Antoine Laurent Lavoisier: Father of the Organization of Chemistry

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier; (August 26, 1743-May 8, 1794), was a French Nobleman who was noted for many things, but, was primarily noted for his contributions to the science of Chemistry; in fact, he could probably be called the father of the organization of chemistry. (Wilkipedia Antoine Lavoisier)

Antoine Lavoisier was assisted in his work by his wife who was extremely intelligent in her own right; they were childless.

At the time of Lavoisier's work, chemistry lagged behind other sciences. The primary reason for this, was that researchers and scientists were laboring under the misguided idea that all combustion was caused by a chemical, or component, called "phlogiston"; in other words, its existence in large or small quantities had to do with how things burned; rather than their individual reactions to oxygen and other chemical reactions. Lavoisier successfully denounced that erroneous concept and ultimately showed how chemical reactions did work. (Hart, pp 184, 185)

Ultimately, Lavoisier published a textbook which has become the basis for modern chemistry, and, has been considered the classic work on the subject.. "Elements of Chemistry" was published in 1789.

Again, while Lavoisier was involved in many discoveries, and, a lot of pioneering work, another key discovery was the discovery that humans "burned" calories or, created respiration. In other words that our existence was literally fueled by the burning of the food that we took in with oxygen and nitrogen. This was considered a monumental work. (Hart page 185)

Also, of great important was his discovery that energy mass was not destroyed. That of compound mass. He carefully weighed all the various compounds. At any rate, he found that mass simply went through changes when used; it was not; "used up". This was a very important discovery.

Additionally, as a result of the preceding work; today, we have the complete compound table including weight. While Lavoisier was not 100% correct in his work in this area; he was mostly correct.