LOUIS JOSEPH GAY LUSSAC: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS, WORKS, PHRASES - ARTE - 2025

Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) was a French physicist and chemist born in December 1778. His main contribution to science were two laws on the behavior of gases. The first, called Charles's Law, established that a gas expands proportionally to its temperature as long as the pressure is constant.

The second, called Gay Lussac's Law, states that the pressure of a fixed volume of gas is proportional to its temperature. The law was presented in 1805 to the Academy of Sciences. After this, he began a journey with Humboldt to investigate the composition of the Earth's air, as well as its magnetic field.

Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac. Albert lithograph. Source: See page for author / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

In addition to holding the chair of Physics at the Sorbonne University and also being a Professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, Gay-Lussac held some political positions of some importance. The scientist was named "par de France" by King Louis Philippe I, in 1839.

Although it was his laws on gases that have caused Gay-Lussac to go down in history, the scientist also developed other important investigations. It was, for example, who laid the foundations for volumetric analysis. Similarly, it provided some significant improvements in the field of the chemical industry.

Biography

Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac came to the world in the French town of Saint-Léonard-de Noblat, on December 6, 1778. The father of the future scientist had held some positions during the reign of Louis XVI, but was dismissed after the triumph of the French Revolution, in 1789.

Despite losing some social position, Gay-Lussac's family was able to afford a good education for their children. The young Joseph-Louis, in particular, was sent to Paris to receive training in law.

Studies

Despite the fact that his father wanted Joseph-Louis to follow in his footsteps and pursue law, the young man soon showed that he preferred science.

Thanks to his mastery of mathematics, he was able to take an exam to enter the recently founded Polytechnic School. As was the case with the rest of the students at the center, the state took on the costs of their studies.

This school was conceived at first as a center dedicated exclusively to training engineers. However, the subject of chemistry played an important role and Gay-Lussac focused on it. The young man stayed at the school between 1797 and 1800 and earned a well-deserved fame for his academic results.

After graduating, he continued his training at the prestigious National School of Bridges and Roads. However, he had made the decision not to orient his steps towards engineering, so he left the center the following year to become the assistant to the chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet.

This chemist had opened his own research laboratory at his home in Arcueil, very close to Paris. In time, the facility would become one of the largest private research centers in the country.

Gay-Lussac presented in January 1803, when he was only 23 years old, his first important work: Investigations on gas expansion. The results were delivered to the Institute of the Academy of Sciences and consisted of the ratification of the discoveries made in 1787 by Charles

Next jobs

A year after presenting his work on gases, Gay-Lussac conducted experiments aboard a hot air balloon. In his two ascents, he exceeded 3,800 meters of altitude, a circumstance that allowed him to confirm that the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the magnetic field remain constant if a certain height is exceeded.

In January 1805, the scientist presented a new work to the Institute. This new memoir included the first of his laws on gaseous combinations.

His next project was a study on the composition of air and on the magnetic field. To do so, he began a journey through Europe with Humboldt.

Marriage

In 1809, the Institute of the Academy of Science elected Gay-Lussac as one of its members. Likewise, he began a series of experiments with a large Volta pile at the Polytechnic. This battery was made up of 600 pairs of zinc and copper plates.

Also in 1809, Gay-Lussac published his stoichiometric law on the combination of gaseous substances. Similarly, he began working as a professor of Practical Chemistry at the Polytechnic School and was appointed holder of the Chair of Physics by the Sorbonne University.

Other discoveries he made at the same time were those of boron and potassium, although the authorship is shared with other scientists who were investigating in parallel.

The same was true of his finding that chlorine was a simple chemical element, something that researcher Humphry Davy discovered almost at the same time. Interestingly, both scientists also discovered iodine at the same time, but independently.

Portrait of Humphry Davy. Source:, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the private sphere, Gay-Lussac married Geneviève Rojot in 1811, with whom he had five children.

New discoveries

Gay-Lussac continued to make new discoveries during the following years. In 1815, for example, he discovered prussic or hydrocyanic acid. The following year, he became editor-in-chief of the “Annales de chimie et de physique” (Annals of Chemistry and Physics), a publication that he helped to recover together with Arango.

In addition, the scientist began to collaborate in various public bodies and industrial corporations, which provided him with his greatest source of income. His contributions included the improvement in the composition of gunpowder, alloys to make cannons or detonations.

Between 1819 and 1828, Gay-Lussac was constantly active. His work diversified, ranging from the solubility of salts to the graduation of alcohol. Likewise, it presented new methods to improve the manufacturing processes of oxalic acid and sulfuric acid, very important for industrial chemistry.

In 1829, he began working as chief essayist for the Office of Monetary Guarantees, a state agency that was responsible for monitoring the quality of the currency.

Political career

At that time it was relatively common in France for scientists to participate in the political life of the country. Gay-Lussac was one of those who combined scientific research with political office.

The researcher was elected deputy in 1831 for Haute-Vienne, since he revalidated in 1834 and 1837. Likewise, from 1832 he held the post of censor at the Compagnie Manufacture des Glaces de Saint-Gobain. Eight years later he was appointed administrator of that same body and in 1843 he rose to the position of president of the board of directors.

