1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:04,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:11,559 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. In December 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:15,560 Speaker 1: of seventeen eighty eight, the French painter Jacques Louis David 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: completed a large and impressive double portrait of the married 5 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:26,600 Speaker 1: couple scientist Antoine Lvoisier and his wife Marie Anne. Today, 6 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: Antoine Lvoisier is celebrated as the man who helped discover 7 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: the role that oxygen plays in combustion. In fact, he 8 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:39,560 Speaker 1: was the one who gave oxygen its name. Though Lovoisier 9 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 1: wasn't the first to discover the law of conservation of mass, 10 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: the law that in a fixed system, the mass of 11 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:50,920 Speaker 1: everything inside will remain the same and matter can't be 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: created or destroyed, he proved it in a set of 13 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: experiments and popularized it in France. It's still known as 14 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: Lovoisier's law. Antoine Lavoisier was an incredibly wealthy and successful man, 15 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: and he's a massively important figure in the history of science, 16 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: so it only seems fitting that he should have a 17 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: massive portrait, and it is really big. You can still 18 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: see it today at the met in New York City. 19 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: Almost nine feet high. In the portrait, Levoisier is sitting 20 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:31,759 Speaker 1: at a table covered in a red velvet tablecloth. He's 21 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: at work on papers, a quill perched in his right hand. 22 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 1: His wife, Marie Anne, leans casually over his shoulder. She's 23 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: wearing a simple chemise dress with blue ribbons, and she's 24 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:50,160 Speaker 1: at the center of the portrait. While Lvoisier is looking 25 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: up at his wife, Marie Anne looks directly out at 26 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: the viewer, or maybe at the painter. Marie Anne knew 27 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: David well. He actually taught her painting, which came in 28 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: handy because Marie Anne was invaluable to her husband's work. 29 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:13,359 Speaker 1: She drew scientific diagrams for him that were published alongside 30 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:16,920 Speaker 1: his writings. She learned English so she could help translate 31 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: new scientific works for him, took notes, and was a 32 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: constant presence in the laboratory. This portrait tells the story 33 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: of a scientific couple. They're surrounded by their equipment. A barometer, gasometer, watersill, 34 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 1: and a bell jar sit visible on the table around 35 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: bottom flask lulls at the floor just beyond Lavoisier's extended 36 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: right foot. Except that wasn't always how the portrait looked. 37 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: Recent scanning and analysis was able to uncover an earlier 38 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: draft of the portrait underneath the final lane of paint, 39 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: a draft that portrayed the couple in a slightly different light. Originally, 40 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: Marie Anne had been painted in a large, elaborate hat, 41 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: with tall feathers and flowers, and a ribbon wrapped around 42 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: it the size of her head. There had originally been 43 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: a shelf of books behind Lvoisier, maybe records a nod 44 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: to his work as a wealthy and worldly public administrator. 45 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: And though now the table is covered by a red cloth, 46 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: originally the desk was bare, a beautiful carved desk with 47 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: ornate gilded designs. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, the original 48 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: painting didn't feature all of Lavoisier's scientific equipment. It was 49 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: a conscious effort on Davide's part, a decision made before 50 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: the portrait was finished to decide to portray the couple 51 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: as distinguished intellectual scientists without visible and ostentatious trappings of wealth. 52 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:16,159 Speaker 1: Lavoisier is a scientist, this portrait says, not just a 53 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: wealthy bureaucrat or tax collector. Because Levoisier was incredibly wealthy, 54 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: a multi millionaire by today's standards, who built his fortune, 55 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:31,240 Speaker 1: mostly through his work with a firmaid general or a 56 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:37,040 Speaker 1: tax collection operation, and through other government positions. The painter 57 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:41,600 Speaker 1: David was smart enough to know that in France in 58 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty eight portrait of a wealthy, fashionable nobleman might 59 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,279 Speaker 1: not go over so well with the public. But even 60 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:56,080 Speaker 1: with the changes he made simplifying the fashion and portraying 61 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:01,599 Speaker 1: the couple as less aristocratic and less ostentatio more scientific, 62 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:06,040 Speaker 1: Devid was still asked not to display the work at 63 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 1: the Paris Salon. It was decided that the portrait might 64 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:16,600 Speaker 1: be too controversial given the anti aristocratic sentiment in the air. 65 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:23,359 Speaker 1: Things in France were primed for combustion. Seven months after 66 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:28,640 Speaker 1: the portrait was completed, the Bastille was stormed. Ten months 67 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:33,320 Speaker 1: after it was completed, peasants marched on Versailles and forced 68 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: the royal family back to Paris. The spark of the 69 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,920 Speaker 1: French Revolution was ignited, and Lavoisier knew as well as 70 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:48,360 Speaker 1: anyone that sometimes when certain elements combine, the results are explosive. 