One of the leading scientists of his generation, the Frenchman Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, b. Dec. 6, 1778, d. May 9, 1850, made his chief contributions in physical and inorganic chemistry. His earliest investigations led to the formulation of the law, sometimes credited to his countryman J. A. C. Charles, that all gases expand by equal amounts when subjected to equal increments in temperature. Subsequently he announced another fundamental generalization, that gases combine chemically in simple proportions by volume. Seized upon by the Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro, this law helped pave the way for the modern atomic-molecular theory of matter.
Gay-Lussac enjoyed a high reputation for his exacting research in many areas of chemistry and for his novel techniques of chemical analysis, particularly volumetric analysis. He was the first to isolate the element boron, winning a rare victory over his scientific rival, Sir Humphrey Davy. He also introduced the terms pipette and burette.
Robert Silliman
Bibliography: Crosland, M., Gay-Lussac, Scientist and Bourgeois (1978).
