In 1789, the year of the French Revolution, Antoine Lavoisier published Traite elementaire de chimie, the first modern chemistry textbook. It stated the law of conservation of mass, that matter is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction, rejected the phlogiston theory, explained combustion as combination with oxygen, and gave a list of 33 elements, as substances that could not be broken down further, with a new systematic nomenclature devised with Guyton de Morveau, Berthollet and Fourcroy. Lavoisier was a tax collector and was guillotined on 8 May 1794 during the Terror, when the judge reportedly said the Republic had no need of scientists.
Before and after
- 22 February 1788Birth of Arthur Schopenhauer
- 1789Discovery of zirconium
- 1789Discovery of uranium
- 1789Discovery of carbon
- 1789Lavoisier publishes his Elementary Treatise on Chemistry
- 16 March 1789Birth of Georg Simon Ohm
- 28 April 1789Mutiny on the Bounty
- 20 June 1789Tennis Court Oath
- from 14 July 1789 to 9 November 1799French Revolution
More in Science & technology
- 1774Discovery of chlorine
- 30 June 1808Discovery of boron
- 1823Discovery of silicon
- 6 March 1869Periodic table
- 1884Car
- 1894Discovery of argon
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.