- Smith , J.G. 1979 . The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France Oxford
- For a sketch of Chaptal's career see Crosland M.P. Chaptal Dictionary of Scientific Biography New York 1970–80 III 198 203 16 vols Further interesting details can be gleaned from Chaptal's brief autobiography in J.A.C. Chaptal, Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon, edited by A. Chaptal (Paris, 1893), pp. 9–163. J. Pigeire, La vie et l'oeuvre de Chaptal (Paris, 1931) was written with access to the Chaptal papers, but is anecdotal and hence must be used with caution. Chaptal's papers have not been available to recent scholars. A referee of this article understands that many of the Chaptal papers used by Pigeire were destroyed during the Second World War (they were in a château in Normandy). However, one important document has survived (see below, footnote 35); this leaves hope that others may similarly turn up.
- Le Grand , H.E. 1984 . Theory and Application: the Early Chemical Work of J.A.C. Chaptal . British Journal for the History of Science , 17 : 31 – 46 .
- Le Grand , H.E. 1984 . Theory and Application: the Early Chemical Work of J.A.C. Chaptal . British Journal for the History of Science , 17 : 31 – 46 .
- Partington , J.R. 1961-70 . A History of Chemistry Vol. 4 , 450 – 450 . London III states that Chaptal said he was present at the large-scale experiments on analysis and synthesis of water carried out at the house of Lavoisier in February 1785. This assertion is spurious and based on a misleading translation. Partington's source is Chaptal's Chemistry Applied to the Arts, 4 vols (London, 1807), III, 436, where we read, ‘In February 1785, we operated at the house of Lavoisier…’ The original text in Chimie appliquée aux arts, 4 vols (Paris, 1807), III, 451, reads ‘En 1785, mois de février, on opéra chex Lavoisier…’ The indefinite pronoun construction should have been rendered as ‘[the combustion] was carried out at Lavoisier's home’ and cannot be taken as evidence of Chaptal's presence. Records of those famous experiments were signed by the witnesses and Chaptal's name is not among them. (The records are preserved among the manuscripts of the Lavoisier Collection in the Cornell University Librarics.)
- In the Chabrol Collection there are six letters from Chaptal to Lavoisier plus four draft replies in Lavoisier's hand, all from the period 1784–90. The only one of these letters previously known (in part) to historians is the last one from Lavoisier to Chaptal, excerpted by Grimaux E. Lavoisier, 1743–94 , second edition Paris 1896 126 126 and often cited from this source. The full text of each of these letters will appear in Oeuvres de Lavoisier—Correspondance, now under the editorship of R. Taton and M. Sadoun-Goupil. The next fascicle, covering the years 1784–86, is already in press.
- On the early careers of Fourcroy and Berthollet, as well as their response to Lavoisier, see Smeaton W.A. Fourcroy, Chemist and Revolutionary, 1755–1809 Cambridge 1962 H. E. Le Grand, ‘The “Conversion” of C. L. Berthollet to Lavoisier's chemistry’, Ambix, 22 (1975), 58–70; M. Sadoun-Goupil, Le Chimiste Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822). Sa vie—son oeuvre (Paris, 1977).
- Fourcroy acknowledged his debt to Bucquet in the preface to his first textbook Leçons élémentaires d'histoire naturelle et de chimie Paris 1782 i xxiv
- In addition Chaptal described himself in one of his earliest papers as ‘Professeur d'Histoire naturelle et de Chimie docimastique’; see Observations sur la physique 1781 17 365 365 Docimastic, or assaying, chemistry was, of course, Sage's bailiwick.
- Brief descriptions of these papers are given in Duveen D.I. Klickstein H.S. A Bibliography of the Works of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, 1743–1794 London 1954 41 51
- See McDonald E. The Collaboration of Bucquet and Lavoisier Ambix 1966 13 74 83 Arriving in Paris in 1777, Chaptal must have attended either in 1777–78 or 1778–79.
