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Tag Archives: Antoine Lavoisier

Books of the Week — La Méthode de nomenclature chimique & Essai de Statique chimique

27 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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alchemical, Alexander von Humboldt, Antoine de Fourcroy, Antoine Lavoisier, Arcueil Society, chemical nomenclature, chemist, chemistry, Claude-Louis Berthollet, Cuchet, Didot, explorer, French, geographer, Greek, language, Latin, Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, mathematician, nature, Paris, Pierre-Simon Laplace, pressure, quantity, reactants, solubility, temperature


In the study of nature, as in the practice of art, it is not given to man to achieve the goal without leaving a trail of dead ends he had pursued. — Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau

La Méthode de nomenclature chimique
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737-1816)
Paris: Cuchet, 1787
First edition, first issue
QD7 G85

Antoine Lavoisier’s discoveries made a new and rational chemical nomenclature imperative. Initiated by Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, the project was taken up by Lavoisier, who soon convinced Guyton of the sense of his new system. The two collaborated with Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748-1822) and Antoine de Fourcroy (1755-1809), all of whom put together Méthode de nomenclature, replacing traditional alchemical language with a new system, still the basis of the language of modern chemistry. The system was quickly accepted after initial mass resistance.


A chemical name should not be a phrase…it should recall the constituents of a compound; it should be non-committal if nothing is known about the substance; the names should preferably be coined from Latin or Greek, so that their meaning can be more widely and easily understood; the form of the words should be such that they fit easily into the language into which they are to be incorporated. — from La Méthode de nomenclature chimique


Essai de statique chimique
Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748-1822)
Paris: F. Didot, 1803
First edition

Trained as a physician, the French chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet attempted to provide a basis for chemistry so that its experimental results could be viewed in the light of theoretical first principles. In this attempt, Berthollet recognized the importance of the theory of affinity.

According to the Essai, there were two main types of force in nature: gravitation, which accounted for astronomical phenomena, and chemical affinity. Berthollet proved that chemical affinity was relative, varying with the physical conditions accompanying a chemical experiment: quantity, temperature, solubility, pressure, and physical state. Berthollet introduced the concept of ‘chemical mass’ — relative affinity combined with the mass of reactants in a chemical combination — to give the total force with which a given quantity of a substance reacted with another.

In his work, Berthollet was critical of some of Lavoisier’s theories. His experiments with acidity, for example, were more substantial than those of Lavoiser. Nonetheless, Berthollet’s theories were never particularly successful in the eyes of his contemporaries.

Still, Berthollet worked closely with some of the best scientific minds of the time: Mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) contributed two extensive footnotes to Essai. He and Berthollet eventually lived next door to each other, forming the Arcueil Society, along with geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), about whom Berthollet said, “This man is as knowledgeable as a whole academy.”

 

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Off With Their Heads!

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Académie des sciences, air flow, Antoine Lavoisier, architect, Architecte de la ville de Paris, beheading, Bernard Poyet, chapel, Claude Philibert Coquéau, Eiffel Tower, French, guillotine, hospital, Hôtel-Dieu, Ministry of the Interior, Montecello, Notre Dame, Paris, pharmacy, Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris, Seine, Thermidor, Thomas Jefferson, urban design

Memoire sur la necessite de transfer et…
Claude Philibert Coquéau (1755-1794)
Paris: s.n., 1785
Sole edition

This is architect Bernard Poyet’s proposal for the Paris public hospital (Hôtel-Dieu), then one of the busiest and least sanitary hospitals in the world (and that is saying something!). The hospital housed three to seven thousand patients a day in twelve hundred beds. Erected on the banks of the Seine by Notre Dame between 1200 and 1250, it was enlarged during the subsequent centuries in a haphazard manner. The original buildings suffered a series of fires between 1737 and 1772, leaving a large part of the complex destroyed. To replace the existing facility, Poyet (1742-1824), Architecte de la ville de Paris, conceived a circular building along the river, adjacent to where the Eiffel Tower stands today.

The wheel-shaped building would accommodate five thousand beds and allow for expansion. The ground floor would house the pharmacy, kitchens, administrative offices and other services. The upper floors were devoted to patient care, with sixteen rooms each accommodating eighty-four beds. The ring surrounded a circular courtyard with a freestanding chapel at its center. The plan included specialized outbuildings for birthing and highly contagious patients, large adjoining green spaces, an animal slaughter house. There were several critiques of Poyet’s plan, including that of the Académie des sciences, which objected to the building’s circular form. “The wards are too close as they approach the center…” The Académie was particularly concerned with “infected air” and the best means in which to vitiate it. Air flow was a huge concern. Wind flow was Poyet’s answer to this concern. He believed that the flow of water along the River Seine encouraged the flow of air.