71 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood. In one sense, 72 00:05:56,839 --> 00:06:00,839 Speaker 1: Lavoisier was born in exactly the right place, time period. 73 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: He was a great thinker, ready to upend the paradigm 74 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: of scientific thought, powered by the force of the Enlightenment. 75 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:14,279 Speaker 1: In another sense, Levoisier was born at exactly the wrong time, 76 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: but we'll get to that later. Before we get into 77 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: why Levoisier's scientific work represented such a groundbreaking step forward 78 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 1: in chemistry, it's worth spending a little time understanding what 79 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:34,240 Speaker 1: the status quo was when he started studying. In the 80 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: late sixteen hundreds, Isaac Newton published his famous Laws of Motion, 81 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: giving the field of physics a comforting mathematical order. One 82 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: hundred years after that, chemistry was still lagging behind, still 83 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 1: lingering in the world of semi mythical alchemy. But as 84 00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 1: the Enlightenment progressed through Europe a movement of rationale and evidence, 85 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:04,719 Speaker 1: it became only a matter of time before the question 86 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: of what exactly the world was made of would become 87 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 1: a more organized field. With men like Lovoisier casting off 88 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: preconceived notions and old assumptions, would it be possible to 89 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:23,880 Speaker 1: invoke Newtonian order and logic to a subject that seemed 90 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: as much like magic as anything else. They would wipe 91 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: the slate clean, start from zero, and try to establish 92 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: step by step what was demonstrably true. When Lavoisier was 93 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: a young man, plenty of people still believed in the 94 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,000 Speaker 1: elements that had been laid out by the natural Greek 95 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: philosophers earth, air, water, fire, But during Lovoisier's time there 96 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: was an ongoing debate about what exactly fire was. Was 97 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: it an element, a process, something else. The most widely 98 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: held belief in chemistry in the mid eighteenth century was 99 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: something called phlagistan theory. If you've never heard of phlagistan, 100 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: I have good news for you. It doesn't exist. But 101 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 1: they didn't know that at the time. They believed that 102 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: flagistan was an element released during combustion that allowed something 103 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:28,200 Speaker 1: to burn. If something had more phlagistan in it, it 104 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,560 Speaker 1: would burn better, and when it stopped burning, it was 105 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,559 Speaker 1: because it had run out of plagistan. The convenient thing 106 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:39,040 Speaker 1: about that theory is for most things, when you burn them, 107 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:44,240 Speaker 1: they become lighter, decreasing in mass. Well, the simplest way 108 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: to explain that was because all of the phlagistan was gone. 109 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:52,200 Speaker 1: But there was a slight problem with that, because when 110 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:56,960 Speaker 1: metals burned, they realized they would actually weigh more. We 111 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,359 Speaker 1: know now that it's because some metals react with acaen 112 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 1: and become metal oxides. But if you believed that Flagistan 113 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 1: was supposed to be released into the air, it would 114 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: be pretty confusing when you were looking at the empirical data. 115 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:16,320 Speaker 1: Did it mean that fire was its own element and 116 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:19,440 Speaker 1: that the metal was weighing more because the fire was 117 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 1: somehow being added to it? Or wait, wait, maybe Flagistan 118 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:28,760 Speaker 1: is real, but it's lighter than air, So Flagistan is 119 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:33,400 Speaker 1: being released and for some reason, heavier air is taking 120 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: its place. If Flagistan was the one constant that you're 121 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:43,080 Speaker 1: certain about, it requires a fairly robust amount of mental 122 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 1: gymnastics to make it all make sense. Lavoisier would be 123 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 1: among the generation of scientists willing to look at things 124 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:57,600 Speaker 1: from a completely new perspective. Antwine Lavoisier was born in 125 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: seventeen forty three family that was wealthy and connected, but 126 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:08,040 Speaker 1: not landed nobility. But this is noble blood, so before 127 