His investigative merits led King Louis Philippe to name him in 1839 "par de France."

Last years

At age 62, in 1840, Gay-Lussac left the Polytechnic. In 1848, in the midst of the revolution that broke out that year, the scientist resigned from the rest of his positions and retired to the neighborhood in which he had grown up.

Despite that retirement, Gay-Lussac did not stop working in science. Thus, he equipped his house with a private laboratory and a vast library. The scientist lived there until, in the spring of 1850, he realized that his death was near. At that time, he asked his son to burn a treatise that he had begun to write called Philosophie chimique.

On May 9 of that same year, Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac died in the French capital. His body was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

Contributions to science

The most important contributions to science made by Gay-Lussac were related to his studies on the characteristics of gases.

In addition to the laws that bear his name, Gay-Lussac also stood out for his establishing improvements applicable to the chemical industry.

Charles and Gay-Lussac's Law

The so-called Law of Charles and Gay-Lussac relates the volume and the temperature of an ideal gas quantity that is maintained at a constant pressure. This relationship is calculated using a direct constant of proportionality.

According to the works of Jacques Charles, if the temperature of a given quantity of gas is increased at a constant pressure, the volume of said gas increases. On the other hand, if the temperature falls, the volume decreases.

Although it was Jacques Charles who discovered this quality of gases in 1787, it was Gay-Lussac who published the law for the first time, in 1803.

Gay-Lussac Law

Gay-Lussac's work that had the most impact led to the law that bears his name. In general terms, establish that the pressure of a fixed volume of gas is directly proportional to the temperature.

When the temperature of a given volume of gas increases, the molecules begin to move faster. This causes them to collide more times per unit of time, which implies an increase in pressure.

Gay-Lussac's discovery establishes that at any moment of this process the relationship between absolute temperature and pressure maintains a constant value.

Gay-Lussac's law applies to ideal gases, while in real gases it is fairly accurate if the pressure and temperature are low.

Boron

Although boron and its compounds have been known and used since ancient times, it was not until the 19th century that they could be obtained with a high degree of purity.

Thus, in 1808, Gay-Lussac managed to obtain boron with a 50% purity. This discovery was shared with Humphry Davy, who independently achieved the same result. Neither scientist, however, identified the substance with a new element, something that Jöns Jacob Berzelius would do in 1824.

Chlorine

As with the boron research, Gay-Lussac and Humphry Davy agreed again when it came to presenting a finding on chlorine.

On this occasion, both scientists demonstrated that the hitherto called oxygenated muriatic acid, chlorine, was a simple chemical element.

Later, in 1813, Gay-Lussac and Davy would return to make the same discovery working separately: the discovery of iodine.

Law of combination volumes

Gay-Lussac also made an important contribution to stoichiometric laws. These express mass relationships of elements in chemical compounds and have been part of the study of chemistry since before Dalton presented his atomic theory.

The novelty contributed by Gay Lussac in 1809 was to relate the volumes of the products and reactants in a chemical reaction with the proportions of the elements in different compounds.

His law of combining volumes states that as gases react with each other to create other gases, all volumes are measured at the same pressure and temperature.

As an example, the French scientist pointed out that a volume of oxygen and two of hydrogen that react with each other give rise to two volumes of gaseous water.

Alcohol density meter

One of Gay-Lussac's contributions with immediate practical applications was his breathalyzer. It was a flotation hydrometer whose main novelty was its ability to measure the degree of alcohol in a water-based drink.

Formerly, the percentage obtained in the measurement was indicated in Gay-Lussac degrees. Thus, in the compounds the figure obtained appeared together with the letters GL. Nowadays, however, it is more common to find the% Vol indication, although the meaning is the same.

Industrial Chemistry

The French researcher made numerous contributions to industrial chemistry. Thus, he improved the processes for manufacturing gunpowder, as well as the alloys used to build guns. Likewise, he collaborated in studies on how to make stearin candles and lightning rods.

On the other hand, Gay-Lussac helped improve the system to obtain sulfuric acid and stearic acid. During his time in the body in charge of monitoring the quality of the coin minted in France, the researcher created a method, still in use, that measured the amount of silver that the alloys destined to make these coins should have.

Phrases

- "It's a shame to go, this is starting to get fun"

- "In the natural sciences, and especially in chemistry, generalizations must be established after the details of each fact are known and not before".

- “In Arcueil… I had dinner with a very distinguished company… there were very interesting conversations. It was in those meetings where he found the joy of living "

- "I did not choose a profession that would lead me to get a great fortune, but that was not my main ambition"

- "Without the motivation to discover laws, they would escape the most enlightening attention"

References

1. Educaplus. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850). Retrieved from educaplus.org
2. Biographies and Lives. Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac. Obtained from biografiasyvidas.com
3. EcuRed. Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac. Obtained from ecured.cu
4. Crosland, Maurice P. Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Science History Institute. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac. Retrieved from sciencehistory.org
6. Editors, TheFamousPeople.com. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac Biography. Retrieved from thefamouspeople.com
7. New World Encyclopedia contributors. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac. Retrieved from newworldencyclopedia.org