Berthollet

Berthollet, COUNT CLAUDE LOUIS, one of the most distinguished theoretical chemists of his time, was born at Talloire, a village of Savoy, in 1748. He studied at Turin, and afterwards went to Paris. He now applied himself with great assiduity to chemistry; in 1781 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1785 he announced his adherence to the antiphlogistic doctrines of Lavoisier, whom he aided both in his researches on gunpowder and in the formation of a new chemical nomenclature. In the same year, Berthollet published a paper on 'dephlogisticated marine acid'—now called chlorine—pointing out its use for bleaching purposes; and following up the experiments of Priestley, he showed ammonia to be a compound of three volumes of hydrogen gas and one volume of nitrogen gas. During the early part of the French Revolution, he travelled through the country, giving instruction as to the process of smelting and converting iron into steel. He was made a senator by Bonaparte, who also made him a count. Notwithstanding, he voted for the deposition of Napoleon in 1814; and on the restoration of the Bourbons he was created a peer. He died at Arcueil, November 6, 1822.