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:12,360 Speaker 1: you get too worried, Antoine Lavasier did get a noble title, 128 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:15,199 Speaker 1: purchased for him by his father as a gift for 129 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:19,440 Speaker 1: him after his wedding. Lavoisier's father was an attorney at 130 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 1: the Parliament of Paris, a distinguished position with a limited 131 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: number of slots. Lavoisier actually completed his legal degree too, 132 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:31,440 Speaker 1: and was also admitted to the Parliament of Paris, but 133 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 1: he never actually practiced law. Instead, he found his passion 134 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: in science. He studied chemistry, even though the field would 135 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: not have been called that at the time, learning the 136 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: most recent theories about the element that made up the world. 137 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,960 Speaker 1: But he was dismayed, even as a young man by 138 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,440 Speaker 1: the many contradictions and blind spots in the field. He 139 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:00,480 Speaker 1: had also studied under a mathematician and astronomer, and he 140 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:05,640 Speaker 1: was drawn to the logic and order of those subjects. Eventually, 141 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:10,440 Speaker 1: Lovoisier distinguished himself enough to receive a provisional appointment to 142 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: the Academy of Sciences, an incredibly prestigious position, But being 143 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: a man of science wasn't actually a career path, which 144 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:24,679 Speaker 1: is to say, it wasn't Howlvoisier earned an income. His 145 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: day job, so to speak, would be as a government 146 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: official of kinds, a man with nearly half a dozen 147 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: different official positions, establishing him as an almost omnipresent figure 148 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:42,240 Speaker 1: in the royal government, which would, as the eighteenth century 149 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:46,920 Speaker 1: drew to a close, prove dangerous. But were not there 150 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: yet when Lavoisier was in his twenties, he bought a 151 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,600 Speaker 1: part of a share of the fair Mai General or 152 00:11:55,960 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 1: General Farm. In the simplest terms, the arm was an 153 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: organization which paid the government predicted tax revenues in advance 154 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,160 Speaker 1: in exchange for the right to then later collect those taxes. 155 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:14,480 Speaker 1: For English speakers, the word farm probably brings to mind 156 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 1: pay and Colmneure, but the English word farmer actually comes 157 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:24,080 Speaker 1: from the French fermier, meaning leaseholder. Originally, an English farmer 158 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:27,120 Speaker 1: was the word to identify people working the soil on 159 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: land they did known, and then gradually it became the 160 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 1: term for all well farmers. But when I say Lavoisier 161 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:37,840 Speaker 1: was a farmer, I don't mean he was tilling the fields. 162 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:43,119 Speaker 1: For Lavoisier, his work with the farm was incredibly lucrative. 163 00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: By seventeen eighty six, when he was in his mid forties, 164 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:51,440 Speaker 1: he had made the equivalent of forty eight million dollars today. 165 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:56,600 Speaker 1: Even so, he wasn't ostentatious or particularly showy. He didn't 166 00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,800 Speaker 1: go by Antoine des Lavoisier, even though he would have 167 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:03,599 Speaker 1: been permitted to given his noble title, and his household 168 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:08,160 Speaker 1: was small, with only six household servants. But the most 169 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: useful person in Lovoisier's household would turn out to be 170 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: his wife. When Lovoisier was twenty eight, he married the 171 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:21,040 Speaker 1: thirteen year old Marie Ann Pirete Palsy. Marie Anne's father 172 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,840 Speaker 1: was a senior member of the farm. This marriage would 173 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: turn out to be not just politically and financially advantageous, 174 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:34,920 Speaker 1: but also incredibly helpful to Lovoisier's scientific career. As I 175 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,960 Speaker 1: mentioned in the episode's introduction, though Lovoisier himself never really 176 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:45,480 Speaker 1: learned English, Marie Anne learned and helped translate important documents 177 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: for him so he would know the state of learning 178 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: around the world. Marie Anne took an active role in 179 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:55,959 Speaker 1: helping him in the laboratory, taking notes and drawing and 180 00:13:56,120 --> 00:14:01,079 Speaker 1: making engravings of his scientific instruments, illustrations that would go 181 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:06,559 Speaker 1: into his published papers. She edited and published her husband's memoirs, 182 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,840 Speaker 1: and she also helped him socially, hosting parties and entertaining 183 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:17,000 Speaker 1: cultural figures like Benjamin Franklin and other notables. Their home 184 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:21,360 Speaker 1: was a shared space with their laboratory. Marie Anne helped 185 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:25,760 Speaker 1: create an environment where long days would be spent socializing 186 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:31,479 Speaker 1: and experimenting with friends and colleagues. A collaborative salon environment. 