Guillaume-François Rouelle

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Guillaume-François Rouelle

Guillaume-François Rouelle (born September 15, 1703 in Mathieu , † August 3, 1770 in Passy (Paris)) was a French chemist .

Life

The son of Jacques Rouelle and his wife Marie Bougon grew up in a well-off rural family and is said to have developed a great curiosity from an early age. This curiosity aroused in him the urge to constantly develop. His younger brother was Hilaire-Marin Rouelle and also a chemist. After training at the Collège du Bois in Caen , he then began studying at the University of Caen . Here he had devoted himself primarily to chemistry at the medical school.

He continued his studies in Paris. In 1730 he joined the former laboratory of Nicolas Lémery and worked under the German pharmacist Johann Gottlob Spitzley (1690–1750). The laboratory was on rue Saint-André-des-Arts . Here he worked for seven years.

Later, from 1737, he settled down as a pharmacist and set up his own research laboratory on Place Maubert . Through his experiments and lectures he had gained such a reputation that he u. a. by recommending Georges-Louis Leclerc in 1743 the demonstrator, démonstrateur of Chemistry in the Jardin du Roi was appointed. After the death of the chemist Gilles-François Boulduc (1675–1741), this position was vacant.

There, in the Jardin des Plantes , a precise distinction was made between teachers, in the sense of actually “reading”, for example by Professor Louis-Claude Bourdelin (1696–1777), and demonstrators, in the sense of “pointing”, by Guillaume-François Rouelle, met or institutionalized. In a report from the Correspondance littéraire from August 1770 this fact was reproduced; when Louis-Claude Bourdelin had finished his lecture, he ended with the phrase:

"[...] Comme monsieur le demonstrateur va vous le prouver par ses expériences [...]"

"[...] Comme monsieur ... As the demonstrator will prove to you through his experiments."

- Wolf Lepenies : The End of Natural History 1978)

On the other hand, Rouelle opened his demonstration or experiments with the following words:

"[...] Messieurs, tout ce que monsieur le professeur vient de vous dire est absurd et faux, comme je vais vous le prouver. [...]"

"[...] Gentlemen, everything the professor said is absurd and wrong, as I will prove to you in a moment."

- Wolf Lepenies : The End of Natural History 1978)

His courses, demonstrations and lectures were attended by numerous members of the intellectual elite, including Denis Diderot , Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach , Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier and Antoine Parmentier .

The location of the Jardin du Roi in 1730 from the plan from Paris to Roussel. Green-colored area near the Seine

On May 6, 1744, Rouelle was appointed to the Académie royale des sciences as chemistry adjoint, adjoint-chimiste , of which he became an associate member from 1752. In 1746 his laboratory moved to Rue Jacob , on the corner of Rue des Deux-Anges , where he continued his previous activities. He also applied to join the community of pharmacists in Paris, communauté des apothicaires de Paris . He turned down the position of first pharmacist, premier apothicaire of Louis XV. instead, he took on the role of General Inspector of Pharmacy, inspecteur général de la pharmacie at the Hôtel-Dieu . Rouelle was married to Anne Mondon and they had a total of twelve children. Her daughter Françoise-Julie Rouelle (approx. 1752–1788) married the chemist Jean Darcet (1724–1801) in 1771 .

In 1768 he resigned from his chair. Among other things, he was a member of the Academy of Non-profit Sciences in Erfurt and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .

Act

Rouelle can be seen as a pioneer of modern chemistry in France. Through his lectures he trained the best chemists who worked in France at the end of the 18th century. For example, Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier was one of his students from 1761. But Denis Diderot also regularly attended his lectures in the Jardin du Roi from 1754 to 1757 . Another encyclopedia, Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach , dealt with the content of his lectures and chemistry almost at the same time.

Through the distillation of tin chloride and wine spirit, he discovered the light salt ether ( hydrogen chloride ether ) in 1759 , studied tartaric acid salts and the effects of sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) on fats and essential oils . His research enabled him to define the term salt more precisely, dividing it into neutral, acidic and basic salts. As early as 1754 he was using the term base as the opposite of acid .