- Macquer , P.J. 1778 . Dictionnaire de chymie , second edition Vol. 4 , Paris see especially I, 348–52 (on Bayen and Lavoisier), III, 122–24 (equation of phlogiston with light) and III, 126–30 (critique of Buffon). Evidently, Macquer had completed his dictionary before Lavoisier read his controversial paper ‘On combustion in general’ in November 1777.
- Chaptal . 1893 . Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon Edited by: Chaptal , A. 26 – 26 . Paris
- Chaptal . 1782 . Mémoire sur la décomposition du soufre par l'acide nitreux . Observations sur la physique , 21 : 148 – 153 . Sulphur was understood in Chaptal's day to be a compound of vitriolic (sulphuric) acid and phlogiston. According to the conventional wisdom of the affinity tables, vitriolic acid had such a strong affinity for phlogiston that it could not be displaced by the other mineral acids.
- Lavoisier . 1779 . Mémoire sur l'existence de l'air dans l'acide nitreux, et sur les moyens de décomposer & de recomposer cet acide . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences , 1776 : 671 – 680 . The memoir was read on 20 April 1776 but first appeared in print more than three years later.
- Chaptal . 1783 . Théorie des détonnations chymiques . Observations sur la physique , 22 : 61 – 62 .
- For evidence that gold precipitates contain dephlogisticated air, Chaptal referred to the recent French translation of Scheele's C.W. Traité chimique de l'air et du feu Paris 1781 The ‘black flux’ was a mixed product from the deflagration of charcoal, metal filings, nitre, and excess tartar: J. Eklund, The Incompleat Chymist, Being an Essay on the Eighteenth-century Chemist in his Laboratory, with a Dictionary of Obsolete Chemical Terms of the Period, Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, 33 (Washington, 1975), p. 22.
- Chaptal . 1783 . Tableau analytique du cours de chymie Montpellier
- Chaptal . 1783 . Tableau analytique du cours de chymie 13 – 13 . Montpellier (Unless otherwise noted, all translations from the French are my own.) During that same year, Thomas Henry made similar remarks about the advantage of a palpable phlogiston in his translator's preface to A. L. Lavoisier, Essays, on the Effects Produced by Various Processes on Atmospheric Air; with a particular view to an investigation of the Constitution of the Acids (London, 1783).
- Chaptal . 1783 . Tableau analytique du cours de chymie 97 – 99 . Montpellier
- Chaptal . 1783 . Tableau analytique du cours de chymie 18 – 18 . Montpellier
- Chaptal . 1785 . Observations sur la décomposition de l'acide nitreux par le phosphore . Observations sur la physique , 26 : 187 – 191 . This paper was overlooked in Le Grand's otherwise thorough study of Chaptal's early work (footnote 3). The omission is unfortunate because this investigation was an important turning point in Chaptal's attitude toward Lavoisier's claims.
- Chaptal . 1785 . Observations sur la décomposition de l'acide nitreux par le phosphore . Observations sur la physique , 26 : 187 – 187 . I cannot resist the speculation that the celebrated chemist in question was none other than Sage. Among the prominent Parisian chemists Chaptal had met, his relations with Sage were the closest; they corresponded after Chaptal's return to Montpellier. Sage, moreover, had himself worked upon phosphorus and its acid. If this speculation is correct, the bad advice Chaptal received may have been a factor in his disillusionment with Sage.
- The design of the experimental apparatus appears to be borrowed directly from Lavoisier's procedure for reacting nitric acid with sugar to produce the acid of sugar (oxalic acid) in Considérations générales sur la nature des acides, et sur les principes dont ils sont composés Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences 1781 1778 535 547 252
- Chaptal . 1785 . Observations sur la décomposition de l'acide nitreux par le phosphore . Observations sur la physique , 26 : 190 – 190 .