187 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: Thanks to Lavoisier's tremendous wealth, he was able to furnish 188 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: a top of the line laboratory with equipment he designed 189 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: and had custom made. This is one of those places 190 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: where you realize just how important that money was. There 191 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:54,560 Speaker 1: are letters where Lavoisier is corresponding with a fellow scientist 192 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 1: on the continent, and that scientist had all the right 193 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,880 Speaker 1: ideas but none of the access to equipment to test them. 194 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:07,880 Speaker 1: Lovoisier wasn't an isolated genius working independently. He was in fierce, 195 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:14,200 Speaker 1: active competition with other scientists scientists in France, also England, 196 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:18,240 Speaker 1: Scotland and Germany, and Lovoisier was going to use all 197 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:21,680 Speaker 1: of the resources at his disposal to be the first 198 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:27,720 Speaker 1: to discover the true nature of air. At this point, 199 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:32,760 Speaker 1: scientists recognized that there seemed to be different types of 200 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: air with different properties that were released during different reactions. 201 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: Joseph Black, a Scottish scientist, identified something he called fixed air, 202 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: which couldn't support flames and wasn't breatheable. We now know 203 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:54,280 Speaker 1: that he was writing about carbon dioxide. Another chemist, Joseph Priestly, 204 00:15:54,680 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: identified what he called deflajosticated air. When he heated mercury 205 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: calcus what we would now call mercury oxide, and collected 206 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:10,440 Speaker 1: the gas, Priestley found that that air was incredibly breatheable 207 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: and absolutely supported flames. Priestly's theory was that things burned 208 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: so well in that gas because it was deflogisticated or 209 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:25,560 Speaker 1: all of the phlogiston had been removed. The thought then was, 210 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,840 Speaker 1: as something was burning, since the air had no flogiston 211 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,120 Speaker 1: of its own, it would easily be able to absorb 212 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:39,280 Speaker 1: more of the burning flagistan. Priestley's deflogisticated air was actually oxygen, 213 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:43,520 Speaker 1: which he had isolated in seventeen seventy four. He just 214 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: didn't understand it right. Priestley told Lavoisier about that process, 215 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: and Lavoisier understood something about what he had done. Lavoisier 216 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: realized that it could be the key to taking down 217 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: the paradigm of flagiston theory altogether. That quote eminently breathable air, 218 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 1: as Lvoisier referred to it, was an element of air. 219 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: Air could be broken down into smaller component parts. Though 220 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:19,359 Speaker 1: Priestley had arguably discovered oxygen first, Lovoisier was the first 221 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: to publicly understand it as its own element, and it 222 00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 1: was Levoisier, who gave it the name oxygen from the 223 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:31,320 Speaker 1: Greek for maker of acids, because he observed the way 224 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: that when a lot of materials burned in oxygen, they 225 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: dissolved in water. Then to create acids with a lot 226 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,480 Speaker 1: of things, but not everything, as we now know, it 227 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:47,439 Speaker 1: does create acidic oxides. Lovoisier's real victory was that his 228 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:52,919 Speaker 1: naming conventions caught on. The Debate about Flagistan theory was 229 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:57,280 Speaker 1: still very much ongoing in seventeen eighty seven when Lvoisier 230 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:01,440 Speaker 1: pitched his new nomenclature of chemistry, and with the support 231 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 1: of a cadre of his colleagues and thanks to his 232 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:10,800 Speaker 1: social cachet and public prominence, his nomenclature caught on. His 233 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:15,199 Speaker 1: system of naming elements is still the basic skeleton we 234 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: use today, and it's a system that incidentally was completely 235 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:25,679 Speaker 1: incompatible with Plagiston theory. Lovoisier understood if you control the language, 236 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:31,879 Speaker 1: you control the ideas. In seventeen eighty nine, Levoisier published 237 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:37,359 Speaker 1: his groundbreaking elementary Treatise on Chemistry, which laid the framework 238 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,879 Speaker 1: for what we'd refer to now as the scientific method, 239 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:44,800 Speaker 1: a guide for chemists in their experiments in a rational 240 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: and for lack of a better word, scientific way, and 241 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:53,680 Speaker 1: the treatise was his clear new vocabulary for the elements 242 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: that he recognized, a system for naming chemicals that we 243 00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:04,080 Speaker 1: still follow. Things aren't huxes, their oxides, Vitriol of venus, 244 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:10,400 Speaker 1: that's nonsense, it's copper, sulfate, acid of lemons, citric acid, 245 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:16,679 Speaker 1: flowers of benzoin is benzoic acid. Now, Lavoisier wasn't fully 246 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:21,120 