac played host to the young Liebig, who remaed at Gay-Lsac's laboratory for about six weeks vtigatg pssic acid. Liebig went on to tablish a laboratory where he ted an entire generatn of chemists, based on what he had learned Gay-Lsac's laboratory.

Gay-Lsac often allowed young scientists to work his laboratory, and this way traed many of the famo nam that succeed him his rearch. In 1802, Gay-Lsac first formulated the law that a gas expands learly wh a fixed prsure and risg temperature (ually better known as Law of Charl and Gay-Lsac).

AUTHOR:JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

The law is often attributed to Jacqu Charl bee Gay-Lsac mentned some experiments Charl had done monstratg the law particular s. However, Gay-Lsac announced as a general law, and provid more exactg experimental data to bolster his ncln, than eher Charl or Dalton. The proper pennce of the expansn efficient on the temperature self was also exprsed rrectly by Gay-Lsac, a rult that Dalton's more c experiments failed to tect.

Charl believed the law did not subsist for water-soluble gas, but Gay-Lsac monstrated that uld be extend to those s as well.

Gay-Lsac's rults were exprsed as the expansn of gas for a temperature difference equal to that of the eezg and boilg pots of water. In 1808, Gay-Lsac and Louis-Jacqu Thenard succeed isolatg what they lled the radil of boric acid, not yet aware that was an element. In 1815, the rivalry that had been generated between Gay-Lsac and Davy over the disvery of elements once aga surfaced a qut to terme the nature of what would bee known as de.