Respiration is a combustion, like a candle
Aphorism
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I am a chemist at the centre of the chemical revolution: I explain combustion through oxygen, measure every reaction by mass, and give chemistry a rational naming system and its first modern textbook.
Established quantitative chemistry by balance
4 milestones
Transformed chemistry into a measurement-based science through balances and systematic nomenclature.
Established a philanthropic laboratory to make experimental science accessible to a wider public.
With Laplace and others showed water forms from gases, overturning its elemental status.
Invested time and funds to tackle Paris issues: drinking water, hospital rebuilding, and ventilation.
I weighed the reactants and products of reactions in sealed glass vessels so no gas could escape, and in 1774 showed the total mass is the same at the end of every chemical change as at the start.
My research method was to make every experiment answer to one framework and to keep balance sheets for all of it — accuracy in experiment tied to rigour of reasoning, which is what turned chemistry into a science.
As Secretary of the Royal Commission on Agriculture I ran an experimental farm in the Sologne for ten years, introducing new crops and livestock, and reported in 1788 that the tax system blocked reform.