Speaker 1: correct on everything. What he called azote would actually catch 247 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:26,199 Speaker 1: on as nitrogen, and he identified light and heat or 248 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:31,520 Speaker 1: chloric as their own elements, but the names were systematic 249 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:37,760 Speaker 1: and sensible, applying Enlightenment philosophy to the formerly piecemeal world 250 00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: of chemistry. It's genuinely amazing, and it took a major 251 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:47,720 Speaker 1: force like Lavoisier, with his financial, social, political, and mental 252 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 1: abilities to create that paradigm shift. He had to look 253 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:56,359 Speaker 1: at the results of his experiments, cast off preconceived notions, 254 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 1: and build a new framework from the ground up. He 255 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:05,520 Speaker 1: started at zero and built something imperfect but undoubtedly more 256 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:09,520 Speaker 1: rational than what had been in place before and closer 257 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:13,520 Speaker 1: to what we now understand to be the reality. Lavoisier 258 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:19,159 Speaker 1: represents a major step forward in the millennia long human project, 259 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:23,679 Speaker 1: trying to use our abilities to make sense of the 260 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:29,000 Speaker 1: world around us. But again, all of that was Lavoisier's 261 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: passion project. At the height of his career in the 262 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: government in seventeen eighty eight, the year before his treatise 263 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:40,119 Speaker 1: was published, he had five important government positions at once. 264 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,080 Speaker 1: He was a member of the Academy of Science, and 265 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,520 Speaker 1: he was a farmer General. And he was also a 266 00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:49,480 Speaker 1: Commissioner of Agriculture, a commissioner of the Royal Gunpowder and 267 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:54,239 Speaker 1: Saltpeter Administration, an inspector for the tobacco. He served on 268 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,080 Speaker 1: the board of the Discount Bank, and he was a 269 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:00,119 Speaker 1: member of the Assembly of Notables called together by King 270 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:05,760 Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth. Lovoisier's methodical approach to science also served 271 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,640 Speaker 1: him well as a public servant. Efficiency and order were 272 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:14,679 Speaker 1: his superpowers. He determined more effective ways of gathering saltpeter 273 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,960 Speaker 1: to produce gunpowder, and ensured the purity of the elements 274 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,919 Speaker 1: that made gunpowder in order to increase its quality. The 275 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:28,280 Speaker 1: result was that he ultimately made France self sufficient in gunpowder, 276 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:33,480 Speaker 1: which incidentally had the consequence of France having enough gunpowder 277 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: to help supply the American revolutionaries during the American Revolutionary 278 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:45,200 Speaker 1: War against Britain. Thank you Lavoisier. Lovoisier also introduced standardized 279 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:50,080 Speaker 1: procedures for tobacco being sold in France, determining that six 280 00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: point three percent water by volume made the processed tobacco 281 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: the highest quality and ensuring that it would be implemented 282 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 1: across the board in all factor run by the firm 283 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 1: Ai General. But Lovoisier's clinical approach to administration wouldn't always 284 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: make him popular. He was, after all, a taxman, no 285 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,040 Speaker 1: matter how David's portrait tried to make him look. At 286 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: one point, Lovoisier determined that, based on the amount of 287 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,720 Speaker 1: tax revenue the farm was collecting and the amount of 288 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,720 Speaker 1: goods Paris was consuming, that about a fifth of all 289 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:33,600 Speaker 1: goods were being smuggled into the city untaxed. His solution, 290 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: proposed in seventeen seventy nine, was to build a wall 291 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: around the city, calculating that the cost of said wall 292 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:47,560 Speaker 1: would more than pay for itself in the increased tax collection. 293 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:53,479 Speaker 1: The wall was wildly hated by the French people. The 294 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:57,679 Speaker 1: playwright and revolutionary Pierre Augustine de Beaumarchie came up with 295 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:02,160 Speaker 1: the Little hicthy play on war word the murmurat pere 296 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:07,640 Speaker 1: rand peri murmurra, or in English, the wall walling Paris 297 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:12,200 Speaker 1: keeps Paris murmuring. He also wrote a little poem which 298 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,720 Speaker 1: I will mercifully not attempt to say in French, but 299 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: which translates to to increase its cash and shorten our horizon. 300 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:27,160 Speaker 1: The farm judges it necessary to put Paris in prison. 