Knowra Chemical Revolution Chemical Revolution The eighteenth-century transformation in chemistry that replaced phlogiston theory with quantitative, oxygen-based explanations of combustion and related reactions.
Phlogiston theory : A theory that explained combustion and calcination by the release of a substance called phlogiston. The Chemical Revolution displaced this influential account of combustion.
Pneumatic chemistry : The study of gases and their chemical properties, especially prominent in eighteenth-century chemistry. Experiments with gases supplied evidence that older theories struggled to explain.
Traité élémentaire de chimie : Antoine Lavoisier’s 1789 textbook presenting a systematic account of the new chemistry. It codified the oxygen theory, new nomenclature, and a reformed list of elements.
Mikhail Lomonosov : A Russian polymath who studied matter, heat, and chemical processes in the eighteenth century. His earlier advocacy of mass conservation complicates claims that Lavoisier originated the principle.
Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier : A French scientific collaborator, illustrator, and translator who worked closely with Antoine Lavoisier. Her translations, illustrations, and laboratory work helped communicate and document the new chemistry.
Combustion : A chemical reaction in which a substance reacts rapidly with an oxidant, usually releasing heat and light. Explaining combustion through oxygen rather than phlogiston became a decisive test of the new chemistry.
Joseph Priestley : An English natural philosopher who isolated several gases, including the gas Lavoisier named oxygen. His oxygen experiments helped prompt Lavoisier’s reinterpretation of combustion.
Law of conservation of mass : The principle that mass is conserved in chemical reactions within a closed system. Quantitative reaction analysis made conservation of mass a central chemical principle.
Georg Ernst Stahl : A German physician and chemist who developed the influential eighteenth-century version of phlogiston theory. His formulation helped make phlogiston the framework the revolution challenged.
Richard Kirwan : An Irish chemist and geologist who defended phlogiston theory before accepting the oxygen theory. His public exchange with Lavoisier’s circle exposed the revolution’s central theoretical dispute.
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