Poyet sited his hospital on an island, maximizing water, and therefore air, flow. The long, spoked wards opened at the short ends, allowing winds to flow the length of the wards and into the open central courtyard.

The royal commission chose an alternative plan, which was not realized until the 19th-century. There is evidence, however, that Thomas Jefferson approved of Poyet’s hospital design and drew from it for his Montecello. Jefferson was in Paris at the time of the publication of this pamphlet.

Poyet continued to be involved in urban design schemes in Paris in the 1790s and in to the early 18th century. The author of this pamphlet, outlining Poyet’s plan, Claude Philibert Coquéau, was also a French architect. He joined the Ministry of the Interior in 1792.

Guilty by association, Coquéau was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris and guillotined on 8 Thermidor II.

Three folding etched plates illustrate Poyet’s design.

Rare Books copy in self-wrappers, stabbed as issued.


RELEVÉ DES PRINCIPALES ERREURS CONTENUES DANS LE…
Paris: s.n., 1785
Sole edition

This anonymous critique of Poyet’s ideas for a new hospital downplays general concerns for overcrowding in the current hospital, argues that Poyet’s estimation of twenty-five percent mortality rate is high, suggests the quality of service is just fine, and objects to numerous aspects of Poyet’s design, including the number of steps to the second floor. Our copy is distinguished by manuscript annotations on several pages by the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who points out the discrepancies between the Relevé’s contentions and the facts and clearly sympathizes with Poyet’s point of view. As a dedicated civil servant, Lavoisier was very interested in the reconstruction of the hospital, especially after the fire of 1772.

Lavoisier’s advocacy for renovation continued until he was beheaded in May 1794.

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Pioneers of Science — Now Online

05 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, College of Science, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Luise Poulton, Marie Curie, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, rare books, Scott Beadles, Special Collections, The University of Utah

photograph by Scott Beadles

“A library is as much a scientific instrument as a telescope.” — Luise Poulton

Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World now online.

Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the early masters of movable type figured out how to do it. Not only does the Marriott Library have this first edition, but also first editions of books by other pioneers of science: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

Presented for the 2017/2018 Frontiers of Science lecture series, College of Science and College of Mines and Earth Sciences, The University of Utah

Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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Join Us Tonight! — Pioneers of Science

28 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by scott beadles in Events

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Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, College of Science, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, rare books, Special Collections, The University of Utah

Thursday, September 28, 2017

ASB 220

Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World

Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the early masters of movable type figured out how to do it. Not only does the Marriott Library have this first edition, but also first editions of books by other pioneers of science: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

reception and rare book showing to follow lecture

 

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Rare Science

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Events, Recommended Lecture

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Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Edmond Halley, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, James Watson, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Michael Faraday, rare books, Rare Books Department, science, The University of Utah, William Gilbert

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The J. Willard Marriott Library has a great collection of seminal science works in its Rare Books Department. Visit level 3 of the library to see images from some of these books. Join us for a lecture on September 28.

Frontiers of Science

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Euclid to James Watson, scientists have put their findings to parchment and paper. Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the masters of movable type figured out how to do it. It has been in print ever since. Isaac Newton was reluctant to take the time, but his friend Edmond Halley insisted, and so we have Newton’s Principia, printed in 1687. The Marriott Library has first editions of both of these works, and first editions of books by other pioneers of science: William Gilbert, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

“Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World”
Thursday, September 28, 6:00PM
Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building
The University of Utah

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FOS Poulton Library Easel Poster

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You Come Too

05 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Events, Recommended Lecture

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Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, Antoine Lavoisier, Ben Bromley, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, College of Science, Dean Henry White, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Edmond Halley, Elements of Geometry, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, history, Isaac Newton, James Watson, Johannes Kepler, lecture, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Marriott Library, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, Principia, rare books, science, The University of Utah, William Gilbert

 

Delighting over the first edition of Isaac Newton's Principia

Delighting over the first edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia

Remember snow? Winter is coming! Last January, Dean Henry White, College of Science, and Ben Bromley, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, trudged through the snow to Rare Books to look at our first edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia (1687) and other books from our history of science collection.

You come too!

You are invited to “Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World,” the opening lecture for the College of Science‘s Frontiers of Science lecture series.

Join us for a lecture, reception, and hands-on display of some of our first editions of books that helped make the world what it is today.

From Euclid to James Watson, scientists have put their findings to parchment and paper. Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the masters of movable type figured out how to do it. It has been in print ever since. Isaac Newton was reluctant to take the time, but his friend Edmond Halley insisted, and so we have Newton’s Principia, printed in 1687. The Marriott Library has first editions of both of these works, and first editions of books by other pioneers of science: William Gilbert, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

Frontiers of Science

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World”
Thursday, September 28, 6:00PM
Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building
The University of Utah

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FOS Poulton Library Easel Poster

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