301 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,800 Speaker 1: In terms of his reputation, it didn't help that Lavoisier 302 00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:38,720 Speaker 1: had a very powerful, very prominent enemy, the radical writer 303 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: Jean Paul Murra. Now Murat is mostly known as a 304 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:48,399 Speaker 1: revolutionary pamphleteer, the writer of the newspaper The Friend of 305 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:52,199 Speaker 1: the People, but he was also a scientific writer. In 306 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,560 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty, he published his research into Fire, claiming that 307 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:00,280 Speaker 1: his paper was approved by the Academy of Science. Though 308 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: his experiment had been evaluated by the Academy, they hadn't 309 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: endorsed its findings. Lovoisier publicly demanded that the Academy disavowed 310 00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:14,240 Speaker 1: the paper, which it did, and Lvoisier had also humiliated 311 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,480 Speaker 1: Maraut's scientific beliefs. Before, when Lavoisier had been on a 312 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:23,359 Speaker 1: commission to prove that animal magnetism something Marat was a 313 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:29,840 Speaker 1: public proponent of wasn't actually real. It almost seems cliche 314 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:34,080 Speaker 1: to say that Maraut, humiliated by the scientific elite, then 315 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: spent all of his energy trying to tear the elite down, 316 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,720 Speaker 1: and that narrative is the little pat But that is 317 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:46,199 Speaker 1: the progression of how things happened. Marat hated Lvoisier and 318 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: frequently wrote about him with personal and political attacks. Though 319 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 1: Lavoisier certainly liked the revolutionary ideals of rationalizing the systems 320 00:24:56,600 --> 00:25:00,520 Speaker 1: in France and throughout the French economy, and lavos would 321 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,639 Speaker 1: be on the committee helping to establish the metric system 322 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: for the new government, but he was also well aware 323 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:11,720 Speaker 1: that things were primed for combustion. In seventeen eighty nine, 324 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:16,400 Speaker 1: the summer that people stormed the Bastille, Lavoisier was involved 325 00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 1: in an altercation on the streets of Paris that almost 326 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:24,720 Speaker 1: certainly made him realize just how dangerous revolution could be. 327 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,840 Speaker 1: In his role as a gunpowder administrator, Lovoisier was helping 328 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:34,040 Speaker 1: to oversee the movement of a shipment of gunpowder labeled 329 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:39,720 Speaker 1: pudre de trite or powder for trade, incidentally almost certainly 330 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:43,960 Speaker 1: to fund the Atlantic slave trade. But the semi illiterate 331 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: crowd with hair trigger tempers misread the shipment as for 332 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,879 Speaker 1: traders traders powder, believing that it was gunpowder for the 333 00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,359 Speaker 1: purpose of putting the revolution down. The mob descended, and 334 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,879 Speaker 1: though Lovoisier tried to engage in an open debate and 335 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: to explain things, it was no use. He barely managed 336 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:11,240 Speaker 1: to escape with his life. By the beginning of the 337 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: seventeen nineties, as the revolution got more radical, things only 338 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,720 Speaker 1: got more dangerous. As the pieces of the old regime 339 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:25,240 Speaker 1: were being torn down. Lovoisier fought to keep the Academy 340 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:31,159 Speaker 1: of Sciences despite its royalist associations, arguing that science was 341 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:36,240 Speaker 1: helping France. Lvoisier publicly declined to take a salary for 342 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:40,639 Speaker 1: his many government appointments in seventeen ninety one, although he 343 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:45,640 Speaker 1: was already so despised that that only backfired. It drew 344 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 1: attention to his wealth and also to the elitism of 345 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,600 Speaker 1: the institutions he was serving. For what does it say 346 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: about who can serve on those committees if you need 347 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,399 Speaker 1: to be so wealthy that you could do it without 348 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,879 Speaker 1: pay well. As I mentioned, Lavoisier served on the commission 349 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,800 Speaker 1: establishing the metric system out of the many ways the 350 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: French revolutionaries were attempting to rationalize the world. This was 351 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,639 Speaker 1: actually a great one. They did also try to establish 352 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: revolutionary time, in which the day would be divided into 353 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,280 Speaker 1: not twenty four but ten hours, and those hours would 354 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:25,000 Speaker 1: be divided into one hundred minutes, which would each be 355 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: divided into one hundred seconds. But that one didn't catch on, 356 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,600 Speaker 1: and at a certain point even the revolutionary government said 357 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,720 Speaker 1: people could stop using it metric measurement, though that one 358 00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:40,280 Speaker 1: caught on, just not in America. In an attempt to 359 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: secularize the calendar and strip it of Christian references, the 360 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 1: calendar itself was remade with new months and a new 361 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: counting system for the years. The French Republican calendar would 362 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:58,359 Speaker 1: begin with seventeen ninety two as year one, although it 363 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,720 Speaker 1: was only identified as a the next year, in seventeen 364 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: ninety three. The way Lovoisier had needed to cast off 365 