Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin

Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin (born May 16, 1763 in Saint-André-d'Hébertot ( Normandy ), † November 14, 1829 there ) was a French pharmacist and chemist .

Life

Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin was the son of Nicolas Vauquelin (1729–1782) and his wife Catherine le Chartier (1728–1820). His younger brother was Jean Nicolas Vauquelin (1765-1815). Even in his early childhood and adolescence, he worked as a farm worker on a farm that his father managed.

Vauquelin made his first acquaintance with chemistry in a pharmacy in Rouen , where he worked as a laboratory assistant from 1777 to 1779 and completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist. After several changes he was from 1783/84 to 1791/92 assistant to the chemist Antoine François de Fourcroy in Paris. Initially, Vauquelin's publications appeared as those of his superior, later using both names. From 1790 Vauquelin published under his own name. By 1833 there were 376 publications. Mostly they describe elaborate separation processes and analyzes. While investigating various substances, Vauquelin discovered two chemical elements: beryllium and chromium . With Fourcroy he discovered osmium in platinum at the same time as Smithson Tennant and they called this metal ptène .

He was temporarily general inspector for mining, taught at the mining school (Ecole des Mines) and the Polytechnic, at the Jardin des Plantes ( Muséum national d'histoire naturelle ) and the Collège de France . He also held other high positions, for example in the control of pharmacies and as an expert in gold and silver analysis. In 1809 he became a professor at the Sorbonne as successor to Fourcroy. There he trained many well-known chemists, giving lectures as well as practical laboratory courses.

In 1828 he became a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the French Parliament. Vauquelin died in November 1829 while visiting his hometown.

In 1791 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences and began editing the Annales de chimie .

In 1808 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1812 he was elected a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1820 a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . Since 1823 he was a foreign member ( Foreign Member ) of the Royal Society . In 1816 he became a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1826 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

The house where Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin was born in Saint-André-d'Hébertot

Act

Through his analytical and preparative work, Vauquelin enriched the chemistry and mineralogy of his time. Along with Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac , Claude Louis Berthollet , and François Antoine Henri Descroizilles (1751-1825), he was one of the pioneers of titrimetry . He also helped gravimetry as an analytical method to gain a new reputation alongside Martin Heinrich Klaproth and Richard Kirwan . Above all, his “obsession with description” was important, with which he quickly disseminated knowledge and methods and made them comprehensible. In 1797, independently of Klaproth, Vauquelin discovered the element chromium in red lead ore ( crocoite ), a Siberian ore . Preparative work on the representation of chromium compounds such as potassium dichromate and lead chromate followed. A year later he proved that beryl contains the new element beryllium . Together with Fourcroy, he examined raw platinum ore. However, Smithson Tennant came before them with the discovery of osmium and iridium . In 1798 he experimented with Alexander von Humboldt in Paris and contributed to his book Experiments on the Chemical Decomposition of the Air Cycle , which appeared in 1799.

In addition to important mineralogical investigations, he succeeded in isolating hippuric acid (1797), urea from animal urine (1800), asparagine from asparagus (1805 together with Robiquet), with which they discovered the first amino acid, quinic acid (1,3,4,5 Tetrahydroxycyclohexanecarboxylic acid) from quinine bark (1806) (according to other sources: Hoffmann) and fumaric and maleic acid (1817). Together with Jöns Jacob Berzelius , he determined the composition of the carbon disulfide (CS ₂ ) first produced by Wilhelm August Lampadius in 1796 .

Works (selection)

Instruction on the combustion de vegetaux . 1794, (examination of tobacco residue)
Manuel de l'essayeur, Tour 1799 and 1812 .
Dictionnaire de chimie et de metallurgie . 1815.
These sur le operations chimiques et pharmaceutiques . 1820.

literature

Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Vauquelin, Nicolas Louis. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1437.

Web links

Commons : Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Wikisource: Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin - Sources and full texts

EUROMIN project. Biography of L.-N. Vauquelin (French)

Individual evidence

^ Genealogy of the Vauquelin family
^ Rolf Haubrichs, Pierre-Léonard Zaffalon: Osmium vs. 'Ptène': The Naming of the Densest Metal . In: Johnson Matthey Technology Review . No. 61 , 2017, doi : 10.1595 / 205651317x695631 ( matthey.com ).
^ Members of the previous academies. Nicolas Louis Vauquelin. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on June 24, 2015 (with short biography).
^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 18, 2020 .
^ Entry on Vauquelin, Louis Nicholas (1763 - 1829) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 245.
↑ Wolfgang-Hagen Hein (Ed.): Alexander von Humboldt. Life and work . Boehringer, Ingelheim 1985, ISBN 3-921037-55-7 , pp. 164 .
↑ P. Walden: Chronological overview tables. Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-53301-3 , p. 42 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
^ Hoffmann, Friedrich Christian: Crell's chemical annal. 1790 , II, p. 314, quoted in Baup: Annalen der Physik und Chemie 1833 , p. 64 ( Google Books ).

personal data
SURNAME	Vauquelin, Louis-Nicolas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French pharmacist and chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 16, 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint-André-d'Hébertot
DATE OF DEATH	November 14, 1829
Place of death	Saint-André-d'Hébertot

[1] Genealogy of the Vauquelin family

[2] Rolf Haubrichs, Pierre-Léonard Zaffalon: Osmium vs. 'Ptène': The Naming of the Densest Metal . In: Johnson Matthey Technology Review . No. 61 , 2017, doi : 10.1595 / 205651317x695631 ( matthey.com ).

[3] Members of the previous academies. Nicolas Louis Vauquelin. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on June 24, 2015 (with short biography).

[4] Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 18, 2020 .

[5] Entry on Vauquelin, Louis Nicholas (1763 - 1829) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London

[6] Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 245.

[7] Wolfgang-Hagen Hein (Ed.): Alexander von Humboldt. Life and work . Boehringer, Ingelheim 1985, ISBN 3-921037-55-7 , pp. 164 .

[8] P. Walden: Chronological overview tables. Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-53301-3 , p. 42 ( limited preview in the Google book search).

[9] Hoffmann, Friedrich Christian: Crell's chemical annal. 1790 , II, p. 314, quoted in Baup: Annalen der Physik und Chemie 1833 , p. 64 ( Google Books ).