Memoirs on Calcination and Combustion

By Antoine Lavoisier

Lavoisier's early experiments in the calcination of tin, and other metals, laid the foundation for a revolution in chemistry.

The memoirs translated in this volume are landmarks in the development of his thought, and in the history of modern science. To read them is to think alongside one of the great minds in the entire history of science.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jacques Duvoisin
• Release date: Dec 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393412885

Book preview

Introduction

Lavoisier’s early experiments in the calcination of tin, and other metals, laid the foundation for a revolution in chemistry. The memoirs translated in this volume are landmarks in the development of his thought, and in the history of modern science. To read them is to think alongside one of the great minds in the entire history of science.

What follows is a table of weights and measures, to aid in reading Lavoisier’s account of his experimental results. I have expressed his units both in relation to each other, and with approximate equivalences to the more modern units of the metric system.

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Weights

1 Livre = 16 onces [~1 pound]

1 once = 8 gros [~ 1 ounce, or 30.6g]

I gros = 24 scruples [~3.8g]

1 scruple = 24 grains

1 grain is ~0.0066g

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Lengths

1 pouce [~1 inch, or 2.7cm] is 1/12 th of a pied

1 cubic pouce [~20ml] = 1/48 th of a pinte [~2 US pints]

1 ligne [~2.26mm] = 1/12 th pouce

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To give a few examples,

1 grain is 1/576 of 1 gros, and 1/4608 of 1 once.

1 livre, which is ~1 pound, is also 128 gros.

1 pouce, which is ~1 inch, is 12 lignes. It is used as a basic unit of length in Lavoisier’s experiments.

1 cubic pouce is his basic unit of volume, and is ~20 cubic centimeters, or 20ml.

1

On the Calcination of Tin in Closed Vessels {1774}

… and the cause of the increase in weight this metal acquires during this operation.

The results of experiments, which I have described in chapters V & VI of a book I published at the beginning of this year under the title Physical and Chemical Works, show that when one calcinates lead or tin with a magnifying glass under a bell jar submerged in water or mercury, the volume of air is diminished by approximately one twentieth by the effect of the calcination, and that the weight of the metal is found to be augmented by a quantity almost equal to that of the air destroyed or absorbed.

I thought it possible to conclude from these experiments that a portion of the air itself, or of some matter or other contained in the air, and which exists there in a state of elasticity, had combined itself with the metals during the calcination, and that the augmentation in weight of the metallic calx was due to this cause.

The effervescence, which constantly takes place in all revivifications of metallic calxes, that is to say, every time a metallic substance passes from the state of a calx to that of a metal, lends support to this theory. I believe to have proved that this effervescence is due to the disengagement of an elastic fluid, a species of air, which can be collected and measured. One result of the several experiments I have carried out on this fluid is that, when it has been separated from these metals, by