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,880 Speaker 1: preconceived notions of the elements and of chemistry in order 366 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,480 Speaker 1: to come up with an entirely new system, the revolutionaries 367 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,960 Speaker 1: were doing the same thing with time itself, starting from 368 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:22,480 Speaker 1: scratch right this time. Seventeen ninety three would be the 369 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:26,159 Speaker 1: year Lovoisier would be removed from the Commission on the 370 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,359 Speaker 1: Metric System. That summer, Mara would be assassinated in his 371 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: bathtub and become a political martyr. In September, police officers 372 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,920 Speaker 1: arrived at Lovoisier's home. He no longer lived at the 373 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,520 Speaker 1: famous laboratory at the Arsenal because he had resigned from 374 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:47,480 Speaker 1: his gunpowder post by this point. The police demanded entrance 375 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: to search for documents related to the tax collecting farm. 376 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:56,760 Speaker 1: The police didn't find anything incriminating, just some letters that 377 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:01,080 Speaker 1: Lavoisier had exchanged with other scientists around them Europe, but 378 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: perhaps astutelee Figuring that his political enemies might forge documents 379 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: or incriminating evidence, Lovoisier insisted that he seal his correspondence 380 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,440 Speaker 1: with his personal wax seal to prevent it from being 381 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,120 Speaker 1: tampered with before the police officers took it away. A 382 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,200 Speaker 1: few weeks prior to that, the Academy of Science was dissolved. 383 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:28,160 Speaker 1: Despite the ways it might have helped the Republic, it 384 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,880 Speaker 1: was too deeply tied to the Ancien regime. The farm 385 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,760 Speaker 1: itself had been dissolved too, and Lovoisier had resigned from 386 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: it years before, but his role as a former tax 387 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 1: collector would be his undoing. The Republican government was angry 388 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,160 Speaker 1: and frustrated that even after the farm had been dissolved, 389 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,240 Speaker 1: its assets hadn't been transferred to the government treasury. Yet 390 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:58,840 Speaker 1: clearly something traitorous was happening. Nineteen former farmers, not yet 391 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:03,840 Speaker 1: including Lovoisier, were arrested with warrants. In the meantime, Lavoisier 392 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: wrote desperate letters trying to explain that he had long 393 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: since resigned from the farm and had nothing to do 394 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: with its administrational operations, but he received no reply. Eventually, 395 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,480 Speaker 1: knowing their time was up, both Lavoisier and his father 396 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:26,240 Speaker 1: in law turned themselves in on November twenty eighth, probably 397 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,000 Speaker 1: still idealistic enough to think that since they hadn't done 398 00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:35,680 Speaker 1: anything actually wrong or illegal, they would be fine. Though 399 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,680 Speaker 1: the charges against them weren't told to them. Levoisier and 400 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 1: the other farmers put together a forty two page rebuttal 401 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: written by Lavoisier that former law student before trial. In 402 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,600 Speaker 1: the meantime, his wife, Marie Anne, was aiding her husband 403 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: to the best of her abilities, the way she always had. 404 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,320 Speaker 1: She found herself in front of the prosecutor, Antoine du Pine, 405 00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: where she might have found a way to argue to 406 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: separate her husband's case from the rest of the farmers. 407 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,640 Speaker 1: He could have been tried separately, moved to another prison 408 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:13,600 Speaker 1: where he might have escaped, but Marie Anne's father was 409 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,840 Speaker 1: also among the farmers. Marie Anne could not save them both, 410 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 1: and so the would be deal that might have saved 411 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:28,640 Speaker 1: Antoine Lavoisier dissolved like sulfur dioxide in water. Another young 412 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:32,560 Speaker 1: man did his part to try to save Lovoisier. Allegedly, 413 00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:36,960 Speaker 1: the day before Lavoisier's trial, Antoine Francois de foucre a 414 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,000 Speaker 1: fellow editor at the French science journal that Lavoisier had founded, 415 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:46,719 Speaker 1: spoke before Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety and attempted to 416 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 1: communicate what a loss it would be for science should 417 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:56,479 Speaker 1: Lavoisier be killed. Foucret was met with cold disdain, and 418 00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:00,000 Speaker 1: afterward someone hurried after him in the hall to tell 419 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,600 Speaker 1: tell him that if he ever tried anything like that again, 420 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: it would be his own head on the line. Despite 421 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 1: the farmer's preparation and hope in the just rule of law, 422 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,080 Speaker 1: the reign of terror was coming for them. It was 423 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: a kangaroo court. Lavoisier's court appointed lawyer didn't even show. 424 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:27,480 Speaker 1: The farmers