- On 25 June 1783 Lavoisier and Laplace announced to the Academy the results of an experiment done the previous day in which they obtained water as a combustion product of combustible air (hydrogen) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen) Archives de l'Académie des Sciences Procés-verbaux 1783 138 138 The ‘approbation’ of Chaptal's Tableau (footnote 18) was dated 4 September 1783.
- Lavoisier . 1784 . Mémoire sur un procédé particulier pour convertir le phosphore en acide phosphorique sans combustion . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences , 1780 : 349 – 354 .
- Chaptal to Lavoisier Chabrol Collection 1784 June 29 Chaptal's opening sentence indicates that he had previously sent Lavoisier some of his publications, probably including his Tableau (in which he spoke favourably of Lavoisier's view of calcination and of acidity); if there was a covering letter, it has not been preserved with the others.
- Lavoisier to Chaptal Chabrol Collection 1784 July 18 Chaptal's memoir subsequently appeared in the March 1785 edition of Rozier's Journal (see footnote 22), with a note citing Lavoisier's earlier publication.
- Lavoisier read his first paper on the composition of water to the Academy at a public session on 12 November 1783; an anonymous extract (written by Lavoisier himself) was published in Rozier's Journal the following month Observations sur la physique 1789 23 452 455 The extract is skimpy on details, giving a brief description of the Lavoisier/Laplace experiment and mentioning similar results obtained by Monge and by Cavendish. A more detailed paper by Lavoisier and Meusnier on decomposition of water in a heated iron gun-barrel was read on 21 April 1784, also excerpted in Rozier's Journal (Observations sur la physique, 24 (1784), 368–80). Other periodicals, including the Journal de Paris, carried reports of the two papers, and the question was much discussed in correspondence during the first half of 1784. But the papers themselves, with full detail of the experiments, appeared in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1781 (1784) 269–83 and 468–94, available only in the autumn of that year.
- Chaptal to Lavoisier Chabrol Collection 1786 October 4
- Lavoisier to Chaptal Chabrol Collection 1786 October 14
- Chaptal to Lavoisier Chabrol Collection 1787 January 31
- The manuscript was sold at Sotheby's as Lot 1144 on 2 May 1979 (see Crosland M. Chemistry and the Chemical Revolution The Ferment of Knowledge Rousseau G.S. Porter Roy Cambridge 1980 403 403 in note 49). It was subsequently offered for sale by Jeremy Norton & Co., Catalogue 8: Twelve Manuscripts (San Francisco, 1980), pp. 23–5, from whom it was purchased by Cornell University. It is now located in the History of Science Collections of the Cornell University Libraries. I am grateful to David W. Corson and Lillian Clark for permission to examine the manuscript before it had been restored and catalogued. Unfortunately I was not able to study it as carefully as it deserves because of its fragile condition; in particular, folded notes could not be opened. The revisions in Chaptal's hand total c. 250 pp. Contrary to a comment in the Norton catalogue, this manuscript was seen in the 1930s by Chaptal's biographer, J. Pigeire (footnote 2), for on p. 118 he quotes a remark comparing the state of chemistry with a political revolution—an autograph entry taken from the flyleaf of the revised Tableau.
- Chaptal , MS . 1980 . “ Chemistry and the Chemical Revolution ” . In The Ferment of Knowledge Edited by: Rousseau , G.S. and Porter , Roy . 403 – 403 . Cambridge in interleaf following p. 10.
- Chaptal , MS . 1980 . “ Chemistry and the Chemical Revolution ” . In The Ferment of Knowledge Edited by: Rousseau , G.S. and Porter , Roy . 16 – 16 . Cambridge in between and 17
- Lavoisier's . 1784 . Mémoire sur la chaleur . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences , 1780 : 355 – 408 . appeared in 1784. However, Chaptal may have obtained one of the copies issued separately in 1783.
- Chaptal to Lavoisier Chabrol Collection 1787 January 31 Before publication, Chaptal altered the title of his paper, perhaps in the light fo Lavoisier's criticism, to ‘Observations sur l'acide carbonique fourni par la fermentation des raisins, & sur l'acide acéteux que résulte de sa combinaison avec l'eau’, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1786 (1788), 718–23. Chaptal's manuscript is not available to compare with the printed version, so it is not clear whether he altered the main text. The printed text does not explain the suggestion in the new title that the carbonic acid combines with water to form acetic acid.
- January 1787 . Chabrol Collection January , 721 – 721 . 31
- Chaptal to Lavoisier Chabrol Collection 1787 April 4
- Lavoisier to Chaptal Chabrol Collection 1787 April 28
- Chaptal . 1788 . Observation sur l'influence de l'air & de la lumière dans la végétation des sels . Observations sur la physique , 33 : 297 – 301 . Chaptal's decision to shift the article to Rozier's Journal may have been motivated by a desire for more rapid publication. Lavoisier's reply to Chaptal's 1788 letter has not turned up.
- Chaptel to Lavoisier. Chabrol Collection 1788 February 6
- Chaptal to Lavoisier Chabrol Collection 1790 March 11
- Lavoisier to Chaptal, n.d. Chabrol Collection 1790 This is the same letter from which Grimaux (footnote 6) published an excerpt; he gave 1791 (on what grounds I do not know) as the date. Since it is a reply to Chaptal's letter of 11 March 1790 (and since Lavoisier was still awaiting receipt of Chaptal's textbook) I believe that 1790 is a much more probable date.
- On the establishment and growth of Chaptal's factory see Smith The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France Oxford 1979 20 24
- Chaptal . October 1786 . Chabrol Collection October , 4 Throughout this discussion I have translated the word livre as pound, where it refers to a unit of weight; it implies the old French measure used by Chaptal, not the English pound. A quintal is 100 pounds. On the other hand, where it refers to the unit of currency used under the ancien régime, I have retained the word livre. A livre was divided into 20 sous, each sou into 12 deniers.
- On the saltpetre concession to Chatel/Holker, which was terminated in 1781, see Smith The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France Oxford 1979 10 12 26.
- Lavoisier . October 1786 . Chabrol Collection October , 14 Crude saltpetre, delivered to the Régie's refineries by the ‘salpêtriers’, contained about 30 per cent waste. After an initial refining, the product still contained about 10 per cent waste and was known as ‘salpêtre deux cuites’. A second refining yielded the purified product known as ‘salpêtre trois cuites’. See Oeuvres de Lavoisier, 6 vols (Paris, 1862–93), v, 614–5.
- On Dietrich see Perrin C.E. A Lost Identity: Philippe Frédéric, Baron de Dietrich (1748–1793) Isis 1982 73 545 551 Some of the information above is taken from the manuscript ‘Mémoire sur les services du Baron de Dietrich’, in the private Archives De Dietrich, Carton lix, 7°. I am indebted to the Baron Gilbert de Dietrich for permission to consult these papers and to photocopy some key items.
- Chaptal . April 1787 . Chabrol Collection April , 4
- Chaptal . April 1787 . Chabrol Collection April , 4
- Lavoisier . April 1787 . Chabrol Collection April , 28
- Lavoisier to Dietrich Archives De Dietrich, Carton LXIV A, 21°, n° 13 1787 October 9 The discussion at the Arsenal is summarized in the report Lavoisier prepared; see Oeuvres (footnote 50), vi, 69–73, where it is misdated 1786.
- November 1787 . Rome (head of the Languedoc delegation) to Lavoisier November , 3 Bibliothèque de Clermont-Ferrand, MS 339, fol. 221. This document also contains the draft reply from Lavoisier to Rome, 14 October 1787. The manuscript copy of Lavoisier's report with marginal alterations by the delegates is in the Archives de l'Académie des Sciences, Lavoisier Papers (among items recently returned to the Academy from the Chabrol Collection). The delegates stressed that Chaptal's factory differed from aqua fortis distilleries in that it encompassed the whole range of chemical products. They also objected to Lavoisier's reference to a ‘considération particulière’ for Chaptal, insisting that the plant's success did not merely concern Chaptal's private interest but was integrally bound up with the general development of industry and commerce in the province.
