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Antoine François Fourcroy was a French chemist and a contemporary of Antoine Lavoisier. Fourcroy collaborated with Lavoisier, Guyton de Morveau, and Claude Berthollet on the Méthode de nomenclature chimique, a work that helped standardize chemical nomenclature.
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politics · French chemist (1755–1809) · chemist · politician · entomologist · encyclopédistes · university teacher · physician · minister · also Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, Antoine-François de Fourcroy, Antoine François de Fourcroy, Fourcroy, Antoine-François Fourcroy
Born 15 June 1755 · Died 16 December 1809 · Q446875
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I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies, and discovered their bases to be two new inflammable substances very like metals; but one of them lighter than ether, and infinitely combustible. So that there are two bodies decomposed, and two new elementary bodies found.
Potasium [sic] and sodium are the names by which I have ventured to call the new substances; and... these terms can scarcely express an error; for they may be considered as implying simply the metals produced from potash and soda. ...and though a name for the basis of soda might have been borrowed from the Greek, yet an analogous one could not have been applied to that of potash, for the ancients do not seem to have distinguished between the two alkalies.
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
“I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies, and discovered their bases to be two new inflammable substances very like metals; but one of them lighter than ether, and infinitely combustible. So that there are two bodies decomposed, and two new elementary bodies found.”
Text from Wikiquote, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
“Potasium [sic] and sodium are the names by which I have ventured to call the new substances; and... these terms can scarcely express an error; for they may be considered as implying simply the metals produced from potash and soda. ...and though a name for the basis of soda might have been borrowed from the Greek, yet an analogous one could not have been applied to that of potash, for the ancients do not seem to have distinguished between the two alkalies.”
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
“At about the freezing point of water it becomes harder and brittle, and when broken in fragments, exhibits a crystallized texture, which in the microscope seems composed of beautiful facets of a perfect whiteness and high metallic splendour.”
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
“A small piece of pure potash, which had been exposed for a few seconds to the atmosphere, so as to give conducting power to the surface was placed upon an insulated disc of platina, connected with the negative side of the battery of the power of 250 of 6 and 4, in a state of intense activity; and a platina wire communicating with the positive side was brought in contact with the upper surface of the alkali. ...”
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
PBS released a three episode documentary series about the search for the basic chemical elements, highlighting seven historical scientists in particular
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Died 1809-12-16.
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Career landmark: director of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (1804–1805).
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Career landmark: director general (1802–1808).
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Responsible for education in France at all levels, which he held until his death in December 1809
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Fourcroy was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Career landmark: director of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (1800–1801).
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Career landmark: Councillor of State (1799–1809).
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Career landmark: Member of parliament for the Seine (1793–1795).
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Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Born 1755-06-15.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A small piece of pure potash, which had been exposed for a few seconds to the atmosphere, so as to give conducting power to the surface was placed upon an insulated disc of platina, connected with the negative side of the battery of the power of 250 of 6 and 4, in a state of intense activity; and a platina wire communicating with the positive side was brought in contact with the upper surface of the alkali. ...
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