were charged with counter revolutionary conspiracy, seeing as 425 00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:31,400 Speaker 1: how the money they had swindled from France could have 426 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:35,160 Speaker 1: been used by the country to defend herself. All of 427 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:39,720 Speaker 1: the farmers were sentenced to death. According to legend, when 428 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,400 Speaker 1: Levoisier argued that he should be spared to continue his 429 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: scientific work, the judge declared, the Republic needs neither scholars 430 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 1: nor chemists. The course of justice cannot be delayed, and 431 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:59,160 Speaker 1: it would be that very day May eighth, seventeen ninety four, 432 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: the day all twenty eight farmers were tried, that they 433 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,640 Speaker 1: would be brought to the Place de Revolution, where the 434 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:11,480 Speaker 1: guillotine awaited them. Lavoisier, just fifty years old, was beheaded 435 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:16,000 Speaker 1: fourth in line, right after his father in law. But 436 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,480 Speaker 1: the revolution would eat its own quickly enough. The judge 437 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:24,760 Speaker 1: that sentenced Lvoisier to death would himself be killed less 438 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,800 Speaker 1: than three months later, as would Robespierre. In a year 439 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:33,400 Speaker 1: and a half. Antoine Lavoisier would be completely exonerated, But 440 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,200 Speaker 1: even at the time of his death, it was understood 441 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:43,160 Speaker 1: what a tremendous loss Lavoisier was. Joseph Louis Legrand, another 442 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:47,920 Speaker 1: scientist present at the execution, noted it took them only 443 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: an instant to cut off that head, and one hundred 444 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 1: years may not produce another like it. That's the story 445 00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 1: of the life of Antoine Lavoisier. But keep listening after 446 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,680 Speaker 1: a brief sponsor break, to hear a little bit more 447 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:16,279 Speaker 1: about his experiments during his death, Ever the scientist. It 448 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,440 Speaker 1: has become a popular legend that, knowing that he was 449 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,279 Speaker 1: going to the great Beyond, Lovoisier decided to try one 450 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:30,239 Speaker 1: final experiment. According to popular legend, Lovoisier made an arrangement 451 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,600 Speaker 1: with Joseph Louis LeGrande that when they held his head 452 00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:37,160 Speaker 1: aloft after the guillotine separated it from his body, he 453 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:41,000 Speaker 1: would blink if he still retained consciousness for as long 454 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,239 Speaker 1: as he could. It's a really good story and a 455 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,600 Speaker 1: perfectly fitting end for a man who was passionate about 456 00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:52,480 Speaker 1: experimentation above all else. He gave his life to experiments, 457 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:56,040 Speaker 1: so why not his death. But the thing is, unfortunately 458 00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:00,560 Speaker 1: it is not true. There are no contemporary referenceferences to 459 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:04,360 Speaker 1: the blinking experiment, and it doesn't appear in any reputable 460 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:09,319 Speaker 1: biographies or writing about Lavoisier. I'm not entirely sure what 461 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 1: the origin of the urban legend is It's a great story, 462 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,440 Speaker 1: so I understand why it caught on, and it seems 463 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:20,520 Speaker 1: to have been popularized thanks to a Discovery Channel special 464 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: on the guillotine from the nineties, although I haven't been 465 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:27,799 Speaker 1: able to track that down. But anyway, it seems Levoisier's 466 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:32,800 Speaker 1: had tumbled straight into a sec no experiment. It seems 467 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,359 Speaker 1: incredibly unlikely that they would have bothered with holding up 468 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 1: each of the heads of more than two dozen executed 469 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,120 Speaker 1: farmers for a minute or more on the off chance 470 00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:46,360 Speaker 1: they had arranged an investigation with an observer in the crowd. 471 00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,480 Speaker 1: And anyway, even if Lavoisier had made the arrangement with 472 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:55,440 Speaker 1: Legrand somewhere, neither he nor Legrand had written down. According 473 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,919 Speaker 1: to William Jensen at the University of Cincinnati, Legrand would 474 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:03,480 Speaker 1: have been standing much too far away to have accurately 475 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:08,799 Speaker 1: counted the blinks MESSI science. Lavoisier would have hated it. 476 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,000 Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim 477 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:24,640 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by 478 00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:30,239 Speaker 1: me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, 479 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:34,520 Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milani. The show is 480 00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:40,000 Speaker 1: edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima Ill 481 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:45,200 Speaker 1: Kali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. 482 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:51,320 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 483 00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,640 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.