- Lavoisier to Rome Rome (head of the Languedoc delegation) to Lavoisier 1787 November 3
- Chaptal . February 1788 . Chaptel to Lavoisier February , 6
- Pigeire . 1970–80 . “ Chaptal ” . In Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. III , 151 – 151 . New York 16 vols 2
- C. Gerber, ‘Le fabricant de produits chimiques Chaptal et la question du salpêtre’. Bulletin de la Société d'historie de la pharmacie, 4 (1925–27), 185–94 (plus Plates XIX–XXI, following p. 214).
- Chaptal . March 1790 . Chabrol Collection March , 11
- Bibliothèque Universitaire de Montpellier, MS. 561 bis, t. III, 4° Si les vapeurs qui s'exhalent de la fabrique des sieurs Chaptal et Bérard, chimistes, sont nuisibles aux productions des champs voisions 1791 May 24
- Smith . 1979 . The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France 28 – 28 . Oxford
- Chaptal . October 1786 . Chabrol Collection October , 4 in 1786 referred to his establishment as ‘le plus grand en ce genre qu'on connoisse’.
- Smith . 1979 . The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France 23 – 23 . Oxford
- This copy is preserved with the Chaptal-Lavoisier correspondence in the Chabrol Collection. It probably dates from the late 1780s (or perhaps early 1790). Since the products are said to bear Chaptal's coat of arms, the prospectus must have been printed after May 1788 when Chaptal received that honour. The prospectus may have been enclosed with Chaptal's letter of March 1790. A similar prospectus issued in April 1785 listed about half as many items; see Gerber The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France Oxford 1979 27 27 Plates XIX–XXI. Prices are much the same on the two lists, although a few items show an increase. Esprit de vitriol rose from 6 to 8 sous per pound, while aqua fortis continued to range from 1 to 3 livres per pound according to the degree of concentration.
- Le Grand . 1984 . Theory and Application: the Early Chemical Work of J.A.C. Chaptal . British Journal for the History of Science , 17 : 32 – 32 .
- Chaptal . 1781 . Premier mémoire sur quelques établissemens utiles à la province de Languedoc . Observations sur la physique , 17 : 365 – 369 .
- Chaptal . 1781 . Premier mémoire sur quelques établissemens utiles à la province de Languedoc . Observations sur la physique , 17 : 365 – 365 .
- Smith . 1979 . The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France 19 – 19 . Oxford
- Chaptal . 1782 . Mémoire sur la décomposition du soufre par l'acide nitreux . Observations sur la physique , 21 : 148 – 153 . The technical context of eighteenth-century manufacture of sulphuric acid and early interpretations of the role of nitre in the lead chamber process are clearly explained by Smith (footnote 1), 54–64.
- Chaptal . 1782 . Mémoire sur la décomposition du soufre par l'acide nitreux . Observations sur la physique , 21 : 149 – 149 . As a referee of this article points out, the idea that nitric acid (of the nitre) acted upon sulphur by its affinity for phlogiston was not original with Chaptal. It was stated explicitly, for example, by L. G. De La Follie, ‘Supplément d'expériences et observations concernant la fabrication de l'huile de vitriol,’ Observations sur la physique, 10 (1777), 139–144, on p. 142. Since Chaptal made no mention of De La Follie, it is a moot point whether he was familiar with the article. He implies that the idea had occurred to him independently. At any rate, Chaptal's original contribution was to verify that conjecture, by demonstrating that sulphuric acid could be made by direct action of nitric acid on sulphur.
- Chaptal . 1782 . Mémoire sur la décomposition du soufre par l'acide nitreux . Observations sur la physique , 21 : 152 – 152 .