He developed a general theory of salts , for which he divided the neutral salts into two large classes, depending on the various amounts of water that were needed to bring them into solution . These main classes have now been further subdivided; later other methods of classifying the shape of the crystals , the way they were formed, etc. a. m. added. Ultimately, the scheme ended up in two main classes, divided into six sub-classes and then according to the acid and base residues which they each contained.

Rouelle was a supporter of the phlogiston theory of Georg Ernst Stahl , whose considerations he shared. Nevertheless, the concept of phlogiston by Stahl and Johann Juncker is reassessed by Rouelle. For Rouelle the phlogiston was only a "fuel" and not, as in the consideration of steel, an aspect of the "earth" or the "earthen" of terra pinguis or greasy earth, it corresponded to the oily liquid of the alchemists , the substances oily and sulphurous and imparted flammable property.

Fonts (selection)

  • Memoire sur les Sels neutres, Dans lequel on propose une division méthodique de ces Sels, qui facilite les moyens pour parvenir à la théorie de leur crystallisation . In: Histoire de l'Acadêmie Royale des Sciences . Paris 1744, pp. 353-364 (online) .
  • Sur le Sel marin (Premiere partie.) De la crystallisation du Sel marin . In: Histoire de l'Acadêmie Royale des Sciences . Paris 1745, pp. 57-79 (online) .
  • Sur L'inflammation de l'huile de Térébinthine, par l'acide nitreux pur, suivant le procédé de Borrichius; Et sur l'inflammation de plusieurs huiles essentielles, & par expression avec le méme acide, & conjointement avec l'acide vitriolique . In: Histoire de l'Acadêmie Royale des Sciences . Paris 1747, pp. 34-56 (online) .
  • Sur les Embaumemens des Egyptiens, Premier Mémoire, Dans lequel on fait voir que les fondemens de l'art des Embaumemens égyptiens sont en partie contenus dans la description, qu'en a donné Hérodote, & où l'on détermine quelles sont matières qu ' on employoit dans ces Embaumemens . In: Histoire de l'Acadêmie Royale des Sciences . Paris 1750, pp. 123-150 (online) .
  • Mémoire sur les Sels neutres, Dans lequel on fait connoitre deux nouvelles classes de Sels neutres, & l'on développe le phénomène singulier de l'excès d'acide dans ces sels . In: Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences . Paris 1754, pp. 572-588 (online) .

