Louis Vauquelin
| Louis Nicolas Vauquelin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
16 May 1763 Saint-André-d'Hébertot, Normandy, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 14 November 1829 (aged 66) Saint-André-d'Hébertot, Normandy, Kingdom of France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Doctoral advisor | Antoine Francois de Fourcroy |
| Doctoral students |
Friedrich Stromeyer Louis Thénard |
| Known for |
beryllium chromium |
| Influenced | Mathieu Orfila |
Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (16 May 1763 – 14 November 1829), was a French pharmacist and chemist.
Vauquelin was born at Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, France. His first acquaintance with chemistry was gained as laboratory assistant to an apothecary in Rouen (1777–1779), and after various vicissitudes he obtained an introduction to A. F. Fourcroy, in whose laboratory he was an assistant from 1783 to 1791.
Moving to Paris, he became a laboratory assistant at the Jardin du Roi and was befriended by a professor of chemistry. In 1791 he was made a member of the Academy of Sciences and from that time he helped to edit the journal Annales de Chimie (Chemical annals), although he left the country for a while during the height of the French Revolution. In 1798 Vauquelin discovered beryllium oxide by extracting it from an emerald (a beryl variety); Klaproth isolated the element from the oxide.
At first his work appeared as that of his master and patron, then in their joint names; in 1790 he began to publish on his own, and between that year and 1833 his name is associated with 376 papers. Most of these were simple records of patient and laborious analytical operations, and it is perhaps surprising that among all the substances he analysed he only detected two new elements, beryllium in 1798 in beryl and chromium in 1797 in a red lead ore from Siberia. He also managed to get liquid ammonia at atmospheric pressure. Later with Fourcroy, he identified a metal in a platinum residue they called ‘ptène, This name ‘ptene’ or ‘ptène’ was reported as an early synonym for osmium..
Either together or successively he held the offices of inspector of mines, professor at the School of Mines and at the Polytechnic School, assayer of gold and silver articles, professor of chemistry in the College de France and at the Jardin des Plantes, member of the Council of Industry and Commerce, commissioner on the pharmacy laws, and finally professor of chemistry to the Medical Faculty, to which he succeeded on Fourcroy's death in 1809. His lectures, which were supplemented with practical laboratory teaching, were attended by many chemists who subsequently attained distinction.
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