- Chaptal . 1785 . Observations sur la décomposition de l'acide nitreux par le phosphore . Observations sur la physique , 26 : 187 – 191 .
- Chaptal . 1791 . Elements of Chemistry Vol. I , iv – iv . London translated by W. Nicholson, 3 vols
- Le Grand . 1984 . Theory and Application: the Early Chemical Work of J.A.C. Chaptal . British Journal for the History of Science , 17 : 42 – 42 .
- Chaptal . 1789 . Observations sur quelques phénomènes que nous présente la combustion du soufre . Annales de chimie , 2 : 86 – 92 .
- Chaptal . 1789 . Observations sur quelques phénomènes que nous présente la combustion du soufre . Annales de chimie , 2 : 86 – 86 .
- Chaptal . October 1786 . Chabrol Collection October , 4
- In 1790 Chaptal did, in fact, express such a Lavoisierian interpretation of the process in his textbook; see Chaptal Elements of Chemistry London 1791 III 258 260 translated by W. Nicholson, 3 vols Moreover, he seems to have done an experiment to test this conjecture, for he commented: ‘If the sulphuric acid be digested upon the ether, it converts the whole gradually into etherial oil’ (p. 259). For a fuller discussion of the action of sulphuric acid on alcohol, and expecially for the study carried out by Fourcroy and Vauquelin, see W. A. Smeaton, Fourcroy, Chemist and Revolutionary, 1755–1809 (Cambridge, 1962), pp. 169–172.
- Chaptal . 1783 . Tableau analytique du cours de chymie 192 – 192 . Montpellier
- Cadet de Gassicourt , L.C. 1778 . Méthode pour faire l'éther vitriolique en plus grande abondance, plus facilement, & avec moins de dépense qu'on ne l'a fait jusqu'ici . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences , 1774 : 524 – 524 . 33
- Chaptal . 1791 . Observations sur la manière de former l'alun par la combinaison directe de ses principes constituans . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences , 1788 : 768 – 777 . (p. 770). A referee of this article suggested that perhaps Chaptal's thinking might have owed something to his experiments at about this same time with the use of chlorine as a gaseous bleaching agent.
- Chaptal . 1788 . Observation sur l'influence de l'air & de la lumière dans la végétation des sels . Observations sur la physique , 33 : 301 – 301 .
- Smith . 1979 . The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France 24 – 24 . Oxford
- Chaptal . 1970–80 . “ Chaptal ” . In Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. III , 26 – 27 . New York 16 vols 28
- Kirwan , R. 1968 . An Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids , Cass reprint edition 5 – 5 . London and p. xvii
- The general problem of the relationship between eighteenth-century science and industry is examined by Gillispie C.C. The Natural History of Industry Isis 1957 48 398 407 On the French context of applied science in that period see Gillispie's informative Science and Polity in France at the End of the Old Regime (Princeton, 1980).
- Chaptal . 1970–80 . “ Chaptal ” . In Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. III , 31 – 31 . New York 16 vols
- Hall , A.R. 1974 . “ What did the Industrial Revolution in Britain owe to Science? ” . In Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society in honour of J. H. Plumb Edited by: McKendrick , N. 129 – 151 . London in (p. 145)
- Le Grand . 1984 . Theory and Application: the Early Chemical Work of J.A.C. Chaptal . British Journal for the History of Science , 17 : 41 – 41 .
- My results support the conclusion of Smith The Origins and Early Development of the Heavy Chemical Industry in France Oxford 1979 312 312 It is remarkable how many of the early pioneers and manufacturers were instructed in chemistry…. And their grounding in chemistry was by no means irrelevant to their work: though workshop experience and empiricism still counted for much, they were able to profit from their knowledge of chemical properties, and from their familiarity with analytical and other laboratory techniques, in the development of manufacturing methods, in the solution of problems that arose, and in the day-to-day running of the works’.
Annals of Science
Volume 43, 1986 - Issue 6
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