literature

  • Paul-Antoine Cap: Éloge de M. Rouelle. In: Histoire de l'Acadêmie Royale des Sciences. Paris 1770, pp. 137–149 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  • Rémi Franckowiak: Les sels neutres de Guillaume-François Rouelle / The neutral salts of Guillaume-François Rouelle. In: Revue d'histoire des sciences. Vol. 55 (2002), H. 4, pp. 493-532, doi: 10.3406 / rhs.2002.2163 (free full text).
  • Rémi Franckowiak: Rouelle, un vrai-faux anti-newtonien. In: Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences . Vol. 53 (2003), H. 150/151 (2003), pp. 240-255.
  • Michaela Hörmann: The expansion of chemistry terminology in France in the 18th century. Diplomica, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-8386-0210-2
  • Jean Mayer: Portrait d'un chimiste: Guillaume-Frangois Rouelle (1703-1770). In: Revue d'histoire des sciences et de leurs applications. Vol. 23 (1970), H. 4, pp. 305-332, doi: 10.3406 / rhs.1970.3162 (free full text).
  • Rhoda Rappaport: G.-F. Rouelle: An Eighteenth-Century Chemist and Teacher. In: Chymia. Vol. 6 (1960), pp. 68-101, doi: 10.2307 / 27757193 , JSTOR 27757193 .
  • Rhoda Rappaport: Rouelle and Stahl - The Phlogistic Revolution in France. In: Chymia. Vol. 7 (1961), pp. 73-102, doi: 10.2307 / 27757206 , JSTOR 27757206 .
  • Rhoda Rappaport: Rouelle, Guillaume-François. In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Volume 11, Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit 2008, pp. 562-564 ( online ).
  • Elizabeth A. Williams: A Cultural History of Medical Vitalism in Enlightenment Montpellier (The History of Medicine in Context). Ashgate Publishing Limited Hants UK 2003, ISBN 0-7546-0881-6 , pp. 119 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences. Didot frères, fils et cie, (1773) Éloge de Guillaume-François Rouelle par Grandjean de Fouchy (PDF; 724 kB).
  2. ↑ Jaime Wisniak: Nicolas Lemery . In: Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas . Volume 36, number 2, 2005, p. 125 ( PDF ).
  3. ↑ Pierre Lemay: Les cours de Guillaume-François Rouelle. In: Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie. Volume 37, number 123, 1949, pp. 434-442, doi: 10.3406 / pharm. 1949.10949 (free full text).
  4. ↑ Kim, Mi Gyung: Affinity, That Elusive Dream. A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution. Cambridge Massachusetts, London England, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003) ISBN 0-262-11273-6 , pp. 161-218
  5. ↑ Ursula Klein: Connection and affinity: The foundation of modern chemistry at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century. Birkhäuser Verlag (1994) ISBN 3-7643-5003-2 p. 191
  6. ↑ a b Wolf Lepenies: The end of natural history. Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1978) ISBN 3-518-07827-5 , p. 31
  7. ↑ Jean Gaudant: Guillaume François Rouelle (1703-1770), précurseur d'un enseignement géologique en France. Comptes Rendus Palevol, (Volume 3 Number 1) pp. 85-98 (2004) doi: 10.1016 / j.crpv.2003.10.004
  8. ↑ Elizabeth A. Williams: A Cultural History of Medical Vitalism in Enlightenment Montpellier (The History of Medicine in Context). Ashgate Publishing Limited Hants UK (2003) ISBN 0-7546-0881-6 , pp. 119 ff.
  9. ↑ Christian Warolin: Extrait du Dictionnaire d'Histoire de la Pharmacie. Editions Pharmathèmes, Ouvrage Collectif sous la Direction de O. Lafont, 2003, rubrique Rouelle, p 363, (avec l'autorisation de l'éditeur) a biography of the Société d'Histoire de la Pharmacie by Christian Warolin
  10. ↑ Genealogy of the Darcet family (French)
  11. ^ Beretta, Marco: Rinman , Diderot, and Lavoisier: New Evidence Regarding Guillaume François Rouelle's Private Laboratory and Chemistry Course. Nuncius, Volume 26, Number 2, 2011, pp. 355-379 (25) doi: 10.1163 / 182539111X596667
  12. ^ Williams, Elizabeth A .: A Cultural History of Medical Vitalism in Enlightenment Montpellier (The History of Medicine in Context). Ashgate Publishing Limited Hants UK (2003) ISBN 0-7546-0881-6 , pp. 119 ff
  13. ^ Beretta, Marco: Rinman, Diderot, and Lavoisier: New Evidence Regarding Guillaume François Rouelle's Private Laboratory and Chemistry Course. Nuncius, Volume 26, Number 2, 2011, pp. 355-379 (25) doi: 10.1163 / 182539111X596667
  14. ↑ Kim, Mi Gyung: Affinity, That Elusive Dream. A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution. Cambridge Massachusetts, London England, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003) ISBN 0-262-11273-6 pp. 191-192
  15. ↑ Guillaume-François Rouelle: Mémoire sur les sels neutres, dans lequel on fait connoître deux nouvelles classes de sels neutres, & l'on dévelope le phenomème singulier de l'excès d'acide dans ces sels. Mémoires (1754) pp. 572-588
  16. ↑ Martin Fichman: French Stahlism and Chemical Studies of Air, 1750-1770 . In: Ambix . tape 18 , no. 2 , 1971, p. 94-122 , doi : 10.1179 / amb.1971.18.2.94 .
  17. ↑ Ströker, Elisabeth : theory change in the history of science. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main (1982) ISBN 3-465-01496-0 , p. 144 ff
personal data
SURNAME Rouelle, Guillaume-François
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rouelle, Guillaume-François the Elder
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French chemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1703
PLACE OF BIRTH Mathieu
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1770